How to buy domain names in bulk

So, you’ve come up with the perfect domain name for your website. You’ve performed a regular domain name search, and your domain name of choice is available in the always-recognizable .com top-level domain (TLD – the last few letters located to the right of the dot in a web address), sweet! All you need to do is register it, be on your merry way, and never think about things like registering domains ever again.

Except that isn’t always the case, especially if you’re a small business owner. If you’re launching a personal website, or if you happen to be a freelancer offering limited products or services, you may be able to get away with just one domain name. However, for businesses, it could be beneficial to have several domain names pointing towards your main site, as well as names for sub-domains and sub-brands you have now or will launch in the future.

Buying multiple domains when you’re starting makes a lot of sense. You won’t run the risk of having to chase down any particular extensions down the line, potentially forking over big bucks to someone who happened to purchase it first. How many domains you should buy is dependent on your business and what makes sense for you. It would be an expensive endeavor to go for every available domain extension. Apart from go-to's like .com and .net, a good rule of thumb is to opt for TLD extensions that are relevant to your niche and your location.

Namecheap’s bulk domain search tool makes searching for, and registering, multiple domains easy. You can search for up to 5,000 potential domain names at once, and you can do it while using themed filters that make it easy to find the right name in your niche. Plus, it can be cheap to register bulk domains in this way! Photography websites can choose from TLDs like .studio, .photography, and .pictures (to name just a few) while technology companies have a wealth of domain extensions such as .io, .ai, .app or .dev.

When you find domain names that you want to register, you can add up to 50 to your cart at a time. In a matter of moments, you can register all the domains you’ll ever need for your website. Not too shabby!

Before we explore how the Beast Mode tool works a little more, let’s talk more about why registering multiple domains can be beneficial for business.

Why you should register multiple domain names

Protect your brand from competitors

Business is a dog-eat-dog world, and unfortunately, the World Wide Web affords more opportunities to be ruthless. If you decide to register the domain, “yourwebsite.com” and leave it at that, nothing is stopping your competitors from registering the same domain with other, commonly used extensions – “yourwebsite.net” or “yourwebsites.org”, for example – and pointing it toward their website.

This is not only confusing for customers, but you may end up losing them if they like what they see on your competitor’s site. Competitors may also approach you at a later date to sell back the domain names at a far steeper price than if you had just purchased the domains right off the bat.

Protect your brand from potential poachers by buying multiple domains for one site. Implement a 301-redirect so that when these domains are typed into a browser address bar, the user is forwarded to your main site. The benefit of bulk registering domains is that you can set up redirects with ease directly from your Namecheap account.

Check out our tutorial on 301 redirects for more information.

Easily target a specific demographic and/or geographic location

If your website or subdomain targets a specific demographic, it’s a great idea to register multiple domains to communicate that. For example, if there is a section on your site that has products specifically aimed at mothers, you could create “yourwebsite.mom”, or if you want to reel in caffeine lovers, why not try “yourwebsite.coffee”?

Likewise, if your website is targeting a specific geographic location, or several of them, you should purchase the TLD related to that location. These are often country-specific, but you can narrow it down to cities if need be. Some country-code TLDs include .us and .africa, while city-targeted options include .london and .melbourne. Some location-specific TLDs have special registration requirements (such as your business actually being located in a specific country) so this is also something to consider before trying to purchase.

Clearly differentiate sub-brands and subdomains from your main brand or website

If you have one or more extension brands related to your main brand, setting up a separate domain name and website for these sub-brands is a great way to set them apart, while potentially gaining more real estate for your main brand in search engine results pages (SERPs). A lot of big brands do this already, Proctor and Gamble being a prime example. The American multinational has separate websites for its brand, like Crest, Pampers, and many more.

Multiple TLDs can also be a great way of clearly separating product pages in a fun way. Let’s say you run a general sports website where you sell various products related to specific sports. Differentiate specific product pages with different extensions, such as .bike for cycling products, .run for products related for running, .tennis, .soccer, .ski and so on.

Bring more meaning and specificity to your TLD

Cool and creative variations on your main domain name are perfect for making it more memorable. You can choose TLDs that communicate what your website is about; .film for a film review site, .fashion for fashion-related content, or .blog for the blog section of your site, for instance.

Some cool examples of clever use of TLDs include last.fm a music tracking service that makes great use of “fm”, two letters that will forever be associated with music and radio broadcasting. Meanwhile, URL shortener urly.it is to the point. You can also make use of the plethora of TLDs available to simply make your site’s URL a single word. Digital agency Modern Tribe does this excellently with their tri.be domain.

Capture erroneous type-in traffic

Misspellings and typos happen. This may especially be the case if your domain name has an unusual spelling or includes hyphens, but it can happen regardless. When registering “yourwebsite.com” you should also opt for “your-website.com”, and other potential misspellings, as well as other common TLD extensions like “yourwebsite.net”, “yourwebsite.org”, and “your website.co”. Try to cover all possible basis to capture any potential traffic lost from typing mistakes.

Boost your brand’s visibility and identity

When you’re first starting out, chances are people won’t remember your exact site name. This is mostly a luxury afforded to big-name brands. Much like the logic behind capturing type-in traffic, registering TLD extensions that are relevant to your brand, that people unfamiliar with your brand are likely to type in, is a good way of getting your site found. Basically, the more domains pointing to your main website, the more visible your brand will become.

Potentially improve SEO

Everyone with a website should be concerned about search engine optimization (SEO). And registering multiple domain names pointing to one website can indirectly improve your chances of getting found by search engines. However, it should be noted here that domain names in themselves have no direct effect on SEO, nor will pointing many domain names to the same site.

If you do have multiple domain names pointing to your main website, you will need to ensure they will not be indexed as individual pages by Google. If Google sees what it deems as two separate domains with the same content, you could be penalized for duplicate content and your search engine ranking will be affected. You can do this by setting up a “301-redirect”, which essentially forwards people to your main domain. So if people type in “yourwebsite.ai”, they will still be taken to your site, but the web address will change to “yourwebsite.com”.

That being said, the combination of the aforementioned benefits will increase your site’s online exposure, which should help improve your authority with Google. The more your site is visited and the more relevant it is to visitors, the more favorable it will be to SERPs.

Furthermore, if you have multiple sub-brands within your main brand and several sites with separate content, multiple domains can give your overall brand a boost in SERPs.

How to register multiple domains with Namecheap’s Beast Mode?

So, what is Beast Mode and how does it differ from Namecheap’s regular Domain Name Search? With the regular domain search, you will search for one domain name and a list of available options related to your search will be displayed. With Beast Mode, you can search for up to 5,000 domains and keywords at a time and have numerous filter options.

Beast Mode’s filter options are:

• Price range - set the minimum and maximum price you can afford
• Show Domain Hacks - Domain hacks are creative ways of spelling out a domain name through the clever use of domain extensions. So, instead of “yourwebsite.com”, you could go for “your.website”.
• Drop Last Vowel - this filter removes the last vowel from the domain name in the search results
• Pluralize Nouns - this will show pluralized forms of nouns in your domain in the search results
• Show Premiums - tick this if you want to see premium results. Premium domains usually feature memorable, popular extensions, but can be very expensive
• Hide Unavailable - if you don’t want your results to feature unavailable domain names, tick this box
• Append Prefix/Suffix - by selecting this, your results will include options that add text to the beginning or the end of your keywords.

To bring even more specificity to your results, on the right-hand side of the search box you can select the type of TLDs that you would like. The top option is “Popular”, followed by “$2 or less”. Other categories include Arts and Culture, Finance, and Lifestyle.

With all these options, you’re sure to find the TLDs that you need. Namecheap’s Beast Mode tool allows you to register up to 50 domains at a time.

For more information on Beast Mode and domain registration, check out this in-depth article from Namecheap’s knowledgebase.

Why use Beast Mode for bulk domain registration?

In comparison to competitor bulk domain search tools, Beast Mode has far more options, which makes narrowing down or broadening your search results effortless. With the option of searching up to 5,000 domains or keywords at a time, if you need to bulk register domains, Namecheap’s Beast Mode tool is a no-brainer.

Still, stuck on choosing which TLDs are right for you? Be sure to read our article on how to choose the best TLD for your business.