Too many domains to be effective

Case Study

The client came to Atcom Technology for managed IT services, and atcomHost was tasked with moving their existing website to our hosting solution.

Universal Marina Systems provides their product Australia wide.

20200630
Domains/Websites
WordPress, Theme & Plugins
Website Hosting with PHP 7.x & MySQL Database

Introduction

Universal Marina Systems provides commercial and residential customers with a innovative designed and engineered, high-quality pontoons manufactured with superiority, that are delivered with efficiency from tender through to installation. Universal Marina Systems provides their product Australia wide.

Client Requests

To make their primary domain site be the same as their secondary domain website which was the preferred look and feel. They also wanted their secondary domain to be pointed to their primary domain.

Challenges

Universal Marina Systems had two domains. Both domains had a website however the client preferred the website design and platform (WordPress) on the second domain, although their first domain was the primary point of contact on the web. The second domain was also not effective in providing leads for the client, and out of date for core, plugin and theme updates.

Our Solution

To put the website design from the second domain onto the first domain we had to go through a series of steps. Firstly we became the managers of their Domain Names through our reseller account, changing their NS records as well as creating an account for their primary domain on our hosting platform, which is also used for their email via M365, editing their MX, SPF and DMARC records accordingly. Secondly, whilst we were transferring and updating the second domain site to the primary domain we pointed their web address to the previous Squarespace website. Concurrently, we installed WordPress via our hosting solution’s one step installer. Finally, we transferred the preferred website via a migration tool for WordPress as we did not have access to the previous hosting provider’s cPanel for the domain. Once migration of the site occurred we updated:

WordPress Core to the latest version at the time
Plugins updated to the latest version at the time
Theme updated to the latest version at the time

Once the site was ready, we pointed the web address to our hosting solution. As Universal Marina Systems is a Business Internet Presence client we also ensured that their Google Search Console and Google Analytics were in place as well as links to their social media accounts.

the Result

Since moving to atcomHost; Search terms and Clicks have been on a steady rise each month, as you can see from the snapshots below. Site health has improved along with the amount of users and sessions the website sees. With increased traffic.

Lessons Learnt

When buying domains make sure you decide which one is going to be your primary domain. Then build your website in that domain. Sometimes using a Site Builder like Squarespace may seem like a good solution in the first instance, however if you are wanting more control over your website then deciding to use a platform such as WordPress, may be a better option.