If you’ve been in business for a while, there’s a good chance you’re sitting on a collection of domain names — old trading names, common misspellings, defensive registrations, or domains from a business you acquired years ago. They all redirect to your main website, and you’re paying to renew them every year without really thinking about it.
But should you keep them? The answer isn’t always obvious. Here’s a practical look at the pros and cons of redirect domains, specifically for New Zealand businesses.
What is a redirect domain?
A redirect domain is a domain name that doesn’t host its own website. Instead, when someone types it into their browser, they’re automatically sent to your main website. For example, a plumbing company trading as “Bob’s Plumbing” at bobsplumbing.co.nz might also own bobsdrains.nz and have it redirect to their main site.
Behind the scenes, this is done with a 301 redirect — a permanent redirect that tells both browsers and search engines “this domain has moved permanently to this other address.”
Why do businesses end up with redirect domains?
It usually happens organically over time:
- Rebranding: You changed your trading name but kept the old domain so existing customers could still find you.
- Misspelling protection: You registered common misspellings of your business name to catch typos.
- Acquisitions: You bought another business and inherited their domain.
- Defensive registration: You grabbed the
.co.nz,.nz, and.comvariants to stop competitors from taking them. - Multiple extensions: You registered both
mybusiness.co.nzandmybusiness.nzwhen the shorter.nzextension launched.
Each one seemed like a good idea at the time — and some of them genuinely were.
The case for keeping redirect domains
Brand protection
If someone else registers your business name as a domain, they could put up a competing site, a parked page full of ads, or worse — a scam site impersonating your business. In New Zealand, domain disputes through the Domain Name Commission are possible but slow and not guaranteed to go your way. Holding the domain is cheaper and simpler than fighting for it later.
Catching existing traffic
If you’ve been trading under a name for years, people may have bookmarked the old domain, saved it in their contacts, or even printed it on old business cards and vehicle signage. Dropping the redirect means those people hit a dead end — or worse, land on someone else’s site.
Protecting backlinks
If your old domain was ever linked to from other websites, directories, or Google Business profiles, those links still carry SEO value when they redirect to your main site via a 301. Drop the domain, and those backlinks become dead links — you lose whatever search ranking benefit they were providing.
The cost is relatively low
A .co.nz domain renewal is $65 per year. If you’re only holding one or two redirects, the annual cost is modest compared to the protection they provide.
The case for letting them go
They add up
One redirect domain is cheap. Five is noticeable. Ten is a line item. We’ve seen businesses holding 15+ redirect domains they’ve forgotten about, paying $500+ per year in renewals for domains that get zero traffic. Every domain also needs DNS management, SSL certificates, and redirect configuration — all of which adds maintenance overhead.
They create monitoring noise
Each redirect domain needs an SSL certificate and working DNS. When a domain expires or a certificate fails to renew, it triggers monitoring alerts that your hosting team has to investigate. We recently had exactly this scenario — a client’s monitoring flagged three redirect domains with SSL failures, which turned out to be domains they’d deliberately let expire but hadn’t told us about. That’s wasted time on both sides.
Old trading names lose relevance fast
If you stopped trading as “Bob’s Drains” three years ago and nobody has searched for it since, the redirect is doing nothing. Check your analytics — if a redirect domain hasn’t sent a single visitor in 12 months, it’s safe to let go.
The “defensive” argument is often overstated
In practice, someone else registering bobsdrains.nz is unlikely to hurt your business. The New Zealand market is small enough that your customers know who you are. The defensive registration argument holds for your exact business name, but not for every vaguely related keyword domain.
Our recommendation
We include up to three free redirect domains with every website we host — largely because most businesses already have them when they come to us. But we actively advise against hoarding domains “just in case.”
Here’s a simple framework for deciding what to keep:
| Keep it if… | Drop it if… |
|---|---|
| It’s your exact current business name in another extension (.nz vs .co.nz) | It’s a trading name you stopped using years ago |
| It still gets traffic (check your analytics) | It hasn’t sent a visitor in 12+ months |
| It has backlinks from reputable sites | It’s a misspelling variant that nobody actually types |
| A competitor could credibly use it to confuse your customers | It’s a generic keyword domain that doesn’t mention your brand |
The practical steps
- Audit your domains. List every domain you’re paying for and check whether it’s actually a redirect or just sitting parked.
- Check your traffic. Use Google Analytics or your hosting provider’s logs to see if any redirect domains are sending visitors. No traffic in 12 months = safe to drop.
- Check for backlinks. Use a tool like Ahrefs or Google Search Console to see if any external sites link to the redirect domain. If they do, keep it.
- Tell your hosting provider. If you decide to let a domain expire, tell your host before it expires. Otherwise they’ll waste time investigating SSL and DNS failures for a domain you’ve already decided to drop.
The bottom line: keep the domains that protect your brand and carry real traffic or backlinks. Let go of the ones you’re holding out of habit. Your wallet and your hosting team will thank you.
