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Do more domains help SEO? That’s a good question. The answer is “42″. Next?

Frankly, I should think this question would have been laid to rest in the various SEO forums by now where many people have shared the following responses (and I summarize):

• YES!
• NO!

Seems pretty clear to me. How about you?

Here is the thing about asking questions like “do more domains help SEO?” They don’t mean anything. People inevitably, if they actually take the time to think about the question, will ask what your intent is.

What sort of help are you looking for with your SEO? Do more domains help with keyword research? Do more domains help with link diversity? Do more domains help with building a query space? Do more domains help with search reputation management? Do more domains help you tackle more keywords? Do more domains help improve search conversions? Do more domains help you learn more about SEO?

The answers to all these questions can be boiled down to:

• YES!
• NO!

There is plenty of reason to create multiple domains for SEO — but we’re dealing with a classic 80/20 situation, in my opinion. For every 20 reasons you can think of to build multiple domains for SEO, I would wager there are 80 reasons NOT to.

For one thing, you can do virtually everything with one domain that you would probably want to do with multiple domains, except build links. And I think all the best link builders in the industry would tell you that creating domains for the sake of building links is about as dumb an idea as one may come up with.

I’ve often said that link building (in the absence of doing anything else) is the least efficient approach to optimizing for search. Well, if we’re going to bank on link building, building domains for links is the least efficient approach to link building. That’s about as low an ROI methodology as I can think of.

I’d rather send out emails asking people for links than build domains for them. That’s crazy talk, in my book.

So why do people keep asking “do more domains help SEO”? There has to be more to it than just that? In other words, when you’re searching for help with your SEO, be more specific with your questions. About the most specific advice I or anyone in the industry can give to someone asking if more domains help with SEO is that they do and they don’t.

If you’re only concerned with building links, you have much to learn about doing SEO the right way. I suggest you visit SEO Theory to learn about SEO. That’s a pretty good resource in my opinion (if I may say so myself).

If you’re concerned about more than just building links, then the 20 good reasons for building multiple domains for SEO are based on value to the consumer/reader. The more value you provide to your visitors through your site, the better your return on investment tends to be.

So the justification for creating multiple domains is that you can do things (for your visitors) with multiple domains that would not make sense to do with just one site. I can give you a few specific examples, but these are not an exhaustive list.

Why use multiple domains for SEO

• You’re targeting totally unrelated keywords and markets
• You’re implementing a new Web technology that requires a completely different site structure
• You’re creating a sub-brand that may be spun off (as a business or product/service)
• You’re partnering with someone else and want to retain control over your core site

Unrelated keywords and markets may be language or country-focused, but they can be product or service-focused. Many companies successfully manage their Web presences through brand-specific Websites. But it does require extra effort.

New Web technologies may require resources you have not allocated to your core site and you don’t want to replace a successful site design or structure. Many organizations do this. It’s a perfectly good reason because isolating the new project on its own site ensures the developer has the freedom to do what is necessary without putting previous Web resource investment at risk.

Leveraging sub-brand value for the future is not the same thing as being speculative. It’s about having a plan where you know you intend to make certain things happen and that plan calls for a Website that is not weighed down by dependencies on the corporate brand.

Partnering with other people is often best served by creating multiple domains so that all the partners retain some control over their personal/corporate brand visibility.

These are common sense reasons to use multiple domains for SEO. They are practical, pragmatic, and conservative reasons, too. In my opinion, the less conservative (or more risky) your reason for creating multiple Websites, the less value there is (from a search optimization perspective) in creating multiple Websites.

You want to manage your time and resources efficiently.

You want to manage your risks.

You want to manage your return on investment.

Those are three key tests you should apply to any SEO idea. If you cannot justify doing something on at least 2 out of 3 of those tests, then it’s probably not worth doing.

So, do more domains help SEO? You’ll have to be the judge of that. You really won’t find the best answer on the Web, no matter how convincing the arguments for or against may seem to you.