Merged websites issue
-
Hi
Before my time, company big.com took over company small.com.
They decided to replicate big.com web pages onto small.com - so both websites have identical pages and copy, just different domains.
Within the small.com sitmap.xml they list only big.com urls.
They are also using big.com google analytics tracking code on small.com.
I have no idea what happened to the original content on small.com or if they put 301 redirects on.
I am thinking: do a 301 redirect on small domain to big domain. A) Agree?
Small domain is likely to have valuable historic inbound links which are now going to 404 pages.
After I do the 301 should these then appear in big.com SEOMoz campaign and on big.com webmaster tool for me to fix? B) Views?
Or should I get up webmaster tool on small.com and fix that first? C) Views?
Many thanks in advance guys, sorry its a long statement!
Richard
-
Hi Ben & Robert
Many thanks again.
I have now found at least two more websites the big company has done this on ie ditched the original small company web pages and content for a copy of the Big company web pages content.
In each case the small company sitemap.xml lists the big company pages BUT many of those are wrong URLS.
I think I'll take my time on this....
Cheers
Richard
-
Richard,
Remember, first I said wait.
Look at what Ben says here. He is correct (except on domain 301). You have enough weight that you do want to move it if at all possible. If it is a thousand pages, I would at least pick my strongest and get them 301'd.
Be methodical.
Use the correct urls from small to go to large.
Homepage to homepage will only help with homepage.You cannot do domain to domain, even in .htaccess. Here is a source: http://www.seomoz.org/learn-seo/redirection
You have to direct url to url. If you were simply setting the www. to non, etc. yes that can be done.
Hope it helps you out,
-
I would say that redirecting has value with that amount of domain authority. A redirect would make use of the weight acquired, switching it off would lose all of this completely.
If you are worried about the amount of work involved in matching old to new URL then you always have the option to redirect to homepage. This will still pass on the weight to the site although not as effectively.
How many URLs are we talking about?
Also I'm pretty sure you can do a domain replacement via .htaccess without having to do individual 301's - can someone correct me if this isn't the case?
-
Hi Robert, many thanks for taking the time to write a reply (and to Ben to)
Re your points, I have only just started with BIG company.
Your 'before and after' is how I assume it was. They must have done then change about 7 months ago.
I tired Archive.org but nothing much indexed and has redirects on it. Both websites had a legal notice overlay appear that had to be accepted before seeing the content.
On small.com the sitemap.xml is listing all the big URLs, its using 0.9.
OSE has approx 40 inbound links from sites with 20-30 page authority and 30-40 domain authority.
I will try Xenu link sleuth as you mention (I'll dig out my old Windows PC first!)
I suspect as you mentioned in the caveat, might be better to just turn off small!
Many thanks again
Richard
-
Richard,
One question is how long ago was before your time?????
That will be a factor in all of this. Next, Advice:
Do nothing first. Sit for a moment and develop a Plan. Find out where you are on the map before you take off to another direction. Know the variables.
So that we may understand:
Before you had and you hadSitesmall.com/pg1 SITEBIG.com/pgA
Sitesmall.com/pg2 SITEBIG.com/pgB
Sitesmall.com/pg3 SITEBIG.com/płC up until highly successful BIG bought up and comer small.
Each site had separate sitemap, content, urls, GA tracking code.
Then you had:
Sitesmall.com/pgA SITEBIG.com/pgA
Sitesmall.com/pgB SITEBIG.com/pgB
Sitesmall.com/pgC SITEBIG.com/pgC and this was simply because someone changed all on Sitesmall to look and feel identical to SITEBIG?
I cannot understand how you have a SITEBIG.com sitemap for Sitesmall with BIG urls? Are you simply saying the domain is different but url sub directories are the same on sitemap? Are they following 0.9 from Sitemaps.org? Otherwise I cannot see how this is constructed. (Look at Sitemaps info in GWMT)
As to GA code being the same, have you looked at analytics on both and does it make any sense? Have you looked for occurrence of GA code in other places (head and body, etc.) on both sites?
FIRST THE BIG CAVEAT: you may save yourself a ton of work, trouble, and time... by turning off sitesmall.com and going to work on SITEBIG.com....... get it SEO perfect using all the time this will take.
On the historic, I would go to archive.org and see what is there using wayback machine. Look at what was there - when. So if the old site was six months ago, you at least know where you are reaching to and can look at old urls.
On the, did they 301? I would first for ease of looking put current homepage url in OSE and see if it says anything about redirecting. Then I would run the whole thing through Xenu link sleuth to see what is/ is not there. So Sitesmall.com then SITEBIG.com run both and see what you will see. Lot of answers there. Response codes, etc. I do not think you will find 301's as the way they changed the urls would not seem to make sense for same.
You can look to see if they used 301's in the .htaccess file, but I do not believe you will find them.
Once I knew what I was dealing with only then would I develop a plan.
Assuming SiteSmall had some Auth, PR, links, etc. and some of that still existed, I would begin the redirect plan. In the SEOmoz search bar I would place the query How to use 301 redirect? You will find a wealth of information. There are also numerous sites with code laid out, etc. in a simple search query online.
Note, I would not be using 301 of current to current as that is without value. You have to try and reconstruct old to new. Real Sitesmall.com to SITEBIG.com as it is now. Remember this is not a .com to .com redirect as that does not work. 301's are url to url. You need to know what the url was with the juice and use it.
For GA code, I would definitely change it prior to 301 if you can get it to old that might help.
This is the way to clean up the site duplication, capture a bit of juice, and possibly correct a mistake.
Hopefully, given there are some unanswered questions from what you stated, this is still helpful.
For your A. As per above.
B. Read above
C. Read above
Best
-
Hi Richard,
My thoughts would initially be:
a) yes a 301 redirect is probably the best way to avoid the duplicated pages and pass the weight on
b) if you have 301 redirected them they won't be 404 errors, the weight of the previous URLs will be passed on (although there is a slight decay factor involved with redirects so you won't get 100% of the weight)
c) I can't see how there will be too many errors as long as you 301 small.com to big.com sitewide. If anything big.com should get a boost from any links that the small.com pages had. Also this should help clear up the duplicate content issues.
Hope that helps,
Ben
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Advanced popup for WP website
Hi guys, I'm looking for advanced popup for WP website.
Moz Pro | | EdmondHong87
Im looking something with advanced filters. For example: Filter the visitors by the operation system (For mobile).Will show to new visitors, but exclude to returns visitors.
Will exclude visitors that sign up to the website.
Filter the traffic...Popup will show only to visitors from FB, Google organic etc... Well, i believe that you understand what i need...
Anyone know something like this ? Thank you!0 -
Tools necessary for a Technical Audit of website with penalties and need remediation?
Tools necessary for a Technical Audit of website with penalties and needs remediation? I am being tested for a job interview to prove and/or disprove a website has issues. I am familiar with Moz tools but I'm not sure of the procedure for this request? I am not finding anything online. The client will be giving a website and I will be doing this audit. What tools would you use? What exactly should I be looking for? What are some obvious fixes? WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE?
Moz Pro | | Joseph.Lusso0 -
How bad are poor link profiles for a website?
A client has recently switched to us for their SEO and is hugely concerned about their previous company's link building efforts.They say that they have recently removed over 300 links but OSE still lists 160 links.So three questions: How long will it take for OSE to recognise if the links have been removed? How great could the effects of this be on the site's rankings? If we continue to struggle with getting the links removed would Google's disavow tool make much of a difference or are there negatives that sould be considered first?
Moz Pro | | SoundinTheory0 -
Website not being indexed by Google - does seomoz have a index checker?
i have been to a couple of index checking websites that are saying my website is not being indexed, my developer and seo team have been making a lot of changes recently and I think it is because of that. Also my first byte grade is D. Can I check here on seomoz if my site is being indexed by Google here in the UK?
Moz Pro | | Malx0 -
Can you change the websites in your PRO Dashboard?
Hello, I set a client's website in one of my 5 campaigns in my Pro Dashboard. But my client changed his domain. I don't see an option to change the domain server in the Campaign settings. Is it possible?
Moz Pro | | Eblan0 -
Can I see when SEO Moz has crawled my website?
I would like to know if it's possible to see (maybe in my Google Analytics) if SEO Moz has crawled my website. I'm also curious if and where I can see when the robot of Google visited my website. Thanks!
Moz Pro | | Spotler0 -
Issue with Data Updates on Campaign
I'm reviewing a campaign I am running for a client, the Keywords data has not updated yet even though it's supposed to update every monday. The competitive analysis shows a date of August 14, which is odd becuase I'm on a trial account?
Moz Pro | | amerihope0 -
Set up of SEOMoz campaign for specific country within a global website
I'm tasked with optimising the UK part of a global site. www.mysite.com/UK - how should I set my campaign up in SEOMoz? Is it a sub domain?
Moz Pro | | columbus0