Tips to Merge Two Domains?
-
Hi all, my client assigned me to merge both their two domains.
To cut the long story, at the moment they have, for example, domain1.com and domain2.com. Practically, they sell quite the same products but with different content and layout. This has been happening for several years: domain1.com came first then domain2.com a couple of months after.
They noticed that domain2.com has now more traffic than domain1.com. Another reason is they want to use one placeholder to avoid brand confusion (as expected because the products are actually the same).
So, they are planning to merge the brand into domain2.com.
I think this is just the same as moving domain, isn't it?
I have been preparing all things as per SEOmoz SEO Guide: How to Properly Move Domains and Google's moving your site .
Do you have any other tips to include?
I want to make sure that the domain moving will be successful and the link juice on domain1.com can be transferred to domain2.com .
Many thanks for your help!
-
Ah, thanks about it. Withdrawing a change of address is what I looked for.
Just in case if there is a need to revert.
-
yep, here is a reference source for the change of address.
-
Thanks, Luis. I feel the same way, too. That is one of the reasons my client finally decided to merge the brand.
-
Hi SEO5,
Thanks for your input. Yes, I am working on this, just to make sure that the mapping will be as relevant as possible.
By the way, have you had experience for "change of address" on Google Webmasters to set domain1 back to domain1 again?
This is just in case.
Many thanks,
Christian
-
think the best thing you can do is do a 301 redirect, maintain two websites can be complicated in your case it seems unnecessary.
-
Hi Christian,
You highlighted excellent sources for reference. You can apply the 301 redirect to move the domain. Ideally 301 the specific pages to domain 2 that relate to the same product info as domain 1. This way when someone clicks on a product page for domain 1 that is still ranking , they see a similar page on domain 2 when they are redirected.
-
Hi Exequiel, I am a bit confused now. Your reply seemed to contradict your first one; which I thought you were in support to migrate the domain.
You, however, raised a valid point here. Nevertheless, sometimes it is a risk due to business decision and to avoid brand confusion.
We will be still keeping the domain1 after migration, so we can have mitigation plan if this doesn't work.
I also want to seek everyone's opinion on this matter.
-
Hi Christian, In my opinion I wouldnt do it. I tell you why... Imagine that now you redirect your site to the one that is ranking better, and in a few months you receive a penalization on this site... you are going to loose everything. I think the best option is conserve your second site. Actually you can use it to test new seo strategies
-
Hi Exequiel,
Thanks for your inputs, these are also in the links above.
Just wondering if there is anything else I need to be aware of
-
Hi Christian,
The appropiate way to do it is with a 301 redirection, and you have to put it on Webmaster Tools too.
Good luck!
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
-
Unrelated subdomain hurts domain rankins?
Hi All, One of our subdomains has lot of content created by different users and mostly they are outgoing links from landing pages. Moreover the top ranking content is about "cigarettes" which is nowhere related to our niche. Will this hurt our domain rankings?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vtmoz0 -
Parked Domain question
Hi, If a domain has been parked for more than 12 years, and has never been used for a project so far, does this has an impact on SEO or its like having a fresh new domain? Sebi
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TheHecksler0 -
Aged domain and 301 redirect? (11 year old domain)
Hey everyone, I'm about to launch a new website for an accounting firm. They currently have a website, which has an 11 year old domain. They are doing very well locally for SEO, and i'm guessing it's because of the aged domain, as their website is very badly built, and contains almost no content. They would like to launch the new site with a simpler, easier to remember domain. If i launch the new site, point the aged domain using a 301 redirect, and do redirects for all of the old pages to the newer versions of them, is there a chance the company will lose their current SEO rankings? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RCDesign740 -
Hyphen domain effect SEO?
Hi Guys, I am looking to buy some domain that have the keyword I want in - but my question is; Does using hypehns in a domain effect your SEO? Thanks Gareth
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GAZ090 -
Should I 301 a penalized domain to another domains subfolder?
I have a niche domain seems to have been hit by Penguin. It had very good rankings before the update, and I think at least a good part of the penalty might be due to overoptimized anchor text. So here is the question; If I decide to take this site down, should I 301 the entire domain to a relevant sub-folder of another site? i.e comtemporaryfurniture.com to domain.com/category/modern-furniture.html Will the penalty get passed onto the new domain? If the penalty is partly due to anchor text, then pointing it to another site's subfolder would mean the tartget URL has more varied anchor text and could boost rankings.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | inhouseseo0 -
Are there any SEO Tips before killing a website?
Hey guys, My company acquired another company, and after a couple of months we decided to completely kill their website. I'm not finding any info about SEO best practices for this type of situation. From the "switching domains" and "new sites" articles and blog posts I can extrapolate that I should: 301 redirect their home page to ours Look at specific pages with good authority that relate to our pages and 301 them. Look at the strongest backlinks to their site and try to change them to point to our site. Create a 404 page for the rest of their webpages that tells them that we acquired the company (hopefully with a main menu and search bar) Any other suggestions?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nrv0 -
Keyword weight in Domain Name
Hi All, I'm looking for some advice on URL structure. Our domain name includes 1/2 of many keyword strategies that we're considering. For example our domain is like, dive.com Keyword strategies that we're looking at targeting would include things like, "dive shop", "dive equipment" etc etc Are we competitive to have a structure like this? dive.com/shop/ dive.com/equipment/ Or will this structure yield stronger results? dive.com/dive-shop/ dive.com/dive-equipment/ Your thoughts are appreciated. Thanks! Malcolm
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MAGNUMCreative0 -
Exact match domain marketing?
Hi All, I've managed to secure a couple of exact match domains that are closely related to my main site but I'm a bit unsure of how to make best use of them. My plan is to generate revenue by ranking high for the exact match terms, moving the visitor onto the main site to take their details and payment. Naturally I want this satelite site to be very similar so that I can keep the brand continuety going and maintain a smooth transition to the main site. My main concerns however are: Will I get punished for using the same Navigation menu, logo and code as my main site? The navigation menu will link to pages on the main site, and this satelite site will most likely only consist of an index page and about 5 - 10 individual content pages. 2)I want the branding on this satelite site to be the same as my main site. Will I be punished for the difference in branding vs domain name? I know the SE's are unlikely to pick it up because the logo is an image but is there a risk of human editing? I want to link from the main site to the satelite site to give it a bit of a boost and to get through a possible sandbox. If the satelite has numerous links to the main site and the main site is linking to the satelite site will there be any benefit? Never tried to create a site like this so a bit nervous about impacting the main site. Thank in advance.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Mulith0