Two Domains, Same Products/Content

[ilewis]

We're an e-commerce company with two domains. One is our original company name/domain, one is a newer top-level domain. The older domain doesn't receive as much traffic but is still searched and used by long-time customers who are loyal to that brand, who we don't want to alienate.

The sites are both identical in products and content, which creates a duplicate content issue. I have come across two options so far:

1. a 301 redirect from the old domain to the new one.

2. Optimize the content on the newer domain (the strongest of the two) and leave the older domain content as is.

Does anyone know of a solution better than the two I listed above or have experience resolving a similar problem in the past?

[ABullis]

The original poster's situation sounds like merging two sites rather than moving a site from one domain name to another. Matt Cutts specifically recommended against using the Change of Address tool for merging sites in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6pyAWJ5BRs

[ABullis]

Having been in a similar situation before, I definitely vote 301 redirect asap, _provided that the old domain has a clean backlink profile._The last thing you want to do is tank organic traffic by adding the old site's spam links to the main site.

Make sure both sites are in Google Search Console, and neither has any manual action notices. Then go into "links to your site" and download all links. Get links from Moz's Open Site Explorer and Bing's Webmaster Tools as well (and any other tools you have); You want as complete a picture as possible. Once you have as many links as you can find, start auditing manually. After a while it will become easier to spot spam links, as they tend to have an easily recognizable pattern.

If you find spam links, remove and disavow before you redirect. Note that you'll have to disavow bad links to the old site **on the new site's disavow file **when you redirect it, as that's where Google will look for it. If you don't find spam, redirect.

I wouldn't let the site rot. That would be a potential security issue and a customer service nightmare.

[GlobeRunner]

There are a few options. I do recommend "picking one" domain and 301 redirecting that one to the preferred domain. Then make sure you use the Google Change of Address tool to tell Google that you've moved.

Another option is to keep both sites live and then use the Canonical Tag to tell Google which domain is the preferred one. You'll have to do that at the page level, on each individual page.

I prefer, though, to use the 301 redirect option and the Change of Address tool.

[JordanLowry]

Your welcome I'm glad I could help.

[ilewis]

Thanks for the comment Jordan, very helpful.

[LauraSultan]

Is there a particular reason that you don't want to 301-redirect the old domain to the new domain? If customers go to the old domain or even search the domain name, they'll be redirected to the new one automatically. Can you help us understand why this is not ideal?

[JordanLowry]

I'd recommend doing a 301 redirect to the new domain. You want to rectify that duplicate content issue as soon as possible. If the new site is intuitive and has the same content and products you would not be alienating your long time customer base. I would recommend doing a page to page redirect though as opposed to a blanket redirect to the new domain entirely both Moz and Google have some good resources on this.

You can easily crawl both sites with Moz or Screaming frog and put in your 301's that way. Hope this helps let me know if you have any other questions.