Best Way to Consolidate Domains/Rankings After Purchase of Competitor

[dschapira]

One of my customers is buying a competitor.  The competitor has a site that usually ranks just 1-2 spots below the main site that we manage for them (our site has been up for about a year, and their's is 15-years old).

I am wondering what is the best way to consolidate the rankings/websites to take advantage of the purchase of the competitor's web assets.  I would love to leave both sites up and just get 2 top-25 links to our products, but with no more marketing being done under the competitor's name, I assume their rankings will degrade.

Would a basic 301 re-direct on a page-by-page basis be enough to 'steal' all of the juice their domain name/site has built?  Is there some other method of using an older domain to boost the rankings of a newer one (I am assuming they only rank as well as we do because of how long they've been active - all of our metrics are better than theirs across the board).

Thanks for any help/advice the community here can provide!

[AlanMosley]

I dont know, but yes logic tell me its more important how long a website has been operating than a domain name has existed.

But i still say it means little compaired to the links.

It could also be that they may discount the links of a site that they know has changed hands, Thats why i would suggest moving links bit by bit.

[dschapira]

But wouldn't (or couldn't) there be a distinct difference between the age of a domain and the age of website existing on that domain?

[AlanMosley]

Google aquired a registration business, so they have the data, but really, domain age is small change.

[dschapira]

I like the suggestion of leaving it up for a little while to gain some data, there is a lot of wisdom in that.

As for covering our back, both our site and the competitor rank near the top/middle of page 2 currently, so someone else moving up behind us is not much of a concern.

[dschapira]

Well, what if we don't change the registrant info?  Since we are acquiring the entire company, there would be no harm in leaving the reg. data as-is.  It makes sense for search engines to treat newly acquired domains just like new domains, to discourage the purchase and pillaging of defunct, but long-lived domains/websites,

I can see the domain registration info having just a little to no impact, but if Google can see the index history and track that a site has been in consistent operation for 10+ years, that should be a positive in its favor, no?  Logically, I think longevity is a positive trait, though I have absolutely no evidence, other than anecdotal, that SEs agree.

[AlanMosley]

Good point about covering your back.

There may be many other reasons to buy a compeditor, but as far as SEO goes, i would look at the links and see if I want them (where are they comming from) and can i use them (are they relevant to my pages.)

[AlanMosley]

I believe Matt Cutts said, somthing like

if everthing else is equal, then the older domain will win, but its on line 100 of the algorithm.

and remember they also know if it has changed hands, they have registration details. If you were a working at google a you see a domain has changed hands, would you still consider it old?

[EGOL]

I am wondering what is the best way to consolidate the rankings/websites to take advantage of the purchase of the competitor's web assets.

Do not make quick decisions with shallow data.

When I have purchased other sites I run them for a while to see what kind of traffic they are making and what easy things I can do to kick it up.  If you are a better webmaster than the last guy you might be able to double traffic and double conversions in one afternoon.  Then you have a better idea of the site's potential.

Also, how much money is that site making compared to yours?

How much does content overlap?

How much more or less keyword reach does other site have?

If you redirect will the extra power push you up the rankings or is the power all coming from the same sources?

If you hold #1 and #2 with your old site then why redirect the #3 and #4 site to allow real competitor to move up from #5 and #6?  That second site is covering your back!

Would a basic 301 re-direct on a page-by-page basis be enough to 'steal' all of the juice their domain name/site has built?

Maybe.  Maybe Not.  It will steal juice only if the redirected site adds link diversity to target site.  If all of the links are duplicated then you gain zero - and just wasted a good site that might have made money .

...their site is 15-years old...

If you consume that site... you might eliminate a LOT of customer loyalty.

Like I said above there are more things to think about than SEO.

[dschapira]

I know that age is not supposed to have an effect, but it sure seems to.  I see a ton of CRAP sites that outrank solid optimized ones, and the only consistent factor I see (in my limited experience) is that the old site has been around for 10+ years.  I totally understand the argument that they've had more time to established a deeper web presence, but when the new site has 3,000 incoming links and higher mRank and mTrust, and the older one has 350 links, without an appreciable difference in the quality of those links, it makes me wonder...

Will 301-ing the old pages (the sites' architectures match up fairly well, so I don't anticipate major problems) basically stack the quality numbers (with, I assume, a little bit of fall-off), or will it be less impactful than that?

[RyanKent]

Hi David,

Contrary to popular belief, a domain's age does not influence rankings. All things being equal, a 1 year old domain can rank equally well to a 15 year old domain. An older domain has had more time to earn links, earn direct traffic and otherwise be recognized by users. Older domain names are often friendly and cleaner since the pool of unique domain names has been depleted over time. A video which may help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pnpg00FWJY

My suggestions for your acquired site would be as follows:

• map each page on the acquired site to the most relevant page on the current site, then perform a 301 redirect

• if a page on the acquired site does not have an equivalent page on the current site, consider migrating the page to the new site.

• ensure your site has a quality 404 page. The 404 page should offer your site's navigation, a search function, a simple "page not found" message, and possibly a link to your most popular content

• track your 404s. After this type of migration I recommend tracking your 404 errors daily. Understand the referrer (source) of the error and decide if this issue should be resolved by either adding a 301 or contacting the webmaster and requesting the link be adjusted.

I am assuming they only rank as well as we do because of how long they've been active - all of our metrics are better than theirs across the board

I would not make that assumption. There are many ranking factors. All the user metrics such as time on site, bounce rate, CTR, etc. can affect ranking and we do not have access to that data. Additionally there are many Panda factors which can affect ranking but many SEOs do not consider. For example, your site may not have TRUSTe whereas your competitor's site does. It's possible Google has learned that users trust sites more which offer the TRUSTe badge, and therefore it is a positive influence on rankings.

Overall I think you are on the right track. The only other thing you can do is to contact the webmasters of sites which link to the old competitor's site, explain the merger and share the updated link.

Good luck.

[AlanMosley]

Domain age mean little, and if you change owners it may as well as be new.

I would do the 301 as you say, but not page by page, but link by link, look at the linking page and the link text, not the page it was linking to.

Matt Cutts suggests doing to bit by bit, maybe every week do so many.