Is having two websites that sell most of the same products a good idea?

[tyler756]

Hi -

Please read this in full before you answer.

I currently own a website that sells kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities that match the kitchens. This website has been operational since Arpil 2009 and we have built good rankings over the past 3 years. The site is operated on the Volusion platform (my mistake from the beginning, but we're kind of stuck now).

We are in the process of designing a new website on the Magento platform - everything will be 100% different from look, speed, the way our customers shop, content, product skus, etc. The original plan was to keep the same domain but implement 301 redirects for subpages (subpage urls would have to change) and shut down the Volusion site and transfer the domain name to the Magento site.

Our current website does make money right now and we would hate to lose rankings (even if only temporarily) during the switch or have something go wrong. What I am now thinking is keeping our current website on Volusion where it is currently making money and having the new Magento site have a new name/domain.

The sites would sell most of the same products (the Magento site would sell more types of vanities and accessories though). The two sites would have different email addresses, phone numbers, and mailing addresses. Is it a bad idea to try and rank two websites selling pretty much the same thing? We have competitors out there that sell the same products as us, I would just prefer to compete with myself rather then someone else.

Another issue is our name, one of our competitors names is extremely close to ours and we rank for pretty much all of the same keywords and customers get us mixed up all the time. This other site would have a different name (one that makes more sense).

I want to make a decision that will not come back and bite us later. I know there are a lot of bigger sites that operate tons of niche sites, and of these website could eventually be similar to that.

I really appreciate your help and guidance!

Thanks

[GeorgeAndrews]

Sounds great, hopefully we provided some helpful information.

Good luck with the migration!

[tyler756]

I appreciate the response George - we are going to take everything into consideration and hopefully come to a conclusion sooner then later.

Thanks again!

[GeorgeAndrews]

Hi Tyler,

Sorry it took a while to get back to this thread. I don't think there's one "right answer" for how to proceed and you've obviously given this much thought.

But, I can give you my point of view and what I believe to be the best answer in this situation and likely what I would do.

Personally, I would use the new name. It sounds like your business is excited about it and now you just want to maintain your rankings.

Knowing this process would involve a migration to a new website complete with a new domain name, I would start reviewing all of the steps included in the posts I provided above. Make your 301s are going to be done right and will not miss any high-ranking, high-traffic URLs.

Prior to performing the migration announce the re-branding effort on your current site and let your customers know what to expect.. Ask for feedback. Let your customers know you are making these changes to better serve them you'd love their input.

Once you've tested the new site fully and are ready to go to production, announce the date of the change and then implement. You will see fluctuations in traffic, but if you follow all of the advice in the posts above you will have the best odds for success.

Hope this helps

[tyler756]

Thanks for the reply Andrea. I've also thought about our business looking "sketchy" by having two sites selling the same products - we've worked extremely hard creating a stellar reputation that I would never want to do anything to put that in jeopardy.

We've thought about completely changing our name when we switch over to the new platform but are really worried that rankings will take a hard hit if we change it completely rather then transfer the domain over. What are your thoughts on this? Our new website will much better in every aspect but we are still concerned.

Thanks

[josh-riley]

A slightly different way to look at it/somethings to consider: I wouldn't advocate trying to manage two sites as well as competing with competitors. Now, that's my business choice because the possible mess of the back end management/resources/content/marketing and everything to keep both sites viable and performing well. I wouldn't have the resources.

As a user, if I were researching, I'd also possibly get confused or feel slightly disconcerned if  I came across both and found out it was really the same company. Also why I wouldn't advocate for it.

That said, any move can cause a possible dip in rankings and performance. That's just a risk. After an initial dip, if the CMS is better, than the site performance could be way better than what you had before. I can see why companies don't want to risk it, though. Money is money.

Ultimately, there's the decision that's best for you, with everything you mention and what George mentions, as part of your consideration.

[tyler756]

I appreciate the reply George.

There has been a descent amount of marketing and branding done with our current name, which I believe has actually helped some of our competitors gain traffic because our names are so similar. Because we sell kitchen cabinets, most of our customers are 1 time buyers but we do have a stellar reputation and receive a lot of recommendations.

We are willing to essentially build this new site from the ground up if we do not implement 301 redirects (the 301 redirects would only be for subpages as some of the urls would need to change - the actual domain would stay the same) and run both sites essentially as separate businesses. I am just not sure if that is the best way to go.

Long run I can see both websites ranking well and essentially getting double the traffic - or even trying to rank for different keywords between the two sites. I just don't want to do anything to get us penalized, although I can't see that happening because we would be taking the necessary steps to not have duplicate content across both sites.

[GeorgeAndrews]

Hard question there Tyler. There are many things to consider.

Have you already done marketing with the old name? How many repeat customers do you get? Is your intent to rebrand?

If it makes sense to rename, rebrand, and build on a new domain name, unless you are writing new content (e.g. product descriptions), you can run into duplicate content issues if you run with two sites. Additionally, the new site will not have any reviews or other engagement which may be present in the existing site.

If the only reason for the change is to move to what you believe is a better platform and to improve the design, then it might be best to go the 301 redirect route and maintain the rankings you already have. People expect websites to change (improve) as time goes by.

Here's a good website migration guide.

Google has provided some tips too.

Hope this helps!