Redirect one store to another...

[Freelancer13]

Here's the situation: 2 online stores. Store A is doing really well, traffic, sales, and keyword ranking wise. Store B, not so much. Owner wants to redirect all links from store B to store A and then possibly re-brand store A and give it a different URL.

This is a slow time, sales pick up in spring. I would like opinions on this from anyone who has done this or knows about it. Risks, benefits, best practices on going about it, etc...

Thank you,

Lisa

[Freelancer13]

Sometimes things seem so confusing but yet they are extremely simple. Thank you, you've helped

[TommyTan]

Hi,

So you want to add all the items from Store B to A then redirect B pages to the A pages.  Then rebrand, create a new website and redirect A to the new site?  It works and Google willl follow those 301s.  But then things might get confusing in the future.  Furthermore, if you keep redirecting, there will be a certain point where Google will stop crawling as noted in the artcile linked above.  Furthermore, it will delay crawl time.

Instead of redirecting to A then redirect again.  Why don't you rebrand first, then redirect from Store A and B to the new site.  Then there will only be one redirection Google and other search engines need to follow.  Furthermore, you will have less 301s to manage.

Hope this helps.

[Freelancer13]

To make this easier:

I want to remove all items in buyoutdoorsheds.com (store B) and place them into budgetpackaging.com (Store A), then 301 the links to the same items in budgetpackaging.

Also thinking of a brand change for budgetpackaging. Either 301 Items from budgetpackaging.com to buyoutdoorsheds.com or 301 them to a different URL. Everything will still be working out of the now called budgetpackaging.com. did you get that LOL.

Bascially, use the URL from buyoutdoor and use the temple or website of budgetpackaging.com. Just want to get rid of “budgetpackaging” and use something more relevant.

[Freelancer13]

Yes they both sell outdoor storage sheds.I really appreciate your insight on this. What about re-branding and changing the URL of Store A once all redirects take place?

[TommyTan]

Before answering, there is some info that needs confirmation.  Does Store A and B sell the same or similar products?  Why?

If both stores sell different products, then you redirect store B's traffic to store A, then your bounce rate will increase dramatically since people want to buy store B's product but got directed to A which is different.

However, if they sell the same products, then it is definitely do-able.  The best pracitce is that you should use 301 redirect on each page of store B website and redirect them to store A's pages that sell the same product.  You want to direct people from viewing store B item 1 to store A item 1.  Here is an article about Matt Cutts explanation on 301 redirects.  http://www.mktdojo.com/matt-cutts-discusses-301-redirect-limits  You don't want to redirect people to store A's home page when they want to check out a specific item.  You should direct them to a similar page in Store A.

As for Risk and benefits, when you use 301 redirect, it won't transfer ALL link juice and authority but probably 99%.  Another risk may be it will take Google longer to follow the 301 redirects and crawling speed.  Some people might get confused, they want to visit store B but got directed to store A.