Does it make sense to combine multiple news sites under one domain?
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My company operates multiple news site brands across several markets and typically operates one website per market/brand.
We've been advised that in the case of one of the newer markets, where each brand might only be publishing 3 articles a week, that combining all that market's brands under one domain will drive higher traffic from search because Google values higher article flow.
Getting this done will be a lot of work. Is the juice worth the squeeze?
And assuming we get the UX right and execute 301 redirects correctly, are there major risks to search traffic?
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I wouldn't say "equal". But I do believe each site would provide additional opportunity.
3 articles per week per site isn't a bad frequency to be posting.
Also, as it is now you have the chance to interlink one site to another if there is a related topic.
Handling all those 301's if you were to combine all the sites into one would be quite the ordeal.
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Scott, thanks for your quick response.
Do you really think number of sites equates with visibility?
As for the source, the recommendation came from an SEO consultant.
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In my opinion, with only one site, you'd have only one chance to rank in the search engines. With 3 sites, you could potentially have more opportunity to rank.
Who is making that recommendation? Is it a company that has something to gain by advising you to redo your site(s)?
Scott
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