Merging 4 websites into one for a new site release (301 question)
-
Hi guys and girls, I have a client that has 4 very outdated websites with about 50 pages on each. They are made up like: 1 brand group and 3 for each individual key service they offer, so let's call them: brand.com (A) brand-service-1.com (B) brand-service-2.com (C) brand-service-3.com (D) We've rebuilt the main site and aggregated all the content from the others (99% re-written). Am I correct in thinking the process for the new lauch would be: 1. Launch the new site on brand.com (A) and 301 all the old brand.com (A) pages to the related pages on the new site. 2. Redirect the other websites (B,C,D) on a domain level to the new site on the brand.com (A) domain. 3. Clean up the old URL's, sitemaps, errors in Google WMT Is this right? Anything I missed/better practices? I was also wondering if I should redirect B,C,D in stages, or use page level redirects.
-
Only do 301 if the other sites have great value, you say that you have merged all content on 1 site an rewritten it? Google will automatic see the new content, the only reason i think you should do a 301 is if the other sites have a PR higher than 3 or 4, pr 2 and 1 are EASY to get. So take the new uniq content your wrote, combine each site with your different keywords. More on same page are good for results. You dont need a landing page for each keyword.
I would do this:
Check the PR and Alexa for all the sites, figure out if the traffic is real customers or just scans. There is no point in redirecting scan bots to new site, they will come automatic.
Then i would do the 301 from Google Webmaster Tools and make sure that they all go to front site of brand.com site. But only if they have anything to offer for your new site.
-
Link related items and pages from the old sites to related items or pages on the new site. If there are no pages on the new site related to an old topic, redirect them to the home page of the new site if they have pagerank and weight. Do a URL removal in GWT if they do not.
-
I use page-level redirects whenever possible. Better for Google and better for users. Besides that, sounds like you have a pretty sound strategy there.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
.Com version of my site is ranking better than .co.uk for my UK Website for branded search. 301 redirect mess
Dear Mozzers, I have an issue with my UK Website (short url is - http://goo.gl/dJ7IgD ) whereby when I type my company name in to google.co.uk search the .com version returns in Search as opposed to the .co.uk and from looking at open site explorer the page rank of the .com is higher than the .co.uk ?. Infact I cant even see the .co.uk homepage version but other pages from my site. The .com version is also 301'd to the .co.uk. From looking at Open Site Explorer, I have noticed that we have more links pointing to .com as opposed to .co.uk. Alot of these are from our own separate microsites which we closed down last year and I have noticed the IT company who closed them down for some reason 301'd them to the .com version of our site as opposed to the .co.uk but If I look in http://httpstatus.io/ (http status checker tool) to check one of these mircosites it shows - 301 - 302 - 200 status codes which to me looks wrong ?. I am wondering what it should read ... e.g should it just be a 301 to a 200 status code ?. My Website short url is - http://goo.gl/dJ7IgD and an example of some of 10 microsites we closed down last year which seems to be redirected to .com is http://goo.gl/BkcIjy and http://goo.gl/kogJ02 As these were redirected almost a year ago - it is okay if I now get them redirected to the .co.uk version of my site or what should I do ? They currently redirect to the home page but given that each of the microsites are based on an individual category of my main site , would it be better to 301 them to the relevant category on my site. My only concern is that , may cause to much internal linking and therefore I wont have enough links on my homepage ? How would you suggest I go about building up my .co.uk authority so it ranks betters than the .com- I am guessing this is obviously affecting my rankings and I am losing link juice with all this. Any advice greatly appreciated . thanks Pete
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PeteC120 -
Why would one of the big 4 banks in Australia recently start defining meta-keywords?
Hi All, Hope everyone had a nice weekend. I just stumbled upon one of our competitors who for some reason is all of a sudden defining meta keywords for their product pages. I find this extremely strange since its a definite no-no to define these? They are one of the largest (Chase, Barclays equivalent) in Australia with a large digital team. Do they know something we don't? Hope someone can help. Cheers, Dave
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CFCU0 -
Two websites (Domains) with same content for more than 4 years which one to choose now?
Hi, I need help with this decision, thanks in advance. My client has 2 websites but they have the same content: one has 4 years http://radiocolombia.com.co/ and the the other one 7 years: http://radiocolombiainternacional.com/web/ This content has been duplicated for years, how do I know which website is more relevant for google? we have to pick one. Please any advice? Thanks, David
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoweb330 -
Moving a website to a new platform, what are the 10 most important checks to make before moving?
I am moving my website to a new platform. The URS's will be the exact same. What are the 10 most important items I should check before I swap over to the new platform.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | robbieire0 -
What happens if one remove the disavow file from a non penalised site
What happens if one remove the disavow file from a site that has not received a manual penalty from Google. Although the site did suffer from a drop in traffic and rankings.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Taiger0 -
Is a 301 to a 301 ok?
I have a site that has a lot of url differences. Due to coding we sometimes have to 301 to a page that is 301'd to another. Is there any danger in doing this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | EcommerceSite0 -
URGENT - How to Present New Site Architecture to Development team for implementation
Guys I am not technically savvy. I just want to know how to present the website architecture I want to be implemented on my website... how do I present my suggestions to the development team. For example.... Should I say. Page Level 1 - HOME Page (URL) Page Level 2 - About Us Page Page Level 2 - Feedback Page Page Level 2 - Our Services Page Level 2 - Contact Us Page Page Level 2 - Accounting jobs Page Level 3 - Audting jobs Page level 3 - Junior accouting jobs Page Level 2 - Engineering jobs Page level 3 - architecture jobs Page level 3 - Motor engineering jobs Page Level 2 - IT Jobs Page level 3 - Hardware Jobs Page level 4 - Job Post 1 Page level 4 - Job Post 2 Page level 4 - Job Post 3 Please guide me my fellow MOZZERS.... I really need an answer/guidance at the very earliest. Iwill be truly obliged Regards, Talha
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MTalhaImtiaz0 -
Clone sites at new company
I just came in house to our company for SEO. We have one main site and 182 that are exact duplicates and almost exact clones of the main site. It's no surprise that half of these clones are deindexed already. The meta tags are just the domain name URL. I want to add unique text on the home page to each site, fix the meta tags and switch them up so they aren't clones. Other than a huge rewrite of the code for each site, I'm not sure what else to do to prevent the rest from getting deindexed. Is there any way to prevent the rest from getting deindexed?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CFSSEO0