Merging B2B site with B2C site

[PeaSoupDigital]

Hi,

A mobile phone accessory client of ours has a retail site (B2C) and a trade site (B2B). The retail site does pretty well and ranks highly for a number of terms. The trade site doesn't really rank for anything as they don't optimise it.

They would like to merge the two sites and allow trade customers to log-in and purchase goods in bulk for their business.

If they were to merge the trade site into the already successful consumer site, what would be the best way of doing this and what, if any, implications would it have on the organic visibility of the B2C site?

Would it be possible to target retail and trade customers on one website?

Cheers,

Lewis

[MattRoney]

Hi Lewis! Did Matthew answer your question? If so, mind marking one or both of his replies as a "Good Answer?" It'll get him a couple bonus MozPoints, and it helps us keep track of things.

[Matthew_Edgar]

Yeah, that would probably make the most sense. For sites where I've done something like this before, it is usually a single page (or maybe a few pages, depending) that talks about the trade program, answered common questions, allowed login, and encouraged signup. You could then promote that page(s), optimize it for appropriate terms, get links going to it, etc.

[PeaSoupDigital]

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

I think everything on the B2B side would be hidden and not accessible to bots. If this is the case, how would we target B2B customers? Just set up a single page with content regarding the trade products and process?

Cheers,

Lewis

[Matthew_Edgar]

Hey Lewis,

I would imagine it is possible to merge the two sites with limited implications. From a pure SEO standpoint the biggest consideration factor is if there is any negative "baggage" associated with the B2B site--especially spammy backlinks or any wonky technology that would impact the B2C site (speed, redirect issues, etc.). Given that, I'd do a careful review of the B2B site first to evaluate backlinks to that site and any errors reported about that site (using something like Moz's crawl tool and/or in Google Search Console).

The other potential risk is if there is any duplicate content that would be created as a result of the merger of the two sites. For instance, if you have a page on the B2B and B2C sites about Product X, after the merger you'd potentially end up with two pages about Product X. From what you said, it seems like the B2B's site content would be hidden behind a login and wouldn't be accessibile to bots. If that is the case, then maybe this isn't much of an issue. But where this is an issue, I'd also work to figure out the sitemap of the merged site and map out any link changes or redirects that are required to implement that new sitemap.

Along with SEO considerations, there are of course non-SEO factors to consider that could have indirect implications on SEO. Would there be any harm in the customers of the B2C side knowing the B2B trade side exists? If so, that could potentially harm the visitor experience and the brand which could negatively impact clicks, social shares, link building, etc. in the future. Likely not a risk, but I've seen a handful of companies who've merged their two sites only to find that they should have kept their audiences more segmented.

Hope that helps!

any duplicate content that would be created as a result of the merger