Hi Chris

This is hard to answer without an example - do you have a URL or two that you can share with the community?

Thanks so much!

Hi there

Redirecting a site depends on a few things:

• Is this competing brand now gone and over with?
• Is the old site relevant to the site you wish to redirect it to?
• Does it compete for the same queries you have?
• Does the new site have a place for old content to redirect to?

If yes to all of the above, redirect it, but make sure that you follow the steps in Moz's Website Migration Guide. It will help make sure that you move the website properly and take advantage of optimization opportunities, such as URL mapping. I would also look into the Change of Address tool in Google Search Console. Also, read through Google's resources on site moves.

I would perform both a content audit and backlink audit as well on the old site - what content can be updated, removed, or consolidated from the old site? What backlinks currently pointed to the competitor's website should be updated to yours, and which links could be removed & disavowed because they are spammy or irrelevant? Remember, if you inherit a website and redirect it, you don't want to inherit their spammy or toxic links, you just want the good ones!

If you redirect the site and migrate it properly, the old site will fall from the SERPs, but your site should capture the vast majority of that traffic and rankings. Especially if your on-site SEO and content is as good, or better, than the old site's.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi Chris

There are multiple ways of doing this, but I will give you a quick evaluation process and pass along some resources as well.

I would first pull backlink reports from the following sources:

• Google Search Console
• Majestic
• Ahrefs
• OSE

The reason for multiple sources - different tools provide different sets of data. What you get with Search Console you might not get with Majestic which won't be the same as OSE and so on. By pulling multiple sets, you see different angles.

I would then assess the source of the links in the following ways:

• Does this link help my website?

• Is this link relevant to my website?

• Would I trust this site (that's linking to me) if I landed on it?

• Is the website or content in which I am being linked from topically relevant to my website?

• If you check metrics - does anything about the metrics (domain authority, page authority,Majestic, SEMRush traffic/ranking data, etc) make me feel uneasy?

• Are the links from directory templates? (example)

• Inspect URLs with blatant spam words

• Free

• Porn

• XXX

• Submit

• Directory

• Paid

• Links

• URL

• Sex

• etc.

• Check for multiple domains and URLs on the same IPs

• This can usually show link farms or spam

What you are essentially doing is a backlink audit at this point - defining which links are valuable and relevant, and which links are toxic or spammy, categorizing them for link removal or disavow.

You can also look into tools that help score your backlink profile like LinkRisk.

You can categorize what you find into a Google Sheet or Excel with tabs as easy as "Good", "Bad", "Remove", and "Disavow". Categorize each tab by:

• Source of link
• Anchor Text
• Type of link
• IP address
• Contact information of source webmaster (if you want to update good links or remove bad links)
• Dates of outreach to webmaster (I usually go 3-4 times)

I would make sure you check out the resources in this answer as they provide a lot of great tips and resources to help you. It's a lot of research and common sense, but once you get the hang of it, it's not bad at all - you will learn a lot. There's no right or wrong way of doing it, just stay focused and you will get your own system fleshed out before you know it.

Hope this helps a bit! Good luck!

Hi there

What I would do is take advantage of a backlink audit and assess which links are toxic enough for removal or disavow.

I would not redirect spamming backlinks to your homepage - try to remove these and if you hear nothing back, disavow them.

The way I assess spammy links:

• Does this link help my website?

• Is this link relevant to my website?

• Would I trust this site (that's linking to me) if I landed on it?

• Is the website or content in which I am being linked from topically relevant to my website?

• If you check metrics - does anything about the metrics (domain authority, page authority,Majestic, SEMRush traffic/ranking data, etc) make me feel uneasy?

• Are the links from directory templates? (example)

• Inspect URLs with blatant spam words

• Free

• Porn

• XXX

• Submit

• Directory

• Paid

• Links

• URL

• Sex

• etc.

• Check for multiple domains and URLs on the same IPs

• This can usually show link farms or spam

Pull your backlinks from a few different sources like OSE, Majestic, Ahrefs, and most importantly, Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools), as different tools pull different data.

If you see spammy links, redirecting will potentially hurt your ranking. Be safe and take the proper steps listed above.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Hi there

I personally like hierarchy and categorization. If I were you, I would check out these resources:
How to Create a Site Structure That Will Enhance SEO (KISSmetrics)
Information Architecture for SEO - Whiteboard Friday (Moz)
Site Architecture & Search Engine Success Factors (SEL)
User Redirection Based On Location Is Not Spam (SEL)
Sitelinks (Google)
Set up Site Search (Google)
Categorize parameters with the URL Parameters page (Google)

There are a TON of great resources above with lots of great information. I would suggest checking these out and passing along to your team and having a discussion.

Hope that helps! Good luck!

Hi again

1. There is nothing you are going to lose by changing the 302 redirect to a 301. If anything, I would change the www.domain.com version of your site (leaving that country targeted to the world, no specific region) to give the user an option of what region they are from and what site they would like to visit based on their location. I would then follow the directions in my first paragraph.

2. See my suggestion in one. You shouldn't redirect your www.domain.com to a regional variant. Again, if anything, make the homepage an option page based on the users location so that they can choose which experience they would like to have.

Does this all make sense? Let me know!