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We have a small brick and mortar store chain in California. And we also have an online store with the same domain name. We are planning to invest on our online store platform and switch to Magento. while switching to Magento platform we are also considering to switch our domain name also. Our current domain name is not representing our current business model and capacity.

Our brick and mortar store name is PuzzleZoo, our e-store domain is also  PuzzleZoo. This domain is active in use for well over 10 years. But once started as a puzzle store, today we sell more toys than puzzles. We want to keep our brick and mortar store name as our brand.

We also own ToyZoo domain name. And we are looking to use the new Magento store with ToyZoo domain. The question is should we keep both domains separately running or should we use only one. In this case should we stay with PuzzleZoo with only looks like a Puzzle store instead of a toy store. Or should we use ToyZoo and redirect the PuzzleZoo links to ToyZoo links?

If we have both stores open with similar products, descriptions and images, are we going to get penalized by Google for duplicate content issues? Or PuzzleZoo being a brick and mortar store and ToyZoo being an online only store will help us to avoid getting Penalized by Google or other search engines?

If we use Toyzoo are we going to lose our keyword authority and traffic?

Looking forward to hear Expert opinions. Your participation will be highly appreciated.

Thank you for sharing this blog post.

We have an online toy store, the domain is old over 10 years and we have some traffic, we are considering to change our domain name. There are two reasons why. First of all, we expand our product category, before we were only a puzzle store now we sell almost any kind of toy. And at this point, our current domain, PuzzleZoo.com is not representing our capacity. We also have toyzoo.com domain registered, that is also an old domain but there has been no activity with that domain.

Our concern is, how do we avoid to lose ranking and keyword authority, are we going to start from the ground? What are the correct procedures to follow during this switch if we prefer to switch?

As an alternative scenario, if we decide to keep both and open another e-store with toyzoo domain name and continue operating PuzzleZoo.com, with same products, will taht be a duplicate issue? If it is what are the consequences? (Just to add a note here, our  PuzzleZoo is also a small brick and mortar store chain in CA and TX) ToyZoo will only be an online store. Even in this case at the eyes of Google, are we going to have a duplicate store that can potentially be penalized or PuzzleZoo being a brick and mortar store chain might help us to avoid being penalized?

Should we switch the domain and redirect PuzzleZoo to ToyZoo, should we keep them both and running separately?

We need to give a decision and I was wondering if there are any expert here that can give us a good intelligent advise on which path to go?