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A negative effect would be from incoming links. You want the links going to the old page to route to the new page. I'd use a 301. The old pages might still be indexed if you do your proposed switch. Currently your site has a robots.txt file, but it doesn't have Meta Robots. Meta Robots will allow you to choose whether to index a page or not.

Thank you for your response. Links is a big concern of ours, the option to display both sites on an entry page is a definite non starter, the client doesn't like that idea. I like the option of using sub folders. We would link between the two sites to allow a user to book rooms in either season. I suppose these types of projects are the ones that challenge us all to think outside the box. Thank you again, food for thought. Martin

Interesting stuff. You're right it is probably more down to the diversity factor. Hope you keep your good positions

Yes, still trying to track the down the issue. Steve

I think the PA (of the 'old' 301'd page) in this case will be more important than the DA. High PA on the 301'd page would 'likely' (and I say that with much trepidation) result in a quicker de-indexing. Andy

I found that post to be very useful in regards to my local ranking questions. Thanks for the link

Thanks for the input guys. I have taken your suggestions on board and made some additional optimizations and edits as well. I will let you know how it goes.

A lot of information outside of SEO should be considered before redirecting a domain.

Either way would work. You won't get much value out of that third link, but I don't see it hurting you.

Have you checked webmaster tools for any messages?  You still have 200+ pages indexed. I wouldn't discount the content.  There maybe something that Google doesn't like about it.  I do see a few misspellings on the home page (prooves) and cutoff words (if they don't make a cus...).  When I found you in Google, this is what Google is serving me up for a description:  "All mentioned trademarks are property of their respective owners. By using this site, you are agreeing to the Terms of Use ..." Plus side is you're still ranking well in Bing.

Try using proper anchor text for your home page.

Hi Dylan, Thanks for the reply. The community website does not exist anymore as a standalone website. It is now a sub-domain on our main website. e.g. Before - we had www.mainwebsite.com and www.communitywebsite.com After - we have http://community.mainwebsite.com And this sub-domain has thousands of duplicate page titles. Will that affect www.mainwebsite.com?

Thanks Dan.  Actually, it is exactly what our site is about, and we are getting ranked for all kinds of non-branded keywords.  Happy days!  I didn't think of the indexing possibility and tipping the scale.  I'd be interested to hear what else people say.  Thanks again!

Well ... no one responded to my question here, but it seems the problem has already corrected itself.  Perhaps it just took 2-3 weeks for link juice to be properly attributed to the new location of the 301'd site and subpages.  I'm not back 100% in terms of traffic yet, but I'm 80% there.

Thank you for you responses and advice!