Looking to merge 2 domains to 1 - Got some questions - do you have the insight?

[PatBausemer]

Hey Everyone,

So the company I work for owns 2 domains. We have our main site which offers our portfolio of products and then we have a second domain, which we acquired, which focuses on one of our products (we also have this product available on our main site).

So here is where things get tricky for me. This second site (the one that focuses on one of our products) has a HUGE following and a higher domain authority of 80 when our main site has an authority of 70.

The higher up of the company want to merge the second popular site with our main site. There are many problems with this in my opinion since the following on this second site is very hardcore in the security space (I do not think that they will like to be sent over to a more corporate site) BUT I want to figure out the SEO value that can be gained or lost from this merge.

Some questions...

By 301 redirecting the pages over to our main page - I am assuming that the SEO power carries along with it so that these pages should still perform well?

Will the domain authority of our main site go up with the merge since we are bringing over pages with a lot of equity?

In your opinion, does it make more sense to keep the site with the higher authority since it is easier to host content that performs better?

Anyone have any experience with this?

SEO-wise do you think that this is a good idea or a bad idea?

Thanks a lot!

Pat

[EGOL]

Bosses can be really good at seeing some things and missing others.

SEOs can be really good at seeing some things and missing others.

I assume that you were hired for your expertise and that your bosses don't know much about SEO.  So, if you do not agree with them you can show your value to the company by letting them know why you think that these sites should remain separate.

If you decide to do this do it in a very nice and business like way.  Don't rant, just present data - and sometimes that data will be what you "think" will happen which could be wrong.

If my company bought a website we would not merge it immediately even if we wanted to.  Instead we would run it for a while and get to know where its traffic comes from, how much money it makes, where its power flows from, etc.

We might decide to merge it or we might run it separately.

One advantage that I see for merging the new site into the original is to bring that traffic and power to the corporate site.  There the visitor gets a much wider selection of products and the company has a better ability to market their brand to these visitors. And, if the original site is not dominant in your niche this extra power might push it there.  But, if the original site is already dominant then the acquired site displaces a competitor.

If the acquired site outranks the original site maybe adding other products to that site would supercharge its revenue.

To determine if the hardcore traffic of the acquired site is receptive to the brand of the original site you might run some ads on that site to see if they are ignored or if they are clicked through.  If you get lots of clickthroughs and those visitors engage the site and purchase then merging the site might work well.  But if they ignore the ads or bounce that says something too.

I would be running some tests and getting some data before I do anything.  And, anybody who says do this, or do that, is guessing.   Add testing to your proposal to the bosses.  Tell them that there are ways of measuring the value of this acquisition and if the traffic of the site is valuable to your brand.

[IainReloadMedia]

Hey Pat,

Good question. Firstly, well done for being involved with two very high Domain Authority sites. However (get ready for cheesy quote) with great power comes..... etc.

Strictly from an SEO perspective, 301ing pages from the specific product site to the main domain will transfer about 80-90% of the authority. You should see an increase in DA when you do this. However because DA is an exponential scale, it's difficult to say by how much.

I would definitely do it, making sure the pages are 301'd to equivalent pages on the main domain, not just the home page. I'd do this because it's easier to expand the content, and target new keywords.

However, the question you need to ask yourself is, "Is it the right thing for the brand?" especially as you have loyal followers for the specific product.

Hope that helps

Iain - Reload Media