Merging websites

[Stuart26]

My company (A) is about the merge with another company (B). The long-term plan is not to keep their brand or website.

In terms of the merge process, I have been doing a bit of research and this is how I'm thinking about doing it so far., which is open minded about changing...

• On the homepage of company B, do a 302 redirect to an information page on the same website which details the merger. This will only be for a year. After a year has passed, do a 301 redirect to the homepage of company A
• Do 301 redirects from all other pages to similar pages on company A. For pages that don't correspond, either do a 302 to the 'merger detail page', or do a 301 to the homepage of company A.
• Bring across any content that is effective at driving traffic.
• Contact all high authority websites that have links to company B and request for them to be updated.

Any tips/corrections appreciated.

Stu

[BCutrer]

I think you have a solid plan, my only thought is not to use the 302. It won't pass link juice over from that home page (Probably their most important) onward to the official site. I would either just 301 right away to the new site, or do a placeholder on the homepage explaining the merger with links to important pages on site A.

[OlegKorneitchouk]

I'd skip step one and just have an additional pop-up/notification bar on A explaining the merger when the visitor is redirected from B. For pages that don't correspond, just redirect to homepage. That way you save a year of less-than-optimal rankings.

I would review the analytics of B and transfer all of the high ranking pages/content to A, set up 301s. Then do the outreach for link changing.

[Stuart26]

That's great - thank you both.

Stu