Combining 2 Websites

[FX4nWOO]

Any assistance/feedback is greatly appreciated.

The scenario:

We currently own two website, and we'd like to combine them and eliminate some expenses.  Although the content is very similar in nature, it is not exact.

www.KF.com that is managed by a third-party provider & www.KFA.com that is managed by the manufacturer of the product we sell.  (*sites url's are not accurate)

We have ended the contract of KF.com, however, this site has the best  SERP/SEO.
We assume we'll take a hit, no matter what we do - however when it comes to SEO, but what is the right move to make?

1. Do a domain "Transfer/Redirect" of KF to KFA.com or

2. Do we simply change the KFA.com to KF.com?

Still very much a rookie when it comes to this stuff.  I do have the ability to SEO the KFA.com webiste. Hoping this makes sense - and apologize for the bad url's just not sure I can actually post the true addresses.

Thanks in advance.

[ChadBreezy]

Just 301 redirect whichever website has the most authority. You can manually make all the pages that the site with the most authority has and create a .htaccess file and then setup 301 redirects to the new and permanent location (or to the new website). Doing this will help you save time that you put into your "baby" and ensure the new baby get's that authority. As far as duplicate content, make sure you remove the pages from Google's index. To do that you'll need a Google Webmaster Tools account.

[FX4nWOO]

Chad- because both sites are technically managed by a 3rd party, I don't have access to change theses.  Based on your response however, I did some research on 301 redirects and that def. seems the correct way to go, so thank you.  If you have any other thoughts - they would be greatly appreciated.

[ChadBreezy]

Hi Juile,

301s are the only way to protect your back-link profile built towards your brand. I did it for a huge project I directed with Leads dot com. We are still looking to 301 redirect one other website that is also going away. Submit A Website dot com has years of authority. Although this is a very large site example; it should serve as a rule for any other viewers of this thread.

Also to expand on the duplicate content issue. If you wanted to take an extra precaution, just make sure there are no duplicate pages within your website. You can use "Screaming Frog" (desktop software, free to use) to look at duplicate content within your website. Aside from this, you should be in great shape.

I also see having a website managed by a 3rd party; very frustrating. However, tell them to setup a .htaccess file and setup your mod-rewrite (for whatever server your site is running on) and give them a list of pages throughout your website that you want redirected.

You can use gsite crawler to crawl your website and then from there you can dump the data into excel so you can provide neat data to your 3rd party developer and they should be able to help.

If you need additional help, just message me.

[FX4nWOO]

Brad - It's been sometime, still haven't solved the issue, as the 3rd Party is basically refusing to create the 301 Redirects.  With that being said - is there anything else you can think of that might help.