301 redirects and old domain names

[daenterpri]

Thanks to the great advice i've received on this forum, I'm combining 50 different truck sites into a single, ultimate truck website. So my question is how long should I make a website 301 redirect to the appropriate page on my new website?

My thought is that if it works well to have a single website, it might be nice to eventually sell off some of the old domain names that I won't be using anymore.

Thanks!

Andy

[Marcus_Miller]

Hey Andy

There is no real concrete answer to that question so you need to play it by ear. Set up the redirects and watch them over time. Query the to ensure that the additional sites have all disappeared from the search engine result pages. You can also check the web logs on these domains to see if they are picking up traffic from search at all and if so, continue to leave them as long as it takes.

I would be prepared to leave them all for at least 12 months and then review them all and make your decisions.

Additionally, try not to worry about the 301's too much and concentrate on the new main site. Start building up some good links and if possible see if you can get valuable links pointing to the old sites all pointing to the new site. Get some great content on there as well and start promoting that and this will all help the new site supersede the older sites.

As an aside, I have never 301'd fifty sites into one so it would be interesting to hear if anyone else has any experience of combining so many sites into one.

Hope it helps & be prepared for a bit of wait.

Marcus

[AlanBleiweiss]

My thoughts exactly Marcus.  A 12 month rule of thumb is what I go by, with the monitoring being key.

[RiceMedia]

Some good advice from Google on changing domains here: https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=83105&hl=en

I have never 301'd 50 different sites either, however I wouldn't just leave it up to the 301s to inform Google - use the 'Change of Address' function in Webmaster Tools.  If you haven't already got Webmaster Tools set up on all of the old sites, I'd say that's an essential task to do first.  Then you can tell Google manually that the new site is replacing the old one/s.  You'll have to repeat the process 50 times but it's quick, easy and well worth the effort.

Google suggest that you leave the 301s in place on the old site/s for at least 180 days - but probably better to listen to Marcus and Alan; 12 months won't do any harm.

I'd also get the new site up and running concurrently for a few weeks first, if it's a new domain or if it hasn't had any content on it for a while.  A client recently immediately killed their old site upon launching the new domain, found out the new domain had previously been burnt, and it tool 6-8 weeks to recover rankings for the new site after a 'reconsideration request'.  It cost them organic traffic and extra PPC spend.

Maybe others would advise against this?  Realise it's potentially duplicate content but a short cross-over period would enable the old sites to continue providing temporary value as the new site registers.