301 from one domain to another. Possible?

[SwanseaMedicine]

Hi all,

I'm looking to re-direct one domain to another so that the content can be edited more easily under one CMS. Is this possible or will search engines penalise you for such a move? Not overly worried about losing link juice by implementing a 301 because the website we're hoping to re-direct from is a new page.

Cheers

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

You can do this, but you have to take into consideration a lot of elements about this move. Here's a great resource from Google that explains what you can do to help search engines better find your content and pass as much equity as possible once you do move your site. Make sure you review this with your team so you can properly set expectations and know responsibilities.

Google also offers tools like Change of Address tool that tells them "My site A has moved to my new site B". That way, they are aware of the move and understand that this is the new site location.

Keep in mind that once you make this site move, you're going to want to update business information across the web to include your new domain for a URL. This is important so that you are getting proper link equity built to that new domain and so it is understood as your new website location. Moz Local is great to have for properly managing multiple listings at one time - check and see if it's applicable to you and your business!

Hope this helps! Good luck!
P

[SwanseaMedicine]

Hi Patrick,

Thanks so much for your response. Basically, we're setting up a miniature business which will have its own domain, but we'd like to manage it under the umbrella of our domain. So, anyone visiting the site (once the site is set up) would immediately be re-directed to our main domain. Does that sound practical? Or is it manipulation because we're setting up a new page to immediately re-locate?

Cheers,

Rhys

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

It depends on the miniature business:

• Is a different business model?
• Is it a part of the larger business?
• Is it different geographical location?

My fear here is a bad user experience for users looking for a particular business and suddenly seeing a different business name / website. Have you considered this? I guess I would need more information about the businesses to say one way or another. Can you help me here?

Thanks so much!
P

[SwanseaMedicine]

Hi Patrick,

Of course - So, some of the academics within our institution are setting up a project involving numerous external partners and stakeholders. The business won't have a fixed location (that I'm aware of), and was going to be a science/research based website. This project was going to have its own URL and website but they would've liked it controlled within our domain so that:

A) It's easier to update

B) It'll benefit from a higher DA

The H1 of the page would obviously be called what the URL would've been, but I'm not sure whether this would be viewed as underhand by search engines - although, from my research, I haven't seen anything to suggest such a thing.

What do you think?

Cheers,

Rhys