Quick Question Seeking Quick Answer

[WhiteboardCreations]

Hi Mozzers,
I have a new client who bought a dental practice from another dentist. The old dentist has a website www.olddentistsite.com (not a real domain, just an example) and the new dentist wants there to be a message on the old dentists website Home page stating how the practice was bought.

My idea just came up... most would do a message on that domain. However, would you recommend I actually create a new page in the new dentists website which the old website domain redirects to

ie: www.olddentistsite.com [redirects to >] www.newdentistsite.com/olddentistsite/ and then on this page we display a nice message about the acquisition, scheduling new patients, new logo, meet the new Dr, a video, better office hours, etc... Is this something the visitors will enjoy or get a good feeling from?

Let me know your thoughts on which option is best to implement. Looking for a few quick replies!! Thanks in advance everyone! - Patrick

[KevinBudzynski]

Yes, I would do a 301 redirect to the new site and explain the transition. Should include the content you described complete w/FAQ and answer any questions the patient may ask.

[WhiteboardCreations]

Awesome! I was confident I'd get that reply, but wanted to get a 2nd opinion and really appreciate you confirming my initial thoughts.

Thanks, Kevin!

[ThompsonPaul]

You absolutely want to do address this on the new site, not the old one - it's the only way you'll be able to fully transfer the ranking authority form the old site to new.

Since the old home page is almost certainly the strongest on the old site, you may want to consider redirecting it to the new home page, with some referrer-triggered dynamic explanatory text. This could then link to the "about the buyout" page you mentioned for more info. This way, the ranking authority is transferring to a critically important page on the new site, instead of just helping to rank the non-essential about buyout page itself.

Ideally, you're going to want to redirect the pages from the old site to the equivalent URLs on the new one as well. That will provide significantly better authority transfer that just redirecting all pages of the old site to new home page/about buyout page. In which case the same referrer-triggered dynamic content or a header bar can be utilised effectively for those pages as well.

Make sense?

Paul

[WhiteboardCreations]

Makes perfect sense, Paul! Thank you for the detailed account and what to be aware of. I was already planning something along these lines. The trick is getting people to see the new page once they are redirected. I'll work on this and a header bar or a pop up window may work best. All URLs will be redirected appropriately as well as it's standard practice in shutting down one site to pass authority to another. Thanks again for your insight! - Patrick