Merging two sites into one

[simplesimon]

I have two websites, www.joecline.com and www.affinityproperties.com. Originally, I wanted joecline.com to be focused on west austin only. I now realize that I only have time to really handle the promotion of one site. I'm wondering SEOwise, which url would be better to keep. I would consolidate all content on one site and 301 the migrated site to the new URLs in the domain which I would keep.

Any ideas would be great.

Thanks

Joe

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[simplesimon]

Thanks. I found a few resources and Matt Cutt's thoughts on how to do the merge, but I really am looking for some advice on which domain to keep and which to redirect. I'm just not sure what I should be considering SEO wise when making the decision.

I could go either way with the domains as far as marketing and brand since I'm a remax agent. Just kinda need some advice on the SEO aspect of which would be best to keep.

Thanks

Joe

[saibose]

Joe,

1st of all, which one of your websites rank better for your target keywords?

Which one is an older domain?

Which one gets you more natural traffic (not from search engines or referrals, but direct traffic).

I would go in with the domain that comes up on all these 3 answers.

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[simplesimon]

Hi Sai,

Kinda hard to say on the which site ranke best. For instance, joecline.com ranks better for austin texas real estate and affinityproperties.com ranks better for austin real estate. Then, joecline ranks better for all the west austin areas and affinity ranks better for all the other areas of austin and surrounding communities.

Both domains are about 8 years old.

They both get about the same direct traffic.

Would you say that this means that it's 6 of one, half a dozen of another?

I was wondering if link profile or maybe one of the SEOMoz tools would help me determine?

[saibose]

In that case, I would do a url based redirect to your affinityproperties URL. Joecline doesnt ring many bells. But do not do a domain level redirect, rather put in a URL based redirect.

You can use open site explorer to see the link profile just to make sure that affinityproperties has a better link profile. If Joecline has a better link profile, I would keep Joecline since the link authority matters in Google rankings.

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[AlanMosley]

if its that close i agree also the word properties in your domain would help.