Using a temp redirect or a link to another domain.

[aroach]

Helloooooooo (hey, we're in SEO...surely we need some sound effects as told in dramatic word elongation?)

//First - background.

I work on a site that does pretty well with search visibility naturally (by 'naturally', I mean it didn't need a lot of optimisation due to the relationships it has with its link network).

I work on a site that sells a particular product - green widgets will do - as part of its verticals. Traffic to this section is great, and tends to convert rather well.

These green widgets, however, are also part of another site that's part of the client I work for.

The larger company was interested to understand what would happen to their conversions if these green widget visits were sent to them instead of staying on-site (namely, that's because they turn a bigger profit over there). So they set up a link on the page on my site to a landing page on theirs.

Sure enough, conversions stayed the same on their site, and showed there may be value in keeping that flow active.

//Second - question.

I see a few options which mainly revolve around not changing anything, but the bigger part of company wants to see that change.

My question is this: long term, should I keep the green widgets section of my site there, and use a link that goes to green widgets on the other site, or should I 302 it until they decide on what they want to do with the relationship between the sites?

I know...a bit convoluted, but I'd love to get some ideas on what others have experienced in these situations, and what kinds of outcomes can help both sites remain strong.

Thanks a ton, guys.

[irvingw]

I would say don't ever 302, especially cross domain. You're just throwing away any PR that those pages might have. Use the link that goes to the green widgets on the other site instead. Just make sure that you're one way linking and that the big site is not  linking back to this referring site or Google could penalize both. Keep the relationship one way and not reciprocal.You can even JS the links in an obfuscated way so that Google doesn't see the relationship, and PR does not get passed from one site to another if you wanted.

[aroach]

Hey Irving,

Thanks for your great response. A lot of what  you've talked about was along the lines of where I was heading, so I appreciate the time you took to write back to the question.

The JS idea is a really good one.

Thanks again.