To 301 redirect or not...

[Immanuel]

Hi guys i'd like to get your opinion on this.

We currently have two sites, site A is the old one with PA44 and DA33. Site B is the new one which is going to replace site A it currently has PA37 and DA24

Our plan for the future is to shut down site A and redirect all pages using 301 to the relevant pages on side B. Currently we have some links in place for a couple of keywords  on site A to site B which seems to be working great for our ranking.

Now i'm wondering if this is maybe a good option, to give back links from A to B or will i pass through more link juice when redirecting everything?

(ps. both are e commerce sites hosted and registred with different companies)

[gazzerman1]

Its not a great Idea to interlink in the first place and you can get a Google Penalty for that.

301 Redirecting can be very powerful as the links that point to Site A will now point to site B directly. Plus all the links that site B might already have.

One powerful site is better than two not getting full attention.

However as I have said many times, Google is on a rampage and it seems wise to have a backup site these days if you get hit by a penalty.

[GPainter]

All though many argue  total white hat not to interlink if you do redirect SITE A to site B you will find a bit of a hit on site B's authority. I've seen it done a few times and work well especially if the content it the same/similar. 301 is telling Google "this is the permanent new home of this page".

If you're planning on shutting down Site A and Site B is similar content I don't see why a 301 wouldn't work.

301 and links technically work about the same on passing link juice its more a case of what work better for the situation.

More info

As touched on by Gary whilst this is great it can also have longer term problems though that's not a guarantee that your page will rank. It depends if you want to stay completely white hat or more a bit more grey though if you ask me there is no white hat only shades of grey..

As I always recommend lots of research and advice never hurt and once you've got it all you can then work on an informed choice.

Good luck.

[Immanuel]

Hi guys, thanks for your feedback. Site A is very similar to B as it sells the same products (same company). B is the brand name of the company so it's only logical to use that. Site B has a pretty clean linking profile with only few links at the moment. The link i pointed from site A pushed one of our main keywords to 4th place in page one hence i'm slightly reluctant to 301 everything right away But i guess this wouldn't undo our results if done correctly. I'm also thinking some of the movement in ranking might have to do with hummingbird which might be finally taking down our competitors that where lucky enough to escape penguin.

Also Chris, can you explain what you mean by "a bit of a hit on authority" do you mean a positive hit  or do you recon it will go down first and then back up?

[GPainter]

Hi,

A hit as in raise the authority. It's recommended that you 301 over time anyway so it sounds like you've got a plan that's going to work well. Hummingbird unfortunately isn't going to remove top spots as its not what its aim is. Penguin 2.1 may as its a bit more focused on spam removal.

Good luck.

[gazzerman1]

Does Site A also have a clean Link profile? Doing a 301 will pass any bad links over to the new site. FYI

[Immanuel]

Yes site a was a victim of Penguin last december but has been cleaned up since. But i will de double checking before we 301 everything