Would merging a site with strong DA with one that has weak DA be a smart move?

[richdan]

I am working on a project for a client that has two ecommerce sites each with several thousands of products.

Site A has a strong DA, is ranking well on Google for thousands of competitive keywords and generating high traffic and conversions. Site B has a poor DA, ranking poorly and much less traffic. We are considering the idea of merging the 5,000+ product pages from site B into site A.

How can we evaluate whether this would be a wise move with the least risk to site A?

[Mike.Bean]

DA would remain the same on Site A. However PA would be distributed between all of the new pages. Could you give the url to each site?

[EGOL]

Since DA and PA are rather logarithmic, if there is a small difference in DA or PA between the sites then merging them will be a nice benefit.  If there is a big difference in DA and PA the merger will probably not make the stronger site more competitive.

An important thing to look at is the number of links that these two sites share.  If they have very similar linking domains and linking pages then not much will be gained by the merger.  If they have diverse and very different linking domains and linking pages that is when the most will be gained, based upon link metrics only.

Another important thing to consider is the traffic producing assets.  Does the site being redirected have unique, substantive, well-written and well-ranking articles.  If it has lots and they are supreme quality then it will be a good asset gain for the site that receives them.

Finally, will the site being 301ed contribute new products, new keyword reach, improved rankings.  These are what might be improved on the weaker site if they are placed on the stronger site.  Also, will the merger give current shoppers a greater selection of products, greater selection usually means larger average shopping carts.