How to handle Local SEO when two businesses merge

[JohnWeb12]

Hi, I have a landscaping client who is buying another company and merging the two companies together.  I trying to figure what the best way to handle this type of situation is.  Here are the specifics.

Company A

• I've been working with him for a number of years, he has a really robust site with good content and with really good rankings.  I've done a ton of citations, he's in good shape.
• His company has decent name recognition.

Company B

• My client is buying Company B.
• Their site is really poor, no SEO done on site and no directory listing work.
• The company has great name recognition in the community and gets most clients through word of mouth.
• My client has decided to take Company B's name because its a more well known company.  He is going to merge the companies, because he doesn't want to have 2 companies from a management standpoint.  He plans to keep both physical locations open.

So here are my questions.

• Do I keep both sites live for a period of time and put  a message notifying people that "Company A is now Company B Name"?  OR
• Do I transfer all the good content from Company A's site to Company B's site and do a 301 redirect of the URL.
• How should I handle the data aggregators and directory listings?

I'm trying to keep all the great natural traffic that Company A gets to its site, start to build traffic around company B's location while following all of Google's policies.  I could just start over and in the long-term they'd be fine, but I really love to find a strategy to avoid my client taking a big hit in organic traffic.  Thanks in advance Mozzers!

[MiriamEllis]

Hi John,

So, if I'm understanding correctly, both companies will now be named Company B, but there will remain 2 distinct physical locations. You have 2 options here, that I can see:

Option 1

Make a legal business name change so that you have Company B Boston and Company B Philadelphia as the legal names of the 2 companies and run them separately. Keep the 2 websites, being sure that the NAP on Company B Boston is only on site #1 and that the NAP on Company B Philadelphia is only on site #2. Do not share phone numbers or any other part of the NAP. Edit all citations accordingly.

This option will allow you to maintain the 2 websites and, hopefully, build up the strength of the poorer site over time.

Option 2

This is likely the better option. Name both companies Company B. Bring any good content aboard from the poorer website and then redirect the poorer website to the stronger one. Create a unique landing page on the new, consolidated website for City A and City B, ensuring that the addresses and phone numbers are unique. Edit the citations so that all of them for location A point to the City A landing page and that all of them for location B point to the City B landing page.

This option allows you to go with a single website, single brand and means all of the future work you do is going toward building up the authority of a single, very strong company.

Hope this advice is helpful!

[JohnWeb12]

Thanks Miriam, your expertise is greatly appreciated!  I agree that Option 2 makes the most sense.  The only issue that I see is that the stronger website has the company name in the URL, and that company name is being eliminated.  I am basically left with the weaker sites domain name because that will be the company name going forward.  Any tips to make a smooth transition bringing the content over?  Do I strengthen the site first then work on bringing the content over at the end?

[Toddfoster]

Hi John,

To add to what Miriam was saying, you can still redirect the stronger domain to the weaker one. You will lose out on a bit of link value but it won't crush your ranking potential. You can conduct the 301 at any time (before or after building the strength of the weaker site). The main issue is to make sure you have the foundation in place for a smooth redirect whenever you decide to do so. That being said, I would suggest the 301 should be conducted before further SEO work continues.

To do this, all you really need to do is provide the same site architecture for Site A and Site B,  then redirect page-to-page. After this is complete, SEO to your heart's content on Site B.

You can do it the other way, but it will take more time and you will have to maintain 2 domains while the merge is occurring which might get messy - just depends on the time frame your client has provided.

Hope this helps!

Rob

[MiriamEllis]

Hi John,

Hmm, that does make it a bit tougher, having to put everything on the weaker domain, but I see what you mean in regards to having to go that way for branding purposes. I'm reaching out to one of our traditional SEO experts on staff for additional feedback on this. Please, check back.