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Need some SEO advice - merging two websites

by EVD711
8 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi.

Long time lurker, first time poster... Need some advice regarding the merge of two different websites, maybe someone could spare a minute?

Situation

Site A - optimized for Country X (non-US), aged local domain, all content (200+ unique articles) in local language, ~3k visitors a day, quality backlinks etc. Far ahead of the competition for all relevant keywords.

Site B - .com domain, 250+ unique articles in English (content more or less identical to Site A, just translated), ~1.5k visitors a day, some backlinks, traffic slowly but steadily growing. Ranking 6th-7th for main keywords, 2nd-3rd for long tails.

Dilemma

I was thinking about 301'ing Site A to a directory in Site B (e.g. SiteB/languageX). What effect would that have on Site B rankings (for the main domain)? Could such a move "dilute" the keywords, with new non-English content? Would the SEO juice simply get passed from Site A to Site B?

I do not mind wrecking Site A's ratings if that gets me +2 or +3 positions for Site B. Is there any other way that I could leverage Site A to boost Site B (e.g. placing backlinks to Site B on Site A, with English anchor text)?

Any advice would be really appreciated.
#advice #merging #seo #websites
  • Profile picture of the author DNAWRealm
    Banned
    Place a link on Site A's homepage with the anchor text to site B. Place it as high on the page as physically possible (under the menu?). Don't make it sidewide.

    That way you're transferring a lot of link juice, and page A will continue to get traffic while page B goes up in the SERPS.
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    • Profile picture of the author EVD711
      Originally Posted by DNAWRealm View Post

      Place a link on Site A's homepage with the anchor text to site B. Place it as high on the page as physically possible (under the menu?). Don't make it sidewide.

      That way you're transferring a lot of link juice, and page A will continue to get traffic while page B goes up in the SERPS.
      Cheers. Would it be an overkill if I included a link to the English version (Site B) in the non-English version of every article (Site A)? I.e.:

      Article X1 (non-English; Site A) contains a link to Article X2 (English; Site B)

      It will be somewhat unnatural, but again, I am not concerned about Site A's ratings. Or is the potential benefit not worth the risk?
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      • Profile picture of the author DNAWRealm
        Banned
        Originally Posted by EVD711 View Post

        Cheers. Would it be an overkill if I included a link to the English version (Site B) in the non-English version of every article (Site A)? I.e.:

        Article X1 (non-English; Site A) contains a link to Article X2 (English; Site B)

        It will be somewhat unnatural, but again, I am not concerned about Site A's ratings. Or is the potential benefit not worth the risk?
        Google counts 1 link per domain, so there's no point putting links in articles when it's on the homepage in terms of for SEO. The homepage will transfer the most page rank.
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        • Profile picture of the author dburk
          Originally Posted by DNAWRealm View Post

          Google counts 1 link per domain, so there's no point putting links in articles when it's on the homepage in terms of for SEO. The homepage will transfer the most page rank.
          Hi DNAWRealm,

          I think you may be incorrect on that assertion about what Google counts. Google counts the same URL only once per page, if you have links to different URLs they each are recognized and pass a portion of the page's link juice.

          If you have links on other pages, on the same site, that point to that same URL, those other pages will also pass Link Juice to that same URL. However, you should take note that with each link you add to a page your are dividing the link juice among all the outbound links, except where you add multiple links to the same URL, on the same page, it is only then that the addition link is not counted.
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  • Profile picture of the author Terry Kyle
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    • Profile picture of the author gladwinforum
      Hi, 301 redirect works and Google recommends it.

      I have faced the same situation with one of my clients project and it worked.

      He had a Free Hosting Website and he asked me to export all the content to his new Website. Then I applied 301 Redirect to all the link. (Old Link 1 to New Link 1, Old Link 2 to New Link 2 etc.,).

      To my clients surprise he had the same traffic that he had in his Free Hosting Website from the Day 1.
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  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    I would do like DNAWRealm suggested, leave the site alone & add a backlink for SEO + traffic. As long as both sites are related you can flow traffic back & forth while getting the link for SEO.

    Next try & get double SERPs per keyword with both domains (4 SERP links per keyword instead of 1 SERP link). Double SERPs won't always happen, but it's guaranteed to not happen If you don't try. If either sites are established, should work (also depends on keyword comp.).
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  • Profile picture of the author awj888
    301 would be the best way, if you really need to merge them, if its a ranking issue, why dont you just SEO the site with lower rankings? Ofcourse building a bigger site is great, but then I would go with the .com and not a local domain, you will hold more authority in the US. And Cutts has it right, redirect on a page level, if you want to keep the same juice to each individual pages. Its going to have a big impact on rankings so expect some swing dancing from Google
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