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301 Redirect questions

by BenWesty
10 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hey guys, looking for a little input on something I am looking to do.

So I am running 3 websites all in the exact same niche. Same products and everything. Now I was thinking of closing the two websites that aren't doing so well in the SERPS and focusing all the attention on the one that is doing a bit better than the other two. Would doing a 301 redirect on both these sites be wise?

A few bits of information.
  • Both sites a very large with over 7000 products listed.
  • None of the websites are penalized
  • Backlink profile of the two websites not as "clean" as the third.
  • Other two still making plenty of money. just not nearly as much as the third

So with that in mind, what do you guys think I should do? Focusing on one site is definitely the way to go in the long run, but would a 301 redirect help recover the loss of sales from closing the other two down?

Thanks
#301 #questions #redirect
  • Profile picture of the author Laubster
    The only reason "not" to would be if their not so clean link profiles could get you in trouble. The only positive outcome here is the link juice from #1-2 moves #3 even higher and helps it get more traffic. Besides that I don't see how 301'ing them will help.
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    • Profile picture of the author BenWesty
      Originally Posted by Laubster View Post

      The only reason "not" to would be if their not so clean link profiles could get you in trouble. The only positive outcome here is the link juice from #1-2 moves #3 even higher and helps it get more traffic. Besides that I don't see how 301'ing them will help.
      I don't believe the link profiles would get me in trouble, but the idea of having the not so clean sites directly 301 redirecting to the completely clean site is still a little worrying.
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      • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
        Originally Posted by BenWesty View Post

        I don't believe the link profiles would get me in trouble, but the idea of having the not so clean sites directly 301 redirecting to the completely clean site is still a little worrying.
        I'd match the 301 page for page with the same products. If both pages are holding authority consolidating them should work. If it has a negative effect, well you can always undo it fairly quickly.

        IMHO

        If all 3 sites are ranking well in SERPs, I would be moving more towards keeping all 3 ranking. Owning the first page for a good keyword is always going to be better then owning the first position.

        Using existing ranking pages to improve other internal pages works a charm.
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        • Profile picture of the author BenWesty
          Originally Posted by Kevin Maguire View Post

          I'd match the 301 page for page with the same products. If both pages are holding authority consolidating them should work. If it has a negative effect, well you can always undo it fairly quickly.

          IMHO

          If all 3 sites are ranking well in SERPs, I would be moving more towards keeping all 3 ranking. Owning the first page for a good keyword is always going to be better then owning the first position.

          Using existing ranking pages to improve other internal pages works a charm.
          Thanks for the advice, although I would disagree with the statement that owning 3 websites below the fold is going to be better than owning one website above the fold. Right now my competitors are soaking up more than 50% of the traffic simply by being above the fold and leaving my three to claim the scraps.
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          • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
            Originally Posted by BenWesty View Post

            Thanks for the advice, although I would disagree with the statement that owning 3 websites below the fold is going to be better than owning one website above the fold. Right now my competitors are soaking up more than 50% of the traffic simply by being above the fold and leaving my three to claim the scraps.
            If I were you I'd keep the 3 websites and put them all on different hosts to minimize the chances of Google tracing the ownership of all 3 to me. Having just one website on the first page is very risky even if it ranks higher and makes more money than that of the 3 combined.

            You could lose all your income if that one site gets penalized, but if one of 3 gets penalized, you'll still have two money-making sites.

            Besides, there is no guarantee that the ranking of the 3rd one will improve if you redirect the other 2 sites to it.
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            ONE HOUR INDEXING - STOP WASTING MONEY ON LINKS GOOGLE NEVER FINDS
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          • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
            Originally Posted by BenWesty View Post

            Thanks for the advice, although I would disagree with the statement that owning 3 websites below the fold is going to be better than owning one website above the fold. Right now my competitors are soaking up more than 50% of the traffic simply by being above the fold and leaving my three to claim the scraps.
            Sorry I presumed the performing site you had was at least top 3 already. If your not top 3, you're not ranking.
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            • Profile picture of the author BenWesty
              Originally Posted by Kevin Maguire View Post

              Sorry I presumed the performing site you had was at least top 3 already. If your not top 3, you're not ranking.
              Well considering we have made over 14,000 unique transactions from organic traffic this year alone on just one site, I would have to disagree with you there. We are definitely "ranking". but we can still definitely be doing much better.

              Edit: Also worth mentioning we are only considering this because running 4 sites requires a lot more effort than running 2. Halving the sites we have would allow us to double our efforts on the two remaining, and the two we would close make up less than 15% of our total sales. It's not just about the SERPS, we would consider closing them even without doing a 301 redirect. I am just wondering if we could use a 301 redirect on both sites to make some last use of them.
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              • Profile picture of the author Kevin Maguire
                Originally Posted by BenWesty View Post

                Well considering we have made over 14,000 unique transactions from organic traffic this year alone on just one site, I would have to disagree with you there. We are definitely "ranking". but we can still definitely be doing much better.

                Edit: Also worth mentioning we are only considering this because running 4 sites requires a lot more effort than running 2. Halving the sites we have would allow us to double our efforts on the two remaining, and the two we would close make up less than 15% of our total sales. It's not just about the SERPS, we would consider closing them even without doing a 301 redirect. I am just wondering if we could use a 301 redirect on both sites to make some last use of them.
                Touche.....
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  • Profile picture of the author KeithYoung
    301 redirect in simple definition it is permanent redirect from one URL to another.
    For instance if you want to redirect www.abc.com into www.xyz.com then just implement 301 redirect. It means that it is a change of address form.
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  • Profile picture of the author BenWesty
    Can you even do a page for page 301 redirect with with CMS like zencart? I imagine once you 301 redirect the home page, all other pages become disappear?
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