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Client Interested In "Swapping" Websites

by Kilterman
5 replies
Hello,
I am faced with an interesting situation, I have a personal client who is interested in swapping his content of his main site with the content of my lead generation site. I am working about the back linking / citations / content indexed. What would be the adverse effect of this and is it something I should even consider?
#client #interested #swapping #websites
  • Profile picture of the author FeelessLeader
    Have you just considered selling him your lead gen site and just doing a redirect?

    If you are going to literally be giving your client all the content off the lead gen site that I imagine was built to rent our or field leads for business owners, your client will be taking you. Why not just let him redirect to your site and either sell it to him or rent it?

    If he hired you to help him bring in leads I would guess the content on his site is pretty poor, so it seems a bit pointless to me to swap content as you would end up on the losing end.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kilterman
    He paid for the website to be built and is his. I am the one that will be held responsible if there's any negative to it. I am litterally thinking a domain name switch but am concerned about the linking and indexing.
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    • Profile picture of the author FeelessLeader
      Originally Posted by Kilterman View Post

      He paid for the website to be built and is his. I am the one that will be held responsible if there's any negative to it. I am litterally thinking a domain name switch but am concerned about the linking and indexing.
      If that's the case you could just do a 301 redirect. You may see a drop in traffic initially but it will climb back up if done correctly.
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  • Profile picture of the author reboot38
    EDIT: Whoops - I read your post wrong. I read it as him wanting to move the content from his main site to your lead gen site presumably b/c his site was outdated and didn't rank well. The info below is still good and might be helpful to someone so I'll leave it. Just know that I reversed the 'swap'.

    If that's the case you could just do a 301 redirect. You may see a drop in traffic initially but it will climb back up if done correctly.
    What feelessleader said BUT there are a few things to consider before starting:

    Redirecting the entire site - the links stay intact which makes the move really easy. If you redirect the entire site using the code below AND the file structure and file names (service1.html) are exactly the same, then the subpages will redirect from the oldsite to the new site. But only if the file structure and file names are the same which is seldom the case. If the file structure or names change then you'll have to redirect each page individually.

    Code:
    Redirect 301 / http://leadgensite.com/
    Redirect each page

    Code:
    Redirect 301 /index.html http://www.leadgensite.com/index.php
Redirect 301 /service1.html http://www.leadgensite.com/service-1.php
Redirect 301 /service2.html http://www.leadgensite.com/service-2.php
Redirect 301 /service3.html http://www.leadgensite.com/service-3.php
Redirect 301 /service4.html http://www.leadgensite.com/service-4.php
    Either way works, the second is an option if the file structure and/or file names change.

    As for the backlinking, citations, and content indexed:

    Backlinks - will remain and 'pass juice' as long as the redirects are in place

    Citations - If there's a link included with the citation it will redirect to the new site so no worries there.

    Content - again, the redirects handle any worries you might have regarding duplicate content (i assume that's what you were concerned about). Over time the results from the old site will fall off Google's index and be replaced by the content found on the new lead gen site.

    It's been awhile since I've used redirects or moved a site for that matter - don't take this as expert advice
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  • Profile picture of the author Sean DeSilva
    In the first post you make it sound like the lead generation site is yours, but then later you suggest that he is the owner. Let's be clear, if you are indeed the owner of the lead generation site, you do not want to redirect to another site because Google may think a sale took place. And that will potentially cause you big problems of this client leaves, and you need to sell the leads to somebody else.
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