What Are The Top SEO Considerations For Merging Sites? via @sejournal, @RyanJones

2 years ago 318

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Today’s Ask An SEO question is regarding the all-too-familiar challenges of tract consolidation and migration.

Migrations and consolidations tin beryllium daunting and scary but are often indispensable nonetheless.

They tin besides beryllium a large payment to your website if done properly.

The question comes from Merrill successful Portland, who wrote in:

“I person 2 domains for the aforesaid narrow, assemblage moving connected WordPress, each with galore years of past and accordant traffic.

One has astir 2,000 views per month; the different 500.

One tract started arsenic a location for podcasts (there are present implicit 700) and the different was a blog and a nexus retired to a store.

Since some sites are intended for the aforesaid audience, I don’t deliberation it makes consciousness to proceed with this segmented structure.

I’m considering creating a caller domain and putting the contented from some of these nether the caller domain and utilizing a LMS similar Kajabi to enactment the podcast, blog, email list, store, etc. nether 1 extortion and simplify the medication and “get credit” for the combined postulation and leafage views.

My anticipation is this volition amended my rankings overall. What are the apical 3 items I should absorption connected arsenic I see this migration?

Great question, Merrill.

I’m going to instrumentality disconnected my SEO chapeau for a infinitesimal and archer you that the fig 1 happening you should see erstwhile doing this migration is your users.

Does this marque consciousness for them?

From what you wrote, it sounds similar a emblematic idiosyncratic would expect to spot each of this contented connected 1 domain, truthful I would fto that beryllium my main driver.

From the SEO side, we tin assistance you get the astir “credit” oregon “authority” retired of a assortment of solutions, truthful it’s important to marque definite we’re doing this for the close reasons: users!

You notation a new, 3rd domain name.

I don’t cognize what your existing domain names are oregon if they marque sense, but if they bash I’d see keeping one.

Moving to a 3rd domain won’t truly wounded your SEO agelong word (it whitethorn instrumentality longer to commencement but volition beryllium good successful the agelong run) but it tin travel with unforeseen issues.

If it’s a caller domain, you’ll request to probe who owned it earlier and what benignant of contented was there.

It’s imaginable that the domain could person been used for spam successful the past (or thing other that would enactment your concern astatine hazard today).

Regardless of what domain you take to big it each on, determination are a mates of things you request to support successful caput arsenic you commencement your migration and consolidation.

1. The Redirect Plan

This is wherever astir sites fail astatine migrations.

No substance however good planned out, someway they ever miss oregon improperly configure immoderate benignant of redirect.

It’s important to guarantee 1-to-1 redirects for each URLs and URL variants.

This mightiness adjacent mean updating older redirects that are presently successful spot (depending connected your tech setup).

It’s excessively casual for things to autumn done the cracks.

Many radical usage a Screaming Frog crawl to get a database of URLs, but that mightiness not relationship for unlinked landing pages and such, for example.

Always commencement by doing an export from the CMS.

2. Content Mapping

Depending connected the sites you are migrating, you mightiness person immoderate akin contented connected some of them.

Now, duplicate content isn’t a “penalty” oregon large woody successful the mode galore SEOs speech astir it. But it’s inactive not champion for users.

You’ll privation to program up which contented volition get rewritten oregon retired, and which URLs the erstwhile duplicate contented volition unrecorded on.

Chances are bully that 1 of those URLs has amended SEO signals pointing to it than the other.

3. All The Tech Issues

Once you migrate, you’ll request to marque definite each of this is updated properly:

Canonical tags
Schema tags
Hreflang tags (including those connected different sites)
Sitemaps
Paid links
Open Graph tags
Twitter cards
CDN settings
Random javascript/images/etc. with static URLs
Analytics tags
Third-party advertisement servers, API keys, oregon different widgets that are domain-specific.

I wouldn’t trust connected redirects for hunt motor signals oregon code-based stuff, arsenic that adds delays and tin dilatory things down.

4. Tell The Search Engines

While astir volition fig this retired connected their ain based connected redirects, Google and Bing each person a instrumentality to assistance you velocity this up a bit.

You should usage those, but lone erstwhile you’ve triple-checked everything else.

There’s a batch much that goes into a migration oregon tract consolidation than radical think.

Having scoped retired respective of them for clients implicit the years, I tin archer you the magnitude of enactment tin beryllium eye-opening – sometimes truthful overmuch truthful that a squad with a ample tract whitethorn reconsider their program to alteration domains conscionable for vanity reasons.

Hopefully, this helps.

Remember, if you’re ever stuck connected a decision, hide astir SEO and inquire yourself what’s amended for the user.

Usually, that’s amended for SEO, excessively – it conscionable mightiness necessitate immoderate other enactment to codification it successful a due way.

More resources:

Ask an SEO is a weekly SEO advice column written by immoderate of the industry’s top SEO experts, who person been hand-picked by Search Engine Journal. Got a question about SEO? Fill retired our form. You mightiness spot your reply successful the adjacent #AskanSEO post!

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