Merging domains into sudomains
-
I know that questions about this topic have been asked before, but I didn't really find an answer that I could apply to our situation. We have several websites that now exist on separate domains, even though their topics are closely related. We are moving each of these sites into a new CMS and are considering collapsing all of the domains into a sub-domain structure around the strongest domain. Important to note: All of the current domains have existed for many years and have strong site authority, and regardless of the domain decision, in this restructuring we will be bringing them all under a global header. I know that there are SEO risks to moving a site from an established domain to a new one, even with 301 redirects in place, but the team in charge of this move wants to know how much of a hit we would take and how quickly natural search traffic might recover. Maybe and mights aren't really satisfying their questions... Does anyone have experience with collapsing domains into a sub-domain structure and feel like sharing your results? Most importantly, was it worth it???? Thanks.
-
If consolidating the domains into subdomains is inevitable, then 301s are going to be the way to go. Just be careful to redirect everything to where it should go in the subdomain, and do it one chunk if you can. You don't want to 301 some stuff, then re-301 or do a second round later.
Be as clear as you can to Google. once you are ready to move the site, do it all at once, so Google can clearly see that everything from the domain is now at the new domain. So yeah, wholesale switch, just make sure the client understands what he's getting himself into.
There is no exact number with regards to traffic loss, chance of recovery, risk of things not going smoothly, etc. Make sure they are aware of all the risks and how to best lower the possibility of something bad happening.
-
Thanks, William. All valid points and questions to raise. I especially appreciate the estimated loss in traffic. That was a number I couldn't put my finger on, having only switched domains for sites that did really poorly in search to ones that had a better overall structure. (Nowhere to go but up - a situation not relate-able to this one.) I can at least give them an estimate of potential traffic loss based on your experience.
Why do any of this? Our sites are mostly ad supported, and the main reason behind consolidation is that the big domain is more valuable to advertisers than the smaller sites. Bringing them all under one global header increases the association between content, and therefore offers more value to advertisers. The main reason for collapsing all domains into subdomains is the ability to measure traffic and accurately follow activity from one site to another - 3rd party vs 1st party cookies. Unfortunately, I don't think that we'll be able to use a folder structure at this point.
Because of the reporting issues, I believe that they will eventually collapse the sites, no matter what I convince them to do right now. Moving into this new CMS requires across-the-board URL changes, even if we don't switch domains. Part of me feels as if it would be better to go ahead with the wholesale switch now instead of risking a second round of 301 redirects in the next 12-18 months. But signing off on the plan makes me really nervous.
-
This is really a case-by-case basis, and a lot of different factors should be taken into consideration:
- I think the first things to consider is: why? Why do you want to consolidate the sites? If they are all somewhat different, all get traffic, and are doing their jobs, why change it? Is it broken? If not, why fix it?
- Does the brand of the strongest domain make sense as an umbrella to the other websites? Don't try to force domains together that don't make sense for the visitor.
- If it is strong enough, are the sites similar enough to where you could fold them into a single domain and brand (subfolders instead of subdomains)? I would recommend subfolders to subdomains if it still makes sense for the website.
Trying to consolidate multiple established domains into one domain, or a domain and it's subdomains, is possible but risky. Ask yourself if it's worth the risk to do all this, or if this is just one person's whim to organize domains without knowing what could happen.
In my experience, 301ing one domain to another (if done properly), should take about 2-4 weeks to recover the majority of organic traffic. Rarely have I seen a domain recover 100% of their organic traffic after a 301, but you will recover the majority of your ranks. So, if you are 301ing multiple domains, that would mean you are losing a sliver a traffic on each of them, and that doesn't count the downtime during the 301 transition.
And of course, the above is assuming all 301s are done properly, which could be a pretty big undertaking from the sound of it.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Domain Forwarding? Beneficial?
Good Morning! My father asked me about Domain Forwarding yesterday and it's impact on SEO. The example he gave was if he had website xyz.com and it was an educational website that sold anger management programs would purchasing the domain socialskills.com and pointing that domain at xyz.com help rank for social skills? My immediate answer was no it would not simply because Google doesn't associate any content with that domain, and Domain Forwarding is different that a redirect, which would apply if a website is already established. Am I correct in my thinking? Thanks guys!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HashtagHustler0 -
Multiply domains and duplicate content confusion
I've just found out that a client has multiple domains which are being indexed by google and so leading me to worry that they will be penalised for duplicate content. Wondered if anyone could confirm a) are we likely to be penalised? and b) what should we do about it? (i'm thinking just 301 redirect each domain to the main www.clientdomain.com...?). Actual domain = www.clientdomain.com But these also exist: www.hostmastr.clientdomain.com www.pop.clientdomain.com www.subscribers.clientdomain.com www.www2.clientdomain.com www.wwwww.clientdomain.com ps I have NO idea how/why all these domains exist I really appreciate any expertise on this issue, many thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bisibee10 -
Should I merge these pages
I have this business and am not sure if I should have a separate page for all of the different roofing subservices or if i should put them all on one page. Even though they are separate, but related services, I feel they could end up competing against one another If I merge them I will also have more related and keyword rich content on one page that I could focus my efforts on.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Atomicx0 -
Subdomain, subfolder or separate domains?
Hi Mozzers, We're in the process of re-developing and redesigning several of our websites, and moving them all onto the same content management system. At the moment, although the websites are all under the same brand and roughly the same designs, because of various reasons they all either live on a separate domain to the main website, or are on a subdomain. Here's a list of what we have (and what we're consolidating): Main site - http://www.frenchentree.com/ Property database - http://france-property.frenchentree.com/ (subdomain) Forum - http://www.france-forum-frenchentree.com/ (separate domain) Classified ads - http://www.france-classified-ads-frenchentree.com/ (separate domain) My question to you lovely people is: should we take this opportunity through the redevelopment of the CMS to put everything into subfolders of the main domain? Keep things as they are? Put each section onto a subdomain? What's best from an SEO perspective? For information - the property database was put onto a subdomain as this is what we were advised to do by the developers of the system. We're starting to question this decision though, as we very rarely see subdomains appear in SERPs for any remotely competitive search terms. Our SEO for the property database is fairly non-existent, and only ever really appears in SERPs for brand related keywords. For further info - the forum and classifieds were under a separate brand name previously, so keeping them on separate domains felt correct at that time. However, with the redevelopment of our sites, it seems to make more sense to either put them on subdomains or subfolders of the main site. Our SEO for the forum is pretty strong, though has dwindled in the last year or so. Any help/advice would be very much appreciated. Thanks Matt
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Horizon0 -
301 many smaller domains to a new, large domain
Hi all, I have a question regarding permanently redirecting many small websites into one, large new one. During the past 9 years I have created many small websites, all focusing on hotel reservations in one specific city. This has served me beautifully in the past, but I have come to the conclusion that it is no longer a sustainable model and therefore I am in the process of creating one large, worldwide hotel reservations website. To not loose any benefit of my hard work the past 9 years, I want to permanently redirect the smaller websites to the correct section of my new website. I know that if it is only a few websites, that this strategy is perfectly acceptable, but since I am talking about 50 to 100 websites, I am not so sure and would like to have your input. Here is what I would like to do: (the domain names are not mine, just an example) Old website: londonhotels.com 301 to newdomain.com/london/ Old website: berlinhotels.com 301 to newdomain.com/berlin/ Old website: amsterdamhotels.com 301 to newdomain.com/amsterdam/ Etc., etc. My plan is to do this for 50 to 100 websites and would like to have your thoughts on if this is an acceptable strategy or not. Just to be clear, I am talking about redirecting only my websites that are in good standing, i.e. none of the websites I am thinking about 301'ing have been penalized. Thanks for your thoughts on this.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | tfbpa0 -
How can i redirect my site to other domain ?
I have been running an eCommerce site since 2008 and have a PR3 with mostly have an authority link from reputed sites, how can I transfer my existing eCommerce site to the new domain so in the new domain i get SEO value from the old domain. Please advice.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | chandubaba0 -
SEO value in baclklink from blog.domain VS domain
Will a back-link from "domain.com/abc" and "blog.domain.com/abc" have same value from an SEO perspective? Assume same article written on both sites.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | knielsen
I have been told the bots look at the domain value and the only links from blogs that have less value are in case of comments. As long as the "blog.domain/abc" page includes a full article and not a blog comment then it counts fully for SEO. Is this correct?0 -
Domain authority enhancement
Dear all, what is the best way to increase your domain authority in a couple of weeks? Thanks for your reply! Best regards, Ben
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | HMK-NL0