Moving a site as a folder of existing one
-
We have the following case:
Site A with domain authority 65 and 2,750 linking root domains (139K total links) and
Site B with domain authority 68 and 1,336 linking root domains (38K total links)
There's a suggestion to move Site A as a folder of Site B so it becomes something like this: domainB.com/domainA using 301 redirects for the existing domain A. We'd like to better understand what such move will result in.
I imagine at first Site A will drop in rankings, but after that will it be better for it to be under Site B domain? Also, moving all the pages a step behind in the URL path may slightly affect their rankings.
What do you think? Would you move Site A or leave it as a separate domain? I understand there can't be an exact estimation what will happen, but I'll appreciate your thoughts.
-
I would redirect the brand site to the company site. I'd place it into a folder.
-
Thanks for your reply, Stephen.
Products on Site B get similar traffic volumes to Site A. The decision to split SiteAProduct and have it on a separate domain was made back in 2004 because of a partner relationship, which is no longer in place.
-
Hi
This sounds like you already have a model to use as Site B has product on it already.
What are the comparisons for similar products on Site B adn the Single Product Site A in terms of traffic.
I'm assuming that you have SiteB/ProductPages already so do you know why Site B/ProductPage is different from SiteA?
What was the strategic reason behind splitting off SiteAProduct?
I would make my decisions based on the answers to the questions above.
Hope that helps
Steve
-
Sorry for missing some details in my initial question.
Site B is the company site, while Site A is one of its product brands. There's no topic duplication and they don't compete for traffic. Site B gets 8-9 times the traffic of site A, as it contains other products as well. There's about 10% duplication in the linking root domains. Site A has over 55K pages, and site B has over 400K pages.
The team developing the site A product hopes that by moving the whole site to siteb/folder it will gain more authority, better ranking positions and more traffic overall.
-
Not enough information has been provided to make a decision.
How big are these sites?
If you place all of the content on the smaller site onto the larger site will there be topic duplication?
How much duplication is there in the linking root domains?
How much traffic do they get?
If these sites were on same topic, did not have duplicating content, had a huge diversity of different linking root domains and both ranked well in the SERPs, I would redirect the one with smaller traffic to the one with larger traffic and where content is topic duplicated I would rewrite/redirect to merge their strengths.
-
Pushing your SITEA content down one directory level to "SITE-B.com/SITE-A" will probably have an effect on ranking that content.
lower directory = less Importance
I tend to agree with kjay on combining the content.
Do the two sites compete for traffic?
-
Are these sites similar? Could you not combine the content and 301 each page as you combine the info into site B.
I would only considering combining the content and then 301'ing from site A to the combined page on site B if the site content is similar.
If the sites are of completely different content then leave them as separate sites.
HTH,
K
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
-
I have a site with jokes. What schema markup could I use?
My site is about jokes. I wonder what schema markup could I use to be more visible in the search results.
On-Page Optimization | | MichaelJanik0 -
Random /feed 404 error from a wordpress site
My Moz Analytics report shows a 404 error on a page which I think should not exist at all. The URL is http://henryplumbingco.com/portfolio-item/butler-elementary/feed/. When I checked webmaster tools, it looks like there are a number of random /feed urls throwing 404 errors. I am using WordPress and the Enfold theme. Anyone know how to get rid of these errors? Thanks,
On-Page Optimization | | aj6130 -
Do Google Know What People Are Doing On My Site?
I run an ecommerce site and am keep to increase the time on site and reduce bounce rate. I have had some good results from writing good articles and advertising them on Outbrain and Twitter; both of these metrics have improved. However, I am wondering if Google will see this. Clearly if people land on the pages from the SERPS and return there they will know what is happening but will they know if people get there from an advert?
On-Page Optimization | | T0BY0 -
How can I find out which filter my site has fallen under?
How can I find out which filter my site has fallen under? there only 22 pages (out of 380) that are not under Google filters Thank you in advance.
On-Page Optimization | | andreysmiling19870 -
The correct way to go from PHP site to HTML site?
I have a website fully coded in PHP and I am doing a re-design over to an HTML site. I searched through the Q&A and there were some conflicting answers. Some said you will need to 301 all the pages. Others said to use the .htaccess to parse all the files as html. What is the correct way I should go about this? Thanks in advance!
On-Page Optimization | | reliabox0 -
One page dropped like a stone from rankings - why?
I have one page targeted to a specific keyword that seems to have dropped into oblivion but rest of website seems Ok and as usual. website is www.pod-exhibition-systems.co.uk search term is "banner stands" Grade is A in SEO moz tools and 3 other SEO programs. looking for an avenue to try as has been 2 weeks so far. regards Joe
On-Page Optimization | | podweb0 -
Redoing a site - 404 redirect or 301 redirect
I'm redoing a website, should i 404 the old pages, or 301 redirect to the main page? what is better? (around 100 pages)
On-Page Optimization | | mkmedia0 -
How to make google not index quotes from other sites?
Hey guys, I have a site where we post quite a lot of info from other sites. We don't want google to de-index our pages because parts of it are quotes from other sites. What would you use to make it so Google sees it's a quote from another site? Or to just make Google not index the quote? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | StefanJDorresteijn0