SEO impact of redirecting high ranking mirror site to the main website
-
During SEO audit for a client I noticed that they had over a dozen duplicate websites that are carbon copies of the main website. This was done via CMS platform and DNS. One of the mirror sites has about 400 indexed pages and has Moz DA of 42 and 137k External Equity-Passing Links. Full metrics comparison is attached.
I originally planned on doing rel="canonical" on the mirror site but the CMS vendor never even heard of it and is refusing to implement it in the header. My only other option is doing one to one 301 redirects.
Since the mirror site ranks well, even competes with main domain for some positions on the 1st page of SERP, what will be the impact after the redirects? Is doing 301's still the best option?
Thanks!
-
Thanks. I will just go with 301 and see how it turns out.
-
If you want to know how much traffic this domain is getting you could easily put a filter in Analytics which allows you to see the domain name when checking the pageviews.
Create a new view in Analytics and apply a filter with following settings:
Filter Type: Custom
Select: Advanced
Field A -> Extract A: Select: Hostname value: (.)
Field B -> Extract B: Select: Request URI value: (.)
Output To -> Constructor Select: Request URI value: /$A1$B1
Mark Field A: required & Mark "Override Output FieldYou could also combine all the different copies in one set in the Search Console - which would make it easier to check if there is an impact when activating the 301's.
Regardless of the traffic, the 301 remains the best option - some people say it does dilute pagerank - Google says it doesn't
As both Search Console & Analytics are not retroactive you could already make them active, wait a few weeks in order to collect sufficient data and then activate the redirects.
Dirk
-
Thanks for responding.
I am hesitant to go with 301s because not all link juice will be passed or I am wrong about that? I can't even gauge the impact this could have on traffic since the main domain and the mirrored site had the same GA tracking on them. All traffic channel data is a mess. Since mirrored website's DA is in the 40's and it is ranking on page one in SERP for a number of major keywords I assume it is getting decent traffic.
P.S.
I have already verified the mirrored domains in GSC and just waiting to pull the trigger on the 301s before informing G about the move.
-
You don't seem to have much options if canonicals are not possible.
To be honest - in cases like this I wouldn't use canonicals but always go for 301 redirects. They are pretty easy to implement (2 lines of code in htacess) and they are directives Google has to follow (and will pass pagerank). Canonicals are mere requests to Google that it can but is not obliged to respect.
Would also indicate in the Search Console of the duplicates that you're moving them to the main domain (https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/83106?hl=en) - you need to validate the duplicate domains before implementing the redirects.
Dirk
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
-
Redirecting back to initial redirect.
Hello, I have an example site A.com that is currently being redirected to site B.com. My client is having issues with B.com and finding that there is more equity in site A.com. The client now wants us to have A.com as the site. What is the best way to proceed with implementing A.com without hurting search in the long run, since A.com was initially a 301 redirect to B.com. How should I proceed in this redirection back to A.com What pitfalls should I look out for that could affect SEO and how should I input safegaurds to protect myself? I appreciate the support
Moz Pro | | arousta0 -
Do 302 temporary redirect harm?
Hi, It shows that there are thousands of Pages with Temporary Redirect in the moz report on our site as medium priority. How hard do they affect the site's seo performance? Thanks for any advice
Moz Pro | | LauraHT0 -
I know our business listed in Yahoo and medranks.com (for example). But my open site explorer report doesn't show those. however on their sites, I see the listing. Why is this?
I know our business listed in Yahoo and medranks.com (for example). But my open site explorer report doesn't show those links on the inbound report. however on their respective sites, I see the listing when I search for us. And the link does work..... Why is this? Why don't I see it on the open site report?
Moz Pro | | cschwartzel0 -
Redirect analysis tool
I'm looking for a tool like this: http://www.internetofficer.com/seo-tool/redirect-check/ that can check hundreds/thousands of URLs and give me a report as to which ones have been redirected. Does anyone know of something that can do this?
Moz Pro | | glass010 -
HTTPS In Open Site Explorer
Hey All I was hoping a friendly mozzer might help me out, heard they're hard to track down though 🙂 I see OSE automatically has the http:// for the URL you enter. Anyway to tell if an https:// version of a page has backlinks coming into it with OSE? Thanks! -Dan
Moz Pro | | evolvingSEO0 -
New site on page check
hello wonderful Mozzers, I am building a new site and was wondering if any of you knew any latest " thorough" ON Page Check Lists? I want to make sure I build the site right, and do every bit of on page and new site seo right. I have access to the SEOMOZ guides as well. Have a fab day guys, Best, Vijay
Moz Pro | | vijayvasu0 -
Site metric tool
Is there a tool on here (or anywhere else) where you can upload a list of sites (say 500 sites) and be given things like mozrank on it?
Moz Pro | | thefresh0