Transferring Site To A New Domain

[raider763]

I do SEO work for an offline business and they own 3 domains in the same niche, all with unique content. They have a redesign complete with unique content in the works for the main domain, and have purchased an additional premium domain name to add to their mini-network.

They consulted with me to ask if it is a good idea to take the old site design + content for the main domain, and move that to the newly purchased domain when the new design is launched.

What would be the SEO effects of this change for both the main domain and the new domain?

 

[audhora]

are those based on wordpress? In such case it would be easy to transform. you can take a complete wp backup and then reinstall in a diff. server

 

[roberteb]

If it was me I'd leave the content on the old site alone seeing as thats whats ranking at the moment.

1) Make sure the new design on the old site has the same linking structure / internal links / content and page names.

2) If you change the content on the old site won't that destroy all your current keyword rankings unless it's pretty similair or you just adding new content.

3) Surely if you take the old content and move it to a new site not only are you going to bugger (2) but until the old pages get dropped from the old site you'll have duplicate content (I suppose you could redirect old pages to the new domain)

If I've understood this correctly I can't see why you'd want to do this and believe it could turn out very badly for you.

Why not just keep the old content and add more to the old site after you've changed the design and add new content to the new domain?

 

[raider763]

The new design is going to be very similar in terms of the link structure with a few subtle changes, including a new homepage design and minor navigational changes.

In fact I should clarify that all of these sites are nearly identical in the architecture - it's a very specific service niche and these websites are almost like 20 page brochures that encompass all the services broken down page by page. So when I say 100% unique content, it's more like the same 20 pages of content, simply written from scratch so there is no chance of duplication each time a new site is launched. Due to this, it is not feasible to use this new content on any of the existing domains.. it's not like a blog style site.

The owner's thing is that he ordered this new design for his #1 main website, but also wrote completely new content to accompany this and handed it off to the designer. She ended up merging the new design with the new content. I suppose I can suggest that he uses all of this new content for the upcoming website, and keep the old content for the main one.

If it was me I'd leave the content on the old site alone seeing as thats whats ranking at the moment.

1) Make sure the new design on the old site has the same linking structure / internal links / content and page names.

2) If you change the content on the old site won't that destroy all your current keyword rankings unless it's pretty similair or you just adding new content.

3) Surely if you take the old content and move it to a new site not only are you going to bugger (2) but until the old pages get dropped from the old site you'll have duplicate content (I suppose you could redirect old pages to the new domain)

If I've understood this correctly I can't see why you'd want to do this and believe it could turn out very badly for you.

Why not just keep the old content and add more to the old site after you've changed the design and add new content to the new domain?

 

[raider763]

I should also mention that this is a local type of service, and every site in this mini-network is ranked in the top 15 of Google for our main keywords. Nearly all traffic comes through the homepage and the inner pages are merely there to further explain the main service. Every site targets the same 3-5 main keywords.

The new site is meant to take up another spot in the top 10, hopefully the top 5 because it's the best domain name of all 4, with an exact keyword match for our top keyword.

 

[roberteb]

I should also mention that this is a local type of service, and every site in this mini-network is ranked in the top 15 of Google for our main keywords. Nearly all traffic comes through the homepage and the inner pages are merely there to further explain the main service. Every site targets the same 3-5 main keywords.

The new site is meant to take up another spot in the top 10, hopefully the top 5 because it's the best domain name of all 4, with an exact keyword match for our top keyword.

I guess if the same keywords are being targeted and the keyword density is similair then apart from some long tails you should be ok.

I still think it's odd though and wouldn't want to change anything that was already ranked - why risk it why not just use the new content on the new site and maybe add some content to the old one hell you could even add a Blog and juice them all

 

[raider763]

I think I'm going to recommend to him the option of keeping the content as is and only switching the design. I would have clearly done this if I was rebuilding the design, but he got this done without consulting me first... and now he is asking questions before it's launched.

The problem with a blog is that I know the owner will not regularly update it, and I write enough for article marketing and guest blogging as is, haha.

I guess if the same keywords are being targeted and the keyword density is similair then apart from some long tails you should be ok.

I still think it's odd though and wouldn't want to change anything that was already ranked - why risk it why not just use the new content on the new site and maybe add some content to the old one hell you could even add a Blog and juice them all

 

[Kaithe.Clarke]

If I were you, I would not touch my old sites... Sometimes it becomes difficult to optimize new domain... If, God forbid, your redirect would not work out the way you are expecting. You will lose some well established websites.