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Types of migration

Domain consolidation

Domain consolidation means merging several domains, for example country, brand or legacy domains, into one or a few. This is also what people look for when they search for merging websites. The content moves, and the old URLs are redirected permanently. Search results for this phrase also include domain registration and portfolio tools, which are a different topic.

How does Google treat a merge?

Google lists merging two websites as a case for redirects. A permanent redirect (301 or 308) is used by the indexing pipeline as a signal that the target should be the canonical URL. Temporary redirects (302, 303, 307) are not used that way. Server-side redirects are the type Google is most likely to interpret correctly. Google also states that 301 and other permanent redirects do not cause a loss in PageRank.

For moves with URL changes, the site-move guidance recommends:

  • a URL mapping from each old URL to its new URL
  • verifying both sites in Search Console
  • a sitemap with the new URLs
  • keeping the redirects generally for at least one year
  • moving large sites in sections

The Search Console help page on the Change of Address tool names at least 180 days. To meet both, keep redirects in place for at least one year.

For a move to a different domain, a Change of Address is submitted in Search Console. Redirecting many old URLs to one unrelated page such as the home page can be treated as a soft 404. Content that was merged into one new page can be redirected to that page.

A case study by searchVIU (2018) follows a cloud telephony provider that began moving its country domains into subfolders of one .com domain in 2014. In Austria, organic traffic in the first five months was 90% higher than a year earlier. A redesign launched in the same period, though, so the gain can’t be credited to the merge alone.

Example

Code
old-shop.example/sneakers   → 301 → shop.example/sneakers
old-shop.example/contact    → 301 → shop.example/contact

More on the searchVIU blog

Sources

  1. Redirects and Google Search – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
  2. Site moves and migrations – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
  3. Change of Address tool – Search Console Helpsupport.google.com
  4. Merging or consolidating two websites – urllo (secondary, topic source)urllo.com
  5. Migrating from ccTLDs to a gTLD – The WHY, the HOW, and the WTF – searchVIU blog (2018)searchviu.com

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