Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › Merging Websites
- This topic has 10 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 1 month ago by VHurst.
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March 8, 2013 at 5:56 pm #25081VHurstMember
Hey guys,
Wondering if I could get your expert WordPress advice? I am in the process of merging two websites. One is WordPress (Lifestyle theme) and is a for profit business and the other is a custom built site, which is a non-profit organization. I was advised by a business mentor it is best to merge them for SEO purposes, but I am not seeing the big picture. I am a bit apprehensive because I am not quite sure from a technical perspective how merging them onto WordPress will work. Any suggestions? The concern I have is trying to figure out how I can set up the non-profit onto the for profit where I can give clients a point of reference to view information about our destination spa. (menu of services, product purchases, showcasing the spa, etc) on the for profit business website. From a SEO perspective I can understand the reason for merging them, but from a business perspective it's not making sense to me why I would want to refer clients of our destination resort, to a business consulting website to find our menu of services, places to purchases their spa products, etc.
I hope this makes sense what I am trying to ask. If it helps, below are both of the websites I am referring to.
http://ibeyondtheveil.org/ (non-profit)
http://valariehurstandcompany.com/ (for profit)
Kind Regards,
Valarie
March 8, 2013 at 6:12 pm #25086Brad DaltonParticipantI'd test this out on a local installation first.
You can easily install WordPress using instantwp.com for WIndows or MAMP for Mac.
You can use the WordPress import tool to move the content or the WP Migrate DB plugin on the database.
Then setup the redirects using .htaccess or the redirection plugin.
There's no domain authority on either domain so i don't see any advantage of merging these sites together.
March 8, 2013 at 6:26 pm #25089VHurstMemberThanks Brad. What are your thoughts on the SEO concern? Not sure what you mean by "There’s no domain authority on either domain"
Valarie
March 8, 2013 at 6:49 pm #25098AnitaKeymasterFirst of all... how long have these sites been online? If you go merging them together, any SEO you may have obtained could clearly be lost in that your URLS would change and you would need to add in redirects as Brad has stated already.
Not to mention the fact of "branding". How are you going to continue branding these two businesses if you join them together on one website?
If SEO is a concern, install the Yoast SEO plugin onto both of them and then you won't need to worry about the SEO. If you want to have a little bit of each websites "identity" on each of the sites, why not set up an RSS feed on each of the sites which could lead visitors from one over to the other, or add a tab to each menu?
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
March 8, 2013 at 7:04 pm #25106Brad DaltonParticipantBetter to keep each domain focused on one overall topic than include content related to 2 different areas.
The SEO advice you received is incorrect in my opinion but i am NOT an SEO Expert.
There's no Page rank meaning no links and there's no domain authority so you have nothing to lose by merging the 2 sites but its not a good idea in my opinion.
March 8, 2013 at 8:31 pm #25127VHurstMemberThank you both so much! It's good to hear this feedback. I felt like I needed a second opinion because it was just not making sense although I trusted this person's advice. Perhaps because they did not have an understanding of my overall mission and vision for both.
Anitac, exactly my concern "Not to mention the fact of “branding”. How are you going to continue branding these two businesses if you join them together on one website?" I also thought about having a little of each sites "identity" on both, so thank you for confirming this. Both sites are fairly new...not quite a year. I'll give the Yoast a try, but the non-profit site (ibeyondtheveil.org) is not a WordPress site.
Brad, thanks for the link on domain authority and your input as well.
Sincerely,
Valarie
March 8, 2013 at 8:44 pm #25130AnitaKeymasterYou're welcome. I see the ibeyondtheveil.org site is ASP. You should still be able to put keywords in there. I see a few but not many.
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
March 8, 2013 at 9:05 pm #25139VHurstMemberHey Anitac,
Yes, working on that one too....lot's to get done. 🙂 I appreciate your input and will keep you and Brad's contact info. handy should I need a WordPress expert. I'll go find you on Twitter.
March 9, 2013 at 11:44 pm #25263VHurstMemberHey Anitac,
I installed the Yoast SEO you suggested, but it seems to have disabled my SEO Facebook Comments from my site. Any suggestions? I am getting the below error message:
Fatal error: Uncaught Exception: 190: Error validating application. Application has been deleted. thrown in/home/content/45/8450745/html/valariehurstandcompany/wp-content/plugins/seo-facebook-comments/facebook/base_facebook.php on line1044
I wasn't sure if this is something you could advise on. I have sent a message to Yoast and the developers of SEC Facebook Comments, but not sure how soon I will receive a reply.
March 10, 2013 at 6:23 am #25291AnitaKeymasterAhhh a conflict. Unfortunately I don't have an answer. But if you receive a solution can you post the response back here. I'd like the answer.
Love coffee, chocolate and my Bella!
March 10, 2013 at 10:07 am #25311VHurstMemberSure.
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