Would you combine these 3 websites into 1 or not? - Webmaster General forum at WebmasterWorld - WebmasterWorld

Forum Moderators: phranque

Message Too Old, No Replies

Would you combine these 3 websites into 1 or not?

elmoes

2:16 pm on Jul 11, 2018 (gmt 0)

Hello Webmasters,

I am facing a problem and I need some help. I need more information about what to do and why.

What would you do in my case and why?

What are the advantages and what are the disadvantages of combining 3 different websites into 1?

Lets illustrate this by an example:

You own 3 websites for the last 5 years and you have build some Authority on all 3 of them.

www.tablets.com (Keyword: Tablet)
www.computers.com (Keyword: Computers)
www.laptops.com (Keyword: Laptop)
You rank very fair on they main keywords. Places #3 to #4. Yet never #1 or #2.

Number #1 and #2 are your 2 biggest competitors that rank on all the same keywords of ALL our 3 websites.
www.competitor1.com/Computer
www.competiror2.com/Tablet

They both have different categories on that keyword.

Now what shall I do?
Shall I keep my 3 websites or shall I build a new website (www.hardware.com) and link the 3 websites to my subpages /Tablet /Computers?
Do I need to do that in 1 time OR shall I keep them all 4 and redirect them in like a year or so?

Please share your advice

tangor

12:55 am on Jul 12, 2018 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

10+ Year Member

Top Contributors Of The Month

Only you can determine if there is a benefit in combining all three.

Look at your traffic, look at your ranking, look at your income. If any of those might suffer in such a change, keep that in mind.

Whatever you do, do not try to combine all three in one (even if it is a different domain) AND keep the others active AND cross link these/redirect ... you will run afoul of duplicate content, PBN, and other unhappiness.

Pick One result, or Stay with Three and develop a Fourth which will REPLACE the other three with Fresh New Content.

BTW ... has anyone said WELCOME to Webmasterworld? If not, let me be the first!

elmoes

7:46 am on Jul 16, 2018 (gmt 0)

Thanks Tangor!
Hmm, Alright. But if I do combine those 3 websites, I will have a wayyy better backlink profile right? So I can better compete vs the competitors who have also a hige backlinkprofile?

Dimitri

8:13 am on Jul 16, 2018 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

Top Contributors Of The Month

My experience is: "do not touch what works".

keyplyr

8:33 am on Jul 16, 2018 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

10+ Year Member

Top Contributors Of The Month

Hi elmoes and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

topr8

8:37 am on Jul 16, 2018 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

10+ Year Member

Top Contributors Of The Month

ditto what dimitri says.
what you say is not clear but if your websites are already ranking well i wouldn't merge them, you could end up wishing you could get anywhere near third!

elmoes

1:50 pm on Jul 17, 2018 (gmt 0)

@Dimitri+

Well it works like 75%. We never get a number 1 position. We have like 100 important keywords and we never ever rank on #1.
So if we combine those 3 we can put all our effor into 1 website, so we can make it work 100% by getting #1 results.

keyplyr

5:43 pm on Jul 17, 2018 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

10+ Year Member

Top Contributors Of The Month

It can be a good stragedy to not compete against yourself. This also pertains to webpages.

elmoes

7:42 am on Jul 19, 2018 (gmt 0)

Well @Keplyr, those 3 websites are on the IP-adresses: 86.109.27.225 and 86.109.27.223 and 86.109.27.221

Aree these considerd the same IPadress? Is there a corelation between rank, duplicate content and how much the IP-adresses differ from each other

keyplyr

8:04 am on Jul 19, 2018 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member

10+ Year Member

Top Contributors Of The Month

No they aren't considered the same IP and that's not what I meant.

I meant that currently you have 3 sites in the same category. If they have similar content, they are competing against each other in the SERP.

But the more realistic consideration is that if they are doing well, I agree to leave them as they are, seperate... unless one has established significant branding and name recognition. Then a merger could be a good move.

BTW - having sites on the same IP is not a bad thing. Hosting companies often put hundreds, even thousands of accounts on one server with the same IP address.