Redirecting Mini Site to Main Site While Maintaining Rankings

[graham]

Question for SEO experts, or someone with experience redirecting one site to another. I have a mini site that I have been told that I am no longer able to use, so what I would like to do is redirect that entire site, to a larger site while keeping the rankings.

Has anyone done this?

Should I keep the content from the mini site and use this on the new site?

Should I keep a similar site structure on the new main site, and basically just copy the entire site to a new subdirectory on the existing site?

Basically if anyone has any information to do this as smooth as possible without risking losing rankings that would be greatly appreciated.

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

This is really easy....

I usually go overboard but better safe than sorry which I think you are also concerned about - so here we go...

1. 301 the old to the new
2. create a new sitemap and manually submit it through GWC (google webmaster central)
3. watch your logs, once google sees the redirect request an exclusion through GWC
4. to be on the safe side I also create a subdomain with a mirror site and a robots.txt file to prevent crawling. I do this just to be safe. I link the front page of the old site to the subdomain (google sees these as entirely individual sites and will rank them accordingly. The neat part is that they also pass 90% of the credibility as well.

Easy Peasy - (f&#k I hate that saying!!!)

[cassy]

I'm not that expert with regards to this matter but In my personal opinion copying the mini sites content is not a good idea, for it is already been crawled and it may cause to Duplicate content. Better work for another unique content for the new site.

[Wildnettechnologies]

I also create a sub domain with a mirror site and a robots.txt file to prevent crawling. I do this just to be safe.

[baldidiot]

GWT also has a change of address feature:

Site Configuration > Change of Address

[davemerry]

Gary has hit the nail on the head - follow that advice and you will be fine.

[best.hands]

As for me, I would keep the mini site and use it to attract more one way link possibilities. For example, when someone needs a link from a high PR site and is willing to give back a link from his site's home page which is also a high PR page, I would use the mini site to add his link and request him to link back to the main site. It's a three way linking pattern, I know, but if through that I can get more site with PR, I think that will serve the mini site's purpose..

[graham]

This is really easy....

I usually go overboard but better safe than sorry which I think you are also concerned about - so here we go...

1. 301 the old to the new
2. create a new sitemap and manually submit it through GWC (google webmaster central)
3. watch your logs, once google sees the redirect request an exclusion through GWC
4. to be on the safe side I also create a subdomain with a mirror site and a robots.txt file to prevent crawling. I do this just to be safe. I link the front page of the old site to the subdomain (google sees these as entirely individual sites and will rank them accordingly. The neat part is that they also pass 90% of the credibility as well.

Easy Peasy - (f&#k I hate that saying!!!)

Thanks Gary, when you say 301 the old to the new do you mean the whole site? I was originally thinking of buying an entire site then adding this somewhere on the site, but maybe I should just do a new URL.. is that what you mean?

I am not sure I understand the 4th part about the subdomain. What is the purpose of this? Do you know of an example of this somewhere?

[graham]

As for me, I would keep the mini site and use it to attract more one way link possibilities. For example, when someone needs a link from a high PR site and is willing to give back a link from his site's home page which is also a high PR page, I would use the mini site to add his link and request him to link back to the main site. It's a three way linking pattern, I know, but if through that I can get more site with PR, I think that will serve the mini site's purpose..

Um, I don't think you read my first post. I am being forced to stop using the URL. I am not trying to get links.

[ck8795]

I'm not that expert with regards to this matter but In my personal opinion copying the mini sites content is not a good idea, for it is already been crawled and it may cause to Duplicate content. Better work for another unique content for the new site.

Thats not true - If OP is 301'ing anyway, he might as well use what he can from the mini site. Any related page he can just 301 or expand on his new/current site, as long as the 301 is in place there is nothing wrong with it.

It's not duplicate because you've told the SE's that the content has perm moved to a new location.

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

You can buy a new one or add it - either way doing a 301 from the old domain to the new domain is the way you want to go. Will you still own the domain and its just a case of copyright?

Subdomains allow you to actually have additional site, filter down a lot of the PR and authority down to the subdomains. You can also hist the subdomains on other servers, such as a server in the target country.

Lastly, you can go into Webmaster Central and designate the site as targeting that same region/country and get a little boost in your rankings and traffic.

So the final search results could have both of your websites ranking side-by-side in the top 10 results like you see below;

[graham]

I will still own the domain, but yes its an issue with copyright. After 5 years of running the site the company decided now that they want to change their stance on the domains. I understand what subdomains are, but are you saying to create the site in 2 separate locations, but make it so the search engines can't see one of them?

Right now I am just trying to decide what the best plan is:

1) Buy an existing site and redirect the site to a single page on the new site.
2) Same as 1, but create a directory on the existing site and use the same structure as the pages on the existing site but redirect the individual pages to the new url.
3) Use a domain that I have that doesn't have any trademark issues and just redirect everything, though I will lose the benefit of having the site name in the url at least this will be the cleanest option.
4) Create a subdomain with this site name and redirect the old one to this subdomain.

One of the issues is my players contact me by email on that site so I will either have to notify all of them of the new site, or come up with some kind of way where I can keep email operating on the existing site, while just redirecting the content pages, though this isn't a huge concern.

Which do you think would be best?

Thanks for the advice!

You can buy a new one or add it - either way doing a 301 from the old domain to the new domain is the way you want to go. Will you still own the domain and its just a case of copyright?

Subdomains allow you to actually have additional site, filter down a lot of the PR and authority down to the subdomains. You can also hist the subdomains on other servers, such as a server in the target country.

Lastly, you can go into Webmaster Central and designate the site as targeting that same region/country and get a little boost in your rankings and traffic.

So the final search results could have both of your websites ranking side-by-side in the top 10 results like you see below;

[cassy]

Thats not true - If OP is 301'ing anyway, he might as well use what he can from the mini site. Any related page he can just 301 or expand on his new/current site, as long as the 301 is in place there is nothing wrong with it.

It's not duplicate because you've told the SE's that the content has perm moved to a new location.

So the need to worry about redirecting and using the mini sites content to the main site is not an issue. Sorry for the false opinion.