SEO advice

[twostepsbehind]

I'm buying a website for £3k - it's a competing website in the same niche I'm in with bucket loads more authority

I'm split on what to do with it:

1. Redesign and redeploy on same domain/new domain

2. Shut down the website and 301 the domain to my website

Any thoughts/advice?

Thanks

 

[Oceanic]

First thing I would do, would be... nothing.

I'd sit and gather some data and see how it performs under your ownership, then it could be a case folding in the content into your existing website of having the two properties side-by-side in the SERPs giving you more real estate. It's quite a complicated subject once you start digging into it and it's not always right to migrate or merge.

 

[dragon]

Yep I'd rather have 2 sites on page 1 I agree with Oceanic, gather info from GSC, Screaming Frog, and all the usual sources with the view of improving current rankings

 

[diablo]

As above.

Keep the two websites, at least for now. Don't share content. Don't share hosting.

 

[twostepsbehind]

Thanks @Oceanic - my problem is my website is way better and up-to-date in terms of functionality and design but no where in the SERPS

The website I'm buying is doing fairly well (could do better), but a very poor website that needs updating

What about moving it to a new domain with a new website?

 

[martin-s]

I'd be a bit concerned that a website bought for £3k is doing that much better than yours. Surely that would imply the SEO effort required isn't massive?

 

[Oceanic]

I'd probably still wait a while before contemplating the move, I'd want to ensure the handover went smoothly and that all the data collection is all good and working before making such a decision. I'd also think about how much time and $$ you can allocate to this, can you afford to have your time/effort/concentration split across two projects? down the line, I would line up both sites with a range of metrics and decide which one had the easiest path to success for least amount of effort and give that one the priority, only once I had expended everything on that one would I start to think about the 2nd one, this is how I would look at it if you are a one-man-band, of course, if you a company with a wider pool of resources then you could assign different resources to both.

 

[twostepsbehind]

I'd be a bit concerned that a website bought for £3k is doing that much better than yours. Surely that would imply the SEO effort required isn't massive?

It's been around for 13 years - the BL profile isn't amazing, but it's doing ok - Page 2 for all keywords, but it's competing with much larger companies

10k visits a month and about £80 a month atm + 30k email subs

 

[starbird]

If the site has more authority it should be ranking above you, if not, look at the meta titles and description, see if they need optimized. I agree that 2 sites on page 1 is better than 1. If it's ecommerce check the images all have alt text etc. I would not 301 the site, it doesn't work the same as it did and if it's wordpress there are more redirects than you think, each one devalues any authority the site has.

In truth without analyzing the site it's impossible to give any real info regarding why it might not be performing (it might be, you just don't mention it ranking higher than your site).

I see you posted before me.

30k email subs and only £80 a month, loads of room to improve that.

You'd be looking to make the most of that list.

 

[martin-s]

I'm going to take a slightly different stance from most posters so far. I'd prefer a number one ranking, rather than having 2nd and 5th for instance.

 

[Admin]

All of the advice will help you form your thoughts but be warned that you can't truly heed any of it with confidence without the advisor seeing all the details, domains, SEO metrics, keyterms, GSC data etc.

Just remember that a 301 redirect's main purpose is to manage a 'change of address' not a 'change of content'. If you use it to do both the results can be varied and uncertain.

 

[twostepsbehind]

Thanks all for the advice - much appreciated

 

[twostepsbehind]

I got the website - heeded advice on here and now letting the website stew on GSC.

The plan afterwards is to replicate pages/content/some structure on new domain website, then 301 pages old>new

Also, tell GSC of domain change - after 301 is done

The reason I'm changing to a new website/domain is because the existing website needs a complete overhaul (from structure to design)

Also, I fancy the new domain more as a future brand

Does this sound sensible?

 

[twostepsbehind]

An update:

I let the old website stew on GSC for a few months whilst building the new site with a mix of old/new content based on GSC metrics.

I did page-by-page matching (400+) and have now done the 301 redirect of old domain to new inc. all pages. Also, I've done the change of address on GSC.

Now, just waiting for the BLs to be moved over and search results to be updated with the new domain.

Thanks for the advice here of not rushing in to 301 - it was painstaking doing doing it slowly, but hopefully it'll be worth it.

On to the next website in the pipeline now...

 

[djadstar]

An update:

I let the old website stew on GSC for a few months whilst building the new site with a mix of old/new content based on GSC metrics.

I did page-by-page matching (400+) and have now done the 301 redirect of old domain to new inc. all pages. Also, I've done the change of address on GSC.

Now, just waiting for the BLs to be moved over and search results to be updated with the new domain.

Thanks for the advice here of not rushing in to 301 - it was painstaking doing doing it slowly, but hopefully it'll be worth it.

On to the next website in the pipeline now...

If you really want to.. and in most cases its not worth it, only if you control some of the backlinks it's worth updating the links so that they point directly to the new URLs from the old site if possible, but as I said, most of the time it isn't worth the effort of outreaching etc.

 

[twostepsbehind]

If you really want to.. and in most cases its not worth it, only if you control some of the backlinks it's worth updating the links so that they point directly to the new URLs from the old site if possible, but as I said, most of the time it isn't worth the effort of outreaching etc.

Hi,

Thanks - I might try this for some of the high DA BLs, but when I get time..