Merging Sites in to One Big Site

Multiple Sites vs One Big One

[Mike76]

First of all - Hi to you all here at WebmasterWorld!

Now to the issue;

I have about 20 small/medium sites ranging from 1-2pages+links directory to sites that have 60-70 content pages + links directory.

Now because my over aggressive SEO technics my sites have never ranked well on GG, but with Y! I have done fine up until now. Now it seems that most of my sites have fallen right out of Y!

This has pushed me to thinking about the idea that I have been playing with for a long time; Should I merge all the over 20 sites under one big site that is totally new?

I would then use the content I have with the smaller sites to create sections to the new site and point the domain to that very section on that one big site like this:

Widget1.com ->redirect 301->bigsite.com/widget1/
Widget2.com ->redirect 301->bigsite.com/widget2/
Widget3.com ->redirect 301->bigsite.com/widget3/
Widget4.com ->redirect 301->bigsite.com/widget4/
...

Now this would be done for all the sites and thus it would create traffic and PR for the one new big site, but by doing this I would risk loosing any proper rankings I might have otherwise or what do you think?

The most positive part of this would be the fact that I would only need to manage one site and never worry about crosslinking and the users would most likely appreciate the site much more as it would offer much more information under one site so the stickyness would surely be better, but what will happen to my rankings in the SE's?

I must point out that at this very moment I am 95% dependend on free SE traffic and if I loose it I am as good as dead in this business of mine.

So with no more ramblings(sorry) - what do you wiser SEO/Marketing experts think I should do?

With Thanks, Mike :)

[Pirate]

I'd consolidate domain hosting to the same provider (if possible) and keep the directory structure of the single pages under the new directory in the big site.

wiget1.com will point to /widget1 in your hosting package and would be accesible with bigsite.com/widget1 (if bigsite.com points to /). But this isn't anything, the SE would see.

Of course, if you use free domain services and redirection to some free webspace, this won't work.

[Mike76]

Pirate wrote: "I'd consolidate domain hosting to the same provider (if possible) and keep the directory structure of the single pages under the new directory in the big site. wiget1.com will point to /widget1 in your hosting package and would be accesible with bigsite.com/widget1 (if bigsite.com points to /). But this isn't anything, the SE would see."

Ok, I guess I see where you are going with this, so you would like me to link the bigdomains folders straight to the old root folders, right?

Now I see this would be helpful if I would keep the old pages in the old small sites, but I am planning to use the content not the structure and graphics. I just wish to do it again under one domain from a little help from the content on the old sites and so that the old sites dont get flagged for duplicate content I would redirect them to the directory that is most on topic with the domain.

Is there other reasons that I should be aware of when planning this type of merger of sites? all the domains rest on the same hosting account so technically everything is possible, but I do not understand the reasoning behind the Pirates suggestion if indeed SE's cant see any difference with the type of arrangement you made then whats the point of doing it if it still seems I have 20+ sites crosslinking in the same account and IP - Now we all know that migh cause problems, right? One other thing I fear when doing this is that I would loose most of the incoming links since I wouldn't have the sites reciprocating the links so my link exchange partners would then drop me.

Ps. Is there anyone who has had success with merging sites into one bigger one?

[Mike76]

Is this a tabu? Is there really no-one who has merged sites before? I reckon there ain't as I have only received one reply :( Come on guyes and girls.. give me your opinion or wildest guess at least :)

[UKSEOconsultant]

The more depth to a site the higher it will rank, its to do with the whole relevancy thing!

Taking this into consideration I believe you would do better to consolidate all your smaller sites into one large one and focus your SEO strategy (incoming links etc.) on this one domain.

Does anyone disagree?

[ncw164x]

PS. Is there anyone who has had success with merging sites into one bigger one?

No I started with a big site and then launched smaller ones later ;)

You are absolutely correct UKSEOconsultant, it is also easier long term to maintain one larger site than lots of smaller one's

Getting back links on one domain will be easier than trying to get a network of sites more links

Try not to go deeper than 3 levels down with your directory, google will spider deeper but for some reason likes 3 levels down or less better

Don't over optimise or make too many changes all at once, one thing you can't do with a large site is take the same chances you may do for testing purposes with smaller sites, one simple mistake could wipe you out for months.

Always makes any changes one at a time at least if anything turns pearshape you can change it back knowing the old way worked