301 an acquired website or run alongside client site

[chucky]

My client has aquired a competitors website. My client ranks on the first page for their major search terms. The competitors website doesn't rank particularly well.

There are about 250 reasonable links to the site.

It's reasonably optimised.

The alexa traffic rank is quite poor: 3.5m compared to my clients site of 300k

I need to advise on a course of action.

Should they,
a.) continue to run the site as if it was their own.
b.) 301 redirect the site to gain the advantage of the links in the hope of improving their position.

They have a few customers but not a huge number. Would the repeat business out weigh the seo benefits?

[tedster]

This really is more of a business decision than an SEO decision. SEO benefits might be seen with either direction.

1. Operating two businesses gives a diversity that can help weather some of the Google storms that come up.

2. Assimilating the purchase into one business and using a 301 redirect focuses the extra link juice in one place.

So as I see it, it's all about the business decisions, just as it is in the physical world when one business buys out another. Sometimes the store name changes, and sometimes it doesn't.