Traffic throttling concerns when merging two sites together

[scottperry]

I have a website selling home widgets and another selling office widgets. Considering merging office widgets into the main site and 301 all of the office widget pages to new pages in main widget site.

My concern is partly with throttling, if Google is throttling the main site, will traffic simply remain the same since it looks like we get throttled on main site, but no real proof other than traffic stats are always constant.

Any advice?

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 7:10 am (utc) on Jul 1, 2012]

[tedster]

I'd say no one knows enough about traffic throttling to make a prediction. In fact, there is no definitive answer about whether traffic throttling exists - only a handful of webmasters are even looking at the issue.

I'd say just do whatever makes the most sense for your market and your business. And most of all, don't hook your business to Google traffic alone. I'd say focus on getting repeat customers, through any approach you are comfortable with.

[scottperry]

Thanks for the advice, we are moving ahead with the transition after the holiday.

We are indeed doing what is best for our customers, having everything in one place allows for people to shop both home and office widgets at the same time and exposes them to things they might not otherwise see.

As in all things, I guess I over-think every aspect with a healthy paranoia.