2 Sites 1 Old 1 New... Do I 301 Redirect?

[BristolBod]

Hello everyone...

I'm very confused and its my own fault... but can anyone help?

A long time ago I registered a domain (on the Nov-1999 to be precise). I promptly uploaded a site and got some business in... after a while everything went a bit quiet, I got a fulltime job and the site was somewhat forgotten...

I just checked and the old domain has 192 or so backlinks as per Yahoo Linkdomain search.

After a while I decided in my infinite stupidity that the old domain wasn't quite appropriate for me so on the (Mar-2008) I registered a different domain and started to work VERY hard to build good content and links, I learned some more about SEO during this experience.

To date the new domain has 133 or so backlinks as per Yahoo Linkdomain search they are good quality links.

As part of my activity on the new site I endeavoured to join some reputable associations relating to my work, annoyingly one of them wasn’t being updated anymore and a few of the sites had come up for grabs… I registered the domains in the interest of traffic only and (just to prove it) redirected them using a 302 to my new site.

Now both my sites are selling the same thing (with similar content) and both have pages coming up in the SERPS. The old domain has rather average content, I know I could do better and for more competitive terms but haven’t had the time yet.

My Questions:

1. The old domain isn’t perfect and a bit nondescript but my opinion is that it’s not far off. I also feel that when searching people pay much more attention to the Page Title and Description than the URL, what are your thoughts?

2. To get the maximum value from my old and new domains should I either:
- 301 redirect the old to the new
- 301 redirect the new to the old
- Retain both work on both and stop complaining

3. Should I 301 redirect those expired domains that I picked up as well or could this in some way screw things up?

Your help would be appreciated...

Bob

[torka]

If the content on the old is only so-so, and the new one is better / more recent, then 301 the old to the new, matching up each old page to its corresponding new page as best you can. You'll get the benefit of the links that were pointing to the old pages, but now they'll be helping the new pages.

This will consolidate your link popularity, making it more likely the new site will rank well. Otherwise, if you develop them both in parallel, you're splitting your links between the two. At the end of the day, it comes down to whether you want one stronger site or two relatively weak ones. I know which way I'd go with it, but in the final analysis it's up to you...

You definitely want a 301 if you want to pass link popularity. A 302 won't do that.

In my experience, most people not only don't pay attention to the URL, a good number of them don't even know what the address bar is or where to find it. What they pay attention to are the words/pictures on the page.

The only reason I can think of why 301-ing an expired domain to your new one would potentially cause a problem would be if the expired domain had been at some point used for nefarious purposes and gotten itself blacklisted for some reason. Google says (in theory, at least) they "reset" domain names when they change hands, but that doesn't seem to be consistently how things happen in Real Life.

It could potentially be a Bad Thing if a 301 redirect were to somehow associate your site with another having a naughty reputation or a dissolute past.

If there's any concern in that regard, you could try checking the Wayback Machine (www.archive.org) to see what was on those domains back in the past. As long as they were clean, you should be fine with a 301.

My :02:

--Torka

[stephen186]

If you old domain is getting traffic, then you can set it to 301 redirect to your new domain, which according to you has a fresh content and quality backlinks.

[Jack16]

Most of the people will pay attention to the useful content and keywords in title and description if they are relevant to their search query and if the content is helpful and much interesting they will definitely like your site.

If your old domain is getting some good traffic then it would be better to redirect to your new one.

But for every site usability plays the key role to get the traffic and reach the targeted visitors.

[torka]

I don't think the age will transfer, just the link popularity. (Note I haven't tested this myself, so this is opinion only. If anyone has tested it and could answer definitively -- not just anecdotal "in my observation" type stuff but an actual controlled test -- I'd love to know what they found.)

But IMO, age of the domain isn't necessarily as important a factor as some folks make it out to be, so if it were my sites, I really wouldn't worry about it.

The benefits of combining the link popularity will, I believe, more than outweigh any alleged 'age benefit' accruing to the older domain that might potentially get lost in the shuffle.

My further , adjusted for inflation, less taxes.

--Torka

[Tom Lindstrom]

Google also looks at the age of the domain when deciding rankings.I would build up traffic to the old domain.

[Jack16]

Yes, Google will look at domain age but if the site is well optimized with interesting and useful content then no need to worry about the domain age..

You can get the better traffic to your site with redirection and if the content is good then the visitors will convert into customers which helps to get consistent traffic to your site.

[BristolBod]

Thanks Guys

Thanks for the info I did try to respond after Torkas post but it doesnt seem to have come through (not sure why)...

Following on from Torkas comments I'm interested in the domain age factor:

Will a 301 transfer the age of a domain?

How important to ranking etc is the age of a domain?

Bob

[menexis]

I would use the old domain as your main site b/c google likes old sites better than new ones.

[Jack16]

Page Rank and back link influence are supposed to transfer through a 301 redirect, and they usually do -- although it's not always quick.

I am assuming, that 301 redirects will not transfer the domain trust or domain age to a new domain, but it will bring the visitors.

Google will consider the domain trust or domain age while giving
PR to the site.