Question

Topic: SEO/SEM

Seo Questions Re: Re-organizing Domains

Posted by kellye on 2/20/2011 at 11:10 AM ET 250 Points
Apologies in advance for the lengthy question, but all insights are welcome...

When I started blogging 3 yrs ago, I decided to target a different audience from my client base (my clients are corporations, while the blog’s readers are my fellow independent PR consultants). As such, I used a separate domain and a different brand for the blog, which now has some recognition and a nice community of advocates. Two big SEO-related questions:

Question 1: I used https://soloprpro.com/ as the URL for the blog, but the community calls it Solo PR. I bought solopr.com and have had it redirected for over a year. What would the SEO implications be if I reversed this, and made solopr.com the primary domain? If that's too complicated, if I start using solopr.com as the link I publicize, does the SEO juice flow through to the site it redirects to?

Question 2: The site for my consultancy (Crane Communications- for the corporate clients) was at cranecom.com. Because my corporate clients know me by name – and because I’d like to merge my multiple personalities online into one site – I’m planning to change this to kellyecrane.com and integrate Solo PR. My thinking is that this will allow me to showcase all of my activities to both audiences.

The question here is, which site should be the umbrella? Though Kellyecrane.com/solopr seems to make more sense, Solo PR has the name recognition & existing SEO (and my community will always type solopr.com into their browser first). I’m leaning toward having SoloPR as the primary domain, and having pages related to my consulting practice housed there. KellyeCrane.com could then point to the top-level business page on the solopr.com domain.

What are your thoughts on this? Any gotchas I'm overlooking?
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by excellira on 2/20/2011 at 12:56 PM Accepted
    If you change the name of the domain but keep your file and directory naming structure the same, you can implement a 301 redirect on the domain easily. There is some PageRank leakage with a 301 redirect. It is probably slim but you should understand the ramifications before proceeding.

    This is more of a brand issue as I see it. The site and community is probably better off with the domain that is top of the mind with your audience. Federal Express becomes FedEx.

    I haven't looked at your sites but I don't see much value in changing the domain name of the consultancy unless you see greater search volume on kelly e crane phase.

    Integrating the solo pr site into the consultancy does not seem like a logical fit. They serve two distinct audiences. Kudos to you for creating a nice community and following on the solopr site. Why ruin it by forcing your audience to accept a different message, focus, voice, etc.

    My suggestion would be to build a new blog on the consultancy site that is aligned with that audience (I know, I know, it is a lot of work ;-).
  • Posted on 2/21/2011 at 1:02 PM Accepted
    From a strategic standpoint, I'm with excellira. I would not change the name of your consulting site. Just leave it alone. Showcasing all of your talents to everyone will make you less relevant to each audience. (Do I care if my dentist is also a basket-weaver?)

    As for the SEO implications of your domain name change for the blog, I'm not the right person to ask. From what you've said, my initial reaction is don't fix what isn't broken. Why do you need/want an umbrella name?

    Are your clients/followers having a problem with the current set-up? If so, maybe that's what we should be discussing.
  • Posted by kellye on 2/21/2011 at 4:23 PM Author
    Thanks for the responses. It's not really a dentist/basket weaver scenario -- there is some crossover with the social media services I provide to both audiences, and some credibility in each marketplace through success in the other.

    However, I appreciate the feedback that keeping two separate identities is not a bad thing. I was getting some advice to the contrary, but that doesn't mean it was correct! Thanks again for the reality check.
  • Posted on 2/23/2011 at 12:04 AM Member
    I'm in agreement with excellira and mgoodman.

    First, value and branding over SEO. What if you decide to retire or sell your business? You cannot sell kellyecrane.com. That's you. soloprpro.com has potential as a go-to resource, possibly even a subscription site, which means it has sales potential. You may want to consider expanding that site to guest bloggers.

    Second, existing links. You have a significant link profile established for soloprpro.com from a wide range of domains. As excellira said, you could implement 301s, but they don't pass the same PR value. It would be momentous to request changes for 7K links! Plus your current link profile contains anchor text (words that link) using terms that contain "solo pr pro" as well as "kellye crane."

    Cranecom.com is a nice simple site and an extremely small link profile - 16 links from 5 domains according to Open Site Explorer. The issue here is how you run your business. If you run your invoices and checks through Crane Communications as the LLC, keep this site for credibility. Either build out that site or let is simply be a brochure piece.
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