I have two domains that are basically the same thing except one of them is the "main site" running PHPNuke (highly customized) and the other is the forums/board running vBulletin with vBSEO. I separated them to make management of the two sites easier many years ago, both have been online for about 5 years. ironmagazine.com - P5 ironmagazineforums.com - P4 I was hoping that by merging I could get up to a P6. I remember quite some time ago Sitepoint was set-up the same way and they have moved the second domain and put everything on one. If I move all files over to the main domain name and put a 301 redirect in place will be a seamless route? Or should I just leave it the way it is on two domains? Please advise. Thanks
some say that your PR is also determined by the size of your site, i.e the number of pages. If you believe that, then merging might be helpful. Otherwise, i'm not sure how it might help increase your PR. With 2 separate sites, u cld place backlinks on each site, which will be a synergistic collaboration for your sites. A benefit that you won't get if u merge them. My 2 cents.....
well, they are already intertwined pretty tight and the board has 200k pages indexed while the main site has 11k indexed. so you're saying it won't make much of a difference to merge?
well you could do a 301 from ironmagazineforums.com to ironmagazine.com/forum or something like that. i don't know if it helps PR but it will lok more natural to your members (i guess)
In your case i'd be inclined to leave them as is if your intent is to just gather a PR6. If 1 site incurs a penalty or drops in rankings for whatever reason (it can happen) you still have the other site ranking well to drive traffic to the other. BTW sorry to bring you bad news but your PR5 looks like it's dropping to PR4 this update. I'll give you a tip that can bring your PR up possibly more then what your were planning and it takes about 1 minute. Do a 301 redirect of your domains so the http version points to the www this way your "link juice" isn't split between the two as Google see's them as seperate pages. Also Google "can" hit you with a Duplicate penalty due to 2 seperate pages (http and www) having the same content. http://www.tareeinternet.com/forum/...cts-important-search-engine-optimization.html
that is kind of a sweeping statement don't u think? It depends on so many factors like intentions, objectives, themes, structure, linking, etc.....