Hello. We have a small dilema which I am hoping we can find an answer too. We have an existing domain www.thailandholidayhomes.co.uk which has age and yeilds us 17k visitors per month. It is used to promote Villa Rentals We are now setting up a new website to sell villas. Should we keep it withing our current domain with access via the menu or put it into its own domain www.propertydeals.com You suggestions would be much appreciated.
I think adding it into your existing well-established domain would be a better idea as you would get benefit of your previous work done. To capture your visitor's attention, initially you could promote the page with the help of a banner ad in the prominent areas of your website. Promoting an altogether new domain would need more time and efforts. and when both the projects have same theme (Thailand villas), i think it would be better to take some benefit from your previous hard work.
According to me if you can add a new page to your existing website then its east to get ranking rather then creating a new domain
You need to decide which site is more important to you. If it is the new one, just put it on the old domain and move the old site to a menu/directory. You will keep the current content on your old domain, but you will have the new site there as well and you will use all the links/ strength you have so far.
Having started a site on an existing domain and then moved it to a new domain later with a world of pain that I'm STILL trying to get past, I'd highly recommend starting on a clean domain. Google still thinks I have duplicate content between the original and moved sites and it is surprisingly hard to get google to let go of the original site. Redirects sure don't do it. Google likes single-purpose websites anyway. You can still link to it from your original site, but put the content on a new domain.