Timothy Carter

Chief Revenue Officer at SEO Company

Industry veteran Timothy Carter is SEO.co’s Chief Revenue Officer. Tim leads all revenue for the company and oversees all customer-facing teams for SEO (search engine optimization) – including sales, marketing & customer success.

He has spent more than 20 years in the world of SEO & Digital Marketing leading, building and scaling sales operations, helping companies increase revenue efficiency and drive growth from websites and sales teams.

When he’s not working, Tim enjoys playing a few rounds of disc golf, running, and spending time with his wife and family on the beach…preferably in Hawaii.

Over the years he’s written for publications like ForbesEntrepreneur, Marketing Land, Search Engine Journal, ReadWrite and other highly respected online publications. Connect with Tim on Linkedin & Twitter.

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Pros & Cons of Using Indian Link Building Services
Timothy Carter

Pros & Cons of Using Indian Link Building Services

If you’re looking for a way to improve your website’s ranking in Google, then it might be worth considering an Indian link building service. For many small businesses and websites, the cost of hiring a U.S.-based SEO company is too expensive, so they often go with cheaper alternatives like these services. However, are there any risks associated with using Indian link building services? If so, how can you be sure you’ll hire the best service for your company? All of these questions will be answered in this helpful guide. What are Indian Link Building Services? When link-building services are outsourced to India and they’re usually composed of a team of web developers or programmers. They provide you with backlinks for your website so it’s ranked higher on Google search results pages. The importance of link-building is clear. Search engine algorithms rank websites higher on search results pages if they have a lot of backlinks. Indian link-building services are cheaper than hiring in-house SEO professionals, and you can hire them for as many hours or days that you need to get your website ranking high enough. It’s also something you don’t have to worry about maintaining, since these agencies keep coming up with new link building strategies all the time so your site is always getting fresh links from different sources. Link-building is a very difficult and time-consuming process that must be done manually. Contracting the services of Indian SEOs can help automate this challenging process to the benefit of your website and bottom line. What are the Benefits of Link Building Services? Link building services are an affordable and effective way to get a website ranked higher on Google. It’s also something you don’t have to worry about maintaining, since these agencies are always on top of conducting new link-building campaigns on your behalf. The benefits of using an Indian link-building service include: Affordable link building pricing Ability to scale up or down the amount of link building you need at any time, and on an as-needed basis Automated process that makes it easier for your website’s ranking in Google search results pages. As you can see, there are a lot of benefits associated with using Indian link-building services. However, to become an informed buyer, we’ve put together a full list of pros and cons of using this service. Pro: Indian Link Building Services are Very Affordable Compared to hiring an in-house SEO specialist, Indian link building services are much cheaper. You can hire these agencies for as many hours or days that you need which is very economical and effective when it comes to your bottom line. This will allow you to scale your link-building services without breaking the bank, a benefit many companies would love to take advantage of. Con: These Services May Not Be Too Reliable The reliability of Indian link-building services is a bit questionable. It’s difficult to know whether or not these agencies are actually conducting the type of link building you want for your website, or if they’re just trying to scam you and get paid without doing any work at all. It would be wise to conduct thorough research before hiring one of these companies so that you can ensure their service will be worth what you’re paying them. Con: There are Time-Zone & Communication Obstacles Time-zone and communication obstacles are an issue with Indian link building services. In order to make sure you’re getting the most out of these companies, it’s a good idea to communicate with them on a regular basis so that they know what type of campaigns need to be conducted for your website. But if there is any confusion in regard to this matter, then their work may not be as effective because they don’t have the correct information needed about your company or desired outcomes. Con: There is a Clear Language Barrier The language barrier is a disadvantage of using Indian link-building services. Many people who use this service speak English as their second language, so there are often times when they need to have someone else translate what’s being said for them. This can be an issue because some information may not get communicated in the way that it was meant to and could lead to confusion on both sides. Pro: They’re Very Effective at Conducting Link Building Campaigns Indian link building agencies can be very effective conducting campaigns since many companies outsource these types of work to them due to their expertise and experience in this niche field. These agencies know how best to approach your target audience without any disruption or delay which will result in your website ranking higher on Google. However, buyer beware. The quality disparities between agencies can be very wide! Con: The Quality of Work May Suffer as You Scale Up As mentioned before, Indian link building services are very affordable. This is a great thing if you’re not sure how much work you need done for your website and want to test the waters first. However, as you scale up these agencies will be forced to take on more projects which may cause their quality of work to suffer in some areas. They might start making mistakes or taking shortcuts because they have so many clients asking them for help with campaign management, SEO optimization, etc., but this can lead to dropped campaigns or failed leads which would ultimately impact your bottom line! So, it’s important that companies find a balance when using an agency like this one so that there isn’t any unnecessary risk taken on behalf of both parties involved. Consider the following direct experience related by a client that had recently hired a link building service out of India: I recently had a rather frustrating experience with an Indian SEO link building service due to a significant language barrier between me, the U.S. client, and the service provider. It was an issue that highlighted the importance of effective communication in such business relationships. I had decided

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Set Realistic SEO Goals
Timothy Carter

How to Set Realistic SEO Goals

Search engine optimization, including link building is an increasingly difficult task. Thanks to the broadened benefits of SEO and link building; with time and effort, it’s easily possible to build up to earning thousands of visitors per month. However, this appeal sometimes morphs into a lust. The desire to pursue SEO as a strategy becomes something like a get rich quick scheme, where the idea of thousands of inbound visitors takes precedent over the realistic and patient applications of SEO tactics and best practices. Inevitably, entrepreneurs possessed by this rampant desire end up disappointed, feeling that the strategy wasn’t worthwhile because it failed to meet their expectations. Without SEO goals, it’s nearly impossible to objectively measure your progress, but with too lofty or unfounded SEO objectives, you’ll only set yourself up for a skewed sense of disappointment. Setting realistic SEO goals is the remedy for this problem, and there are three rules to do it effectively: 1. Factor in Your Available Resources Your goals need to be grounded in your means to achieve them. That seems obvious, but to many entrepreneurs and marketers new to SEO, building ranks is akin to switching on a light; you’re either making progress, or you aren’t. SEO simply doesn’t work that way. Instead, the amount of effort and type of effort you put into it has a direct impact on the eventual results you’ll achieve. Therefore, if you’re only investing a few minutes a day to your campaign, it would be unreasonable to set a goal that a large company with an entire dedicated SEO team might set. In other words, your budget of time and money will be your biggest limitation in SEO. There are several of these factors you’ll have to keep in mind: Consider the man-hours you’re pouring into your efforts. Are you doing this yourself in short bursts? Do you have one dedicated person? Five dedicated people? Consider how many outlets you’re using in conjunction with your SEO campaign—including how much link building, onsite and offsite content writing and how many social platforms you’re using. Be realistic about your expertise. If this is your first company, or your first time launching an SEO campaign in this industry, be more conservative with your goal setting. There is no objective way to go about this, but do make sure to temper your expectations with the type of effort you’re putting forth. SEO can take months and years, so patience is a necessary virtue. 2. Use Long Time Periods and Relative Measurements This is almost two rules in one, but they’re both related to the way you measure your goals. First, use long periods of time to measure your progress. Don’t look for rapid climbs in growth in the span of a few days or weeks. Instead, you’ll have to look at periods of months or more—this is because it takes a long time for SEO to show results. It’s also important to use long time periods to compare against each other—for example, it’s better to compare a first three months with a second three months than one month to a second month. This is because traffic and rankings fluctuate, sometimes randomly, and could skew your data if you’re only using a small sample size. Relative measurements are also important. Rather than aiming for an objective goal, such as getting 1,000 visitors a month by September, aim for something less concrete, like at least 10 percent visitor growth, month over month, until September. Using firm numbers can sometimes blind you to your otherwise substantial progress. 3. Make Adjustments. Under most circumstances, goals should not be changed. You set a goal at the beginning of a given period, and follow that goal to the end. In the world of SEO, it’s okay to make adjustments throughout the course of your ongoing SEO strategy, and it’s because your strategy is ongoing. It is a fluid process that undergoes nearly constant changes, so it only makes sense that your goals and expectations should change along with those circumstances. Let’s say you’ve set a goal to increase your monthly organic traffic by 25 percent within the first four months of your campaign. In month two, you bring on a new freelance writer to increase your onsite content and social media efforts. At that point, it would be reasonable to increase the expectations of your goal. On the other hand, let’s say in month two, Google releases a new algorithm change that sets you back several positions on a number of target keyword topics. At that point, you would need to lower your expectations. 4. Don’t obsess over “traffic” There is a tendency for business owners and entrepreneurs to focus on “generating more traffic” with SEO. While getting more traffic is the point of SEO, if you focus on this too much, it’s going to side-track you from more important goals. Pursuing “more traffic” is a trap and makes a terrible goal. Remember, if a goal doesn’t support your main objective, it’s a distraction. Creating hoards of traffic isn’t going to get you more sales and leads on its own. Traffic has to be relevant, but also, your web pages need to be convincing enough to convert. Think of it this way. Say your current conversion rate is 3% on a given page. If you spend a large portion of your SEO budget generating traffic, your conversion rate will probably drop significantly because you’re not doing anything to increase conversions. More traffic doesn’t guarantee more sales. If your conversion rate is low, obsessing over traffic will eat up all the time you should be spending on more important goals, like optimizing your pages for higher conversions. 5. Create milestones A major component in setting realistic SEO goals requires setting milestones. A milestone is like a mini-goal that, when achieved, tells you you’re on the right path. For example, say your goal is to rank in the top 30 results for a specific search phrase. Currently, your position is

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Keyword Cannibalization
Timothy Carter

Keyword Cannibalization: How to Find & Fix SEO Cannibalization Issues

Whether you realize it or not, your entire website could be plagued by keyword cannibalization problems, resulting in confused visitors, lower rankings, and ultimately, wasted SEO potential. Fortunately, with your awareness and dedication, it’s not only possible but relatively simple to fix keyword cannibalization issues on your site. Here we’ll discuss what SEO keyword cannibalization is, how it can hurt and what you can do to resolve it on your website. Let’s dive in! What Is Keyword Cannibalization? In search engine optimization (SEO), much of your strategy will depend on your onsite content creation. You’ll be writing and optimizing onsite blog posts, whitepapers, and other types of content with the hope that they’ll rank as highly as possible for your target keywords in search engine results pages (SERPs). Oftentimes, content planners and SEO strategists will create a lengthy list of keywords and phrases they want to rank for. Then, they’ll create new articles for each of these targets (while simultaneously creating discretionary articles). Whether you’re extraordinarily careful with your keyword targets, totally flippant with them, or something in between, you can eventually run into a “keyword cannibalization” problem. Let’s say for a target keyword phrase, “best bike for a teenager,” you have not one but two pieces of content ranking. One of these is at position 4, while the other is at position 6. Cool! You have two pages ranking. More ranking pages is better, right? Not necessarily. In fact, this is an instance of keyword cannibalization in action; two of your pages are competing directly with each other in the SERP (search engine results page) for the same keyword, with each interfering with the other’s potential. In short, you don’t want to compete with yourself! Why Is Keyword Cannibalization a Problem? Why is this such a big deal? There are actually a few potential issues that arise from keyword cannibalization. Stealing the spotlight from better-converting pages. Let’s say you have an excellent, comprehensive written guide that’s designed to convert incoming traffic. It works well, with a high conversion rate and lots of good feedback from the people who have read it. Right now, it’s ranking at position 6 for a target phrase, while another article on your site is at position 4. Which one do you think visitors will click if they see both? In these cases, a competing page will siphon traffic from your more important pages. In this scenario, instead of ranking for the same keywords, neither ranks well or a page that converts more poorly might outrank a money page. Decreasing rankings for both pages. You’re likely aware that much of your ranking potential will be dictated by your link building strategy. The more links a given page earns, the higher it will rank (in general). If you funnel all your efforts to one powerful page, you might earn or acquire a 100 free backlinks. But if attention is distributed between two competing pages, they might only earn 60 and 40 links, respectively. Accordingly, neither page will be able to rank as high as a single page would if it had all that attention. In other words, both pages will fail to reach their true ranking potential. This is especially important because the vast majority of traffic from SERPs goes to the top-ranked result. It’s often better to have a single rank one position than to have several positions deeper in the rankings. If you can trade your rank 4 and rank 6 articles for a single rank 1 article, you’ll typically end up ahead in terms of visibility and traffic. Google confusion. There’s another argument that having two pages covering the same topic can be “confusing” to Google, showing it two conflicting visions of the same topic coverage that compete for the same keyword. However, this argument doesn’t hold much water; Google’s algorithm is very good at determining the intent and subject matter of each article (not to mention content quality), so there shouldn’t be any issues there. That said, Google doesn’t know your goals or intentions – and even if it did, it wouldn’t go out of its way to align with your personal motivation. It’s important to build your strategy deliberately and with Google’s ranking algorithm in mind. User confusion. More to the point, having multiple entries for a given topic in a single SERP can be confusing to web users – especially those who have never encountered your brand before. They’re seeing two different articles that cover a similar topic and compete for the same keyword. Which one is better? They may only click one – are you okay with them clicking the wrong one? When Keyword Cannibalization Isn’t a Problem Okay, let’s back up a second. Keyword cannibalization can be a problem – emphasis on “can.” There are also situations where it’s perfectly fine. For example, let’s say you have two awesome articles ranking at position 1 and position 2 for a keyword phrase. Both are highly relevant to the target phrase. In this scenario, you’re not really siphoning traffic or compromising your full potential; you’re already sitting at rank one, the best-case scenario, and nothing can take traffic from you. In fact, most of the people who don’t click the first position link end up clicking the second position link – which you also occupy, so you lose nothing here. It’s a nice spot to be in – and not something that requires intervention. Unfortunately, this is a rarity for keyword cannibalization events and usually only benefits websites that have existing, high domain authority. How to Discover Keyword Cannibalization So how do you know if you’re currently affected by keyword cannibalization? There are a few simple, straightforward methods you can use for identifying keyword cannibalization problems. Unfortunately, they tend to be manual and time-consuming, so they don’t work especially well on a large scale. For example, you can conduct a search for a given keyword and simply see whether any of your website’s pages are featured in the SERPs.

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Link Velocity And Its Impact On SEO
Timothy Carter

Link Velocity: How to Use Link Velocity to Your Advantage in SEO

If your site or specific page URL acquired 100 hyperlinks today and 10,000 tomorrow (without any virality involved), would that look natural to you? No. Google doesn’t think so either. If you build links too quickly in an unnatural way, it is likely to sound the search spider alarm bells. Link velocity trends are one of the hundreds of factors included in Google’s ranking algorithm for SEO. But, what is it? How is it calculated? Why does it matter? How do you implement a proper and natural link velocity? Let’s dive in.. The Math of Link Velocity Link velocity refers to the number of backlinks pointing to a single URL, measured over time. Backlinks are essential because they increase your page rank with major search engines. As search engines and other crawling software become more sophisticated, they can find and index links faster than ever before. Link velocity is the term given to describe this phenomenon. The relatively new SEO field involves strategies for ranking websites in search engine results pages (SERPs), thus increasing their exposure and popularity. Link velocity trends are like many things in the world of search engine optimization (SEO) – it may be something you know exists, but you might not realize how significant an impact it has on your site’s rankings. What Is a Good Link Velocity? A good link velocity for Amazon.com is going to be very different from a startup doing SEO. Amazon is acquiring thousands of natural backlinks daily, while a new website has no business of acquiring more than a handful in a week. The best gauge of what might be a natural link velocity for your website is to look at the historical link velocity trends of your website. You can certainly ramp up what was curated historically, but just not too quickly. If you acquired 10 links last week, then you may justifiably be able to acquire 15 or 20 the subsequent week, but not 500. It is best advised to work with an SEO expert to determine the best velocity for your link growth. Virality & the Importance Of Quickly-Appearing Links Within search and social media, building links are the most critical tool for communication. Companies creating content exist in a competitive environment where every second counts: Links need to show up as quickly as possible after publishing. If you can naturally scale your link building, the faster the links appear, the better it is for companies looking to maximize traffic and visibility. The optimal link velocity can also be enhanced through different frameworks, such as social media marketing. PageRank PageRank is a number assigned to pages by Google that essentially tells us how important they are within the entire index. We’re all familiar with this concept because of browser toolbars that assign web pages a PR value, generally ranging from 0 to 10+ (for sites like Wikipedia). A higher link velocity means that a site is popular and well-respected within its field. High link velocity also shows us how fast a website changes, which can tell us if it has been recently updated or not. For instance, if we see two sites side by side, one with many links and one with none, we expect the site with many links to be more influential than the other. However, too many new backlinks coming in at once will seem unnatural and might raise red flags with the search engines. The proper balance between how much you publish and how fresh your content should be – meaning when you last updated it – is called the ‘sweet spot’ for link velocity. If you publish too often, your website will have no time to accumulate PageRank, authority, or trust amongst link participants. Linking Out A link building strategy that has been adopted by many designers lately is called “linking out.” This means that one page, upon linking to another page or website, will place the website’s link within proximity of the first page’s link. The idea behind this tactic is that linking out increases the likelihood that an automated crawler will find it and follow both links back to their respective destinations. The Power (and Danger) Of Reciprocal Links Reciprocal links, also known as “Network Links,” are links used to trade traffic with another site. This is done through a simple system where you link your site to theirs. In return, they link back to yours on the same page, in the same post, or within an article. You obtain these links from other websites that share information about your site with their readers. Besides, they might also offer a reciprocal link on their websites in return for a link on yours. Reciprocal links serve as an advertising tool that spreads your brand name further while not making any effort. You may have experienced receiving reciprocal links already without even knowing it! When you search for something on Google, the results page also shows other websites which have reciprocal links with your website. There is no exact science as to which reciprocal links you need, so it’s best to approach every website, hoping you can obtain a reciprocal link from them. If the website has content related to your site’s content, you have to see if there is some way you can provide them with information or access they might need help with that will encourage them to exchange reciprocal link arrangements with you. The benefit of reciprocal linking is that not only will it drive more traffic towards both sites, but it will allow you to build up your PageRank faster by increasing the number of PageRank (PR) passing-links pointing at your site. While it is difficult to determine which reciprocal link partner will click through on their end, several steps can be taken to increase the likelihood of them clicking through. This includes placing reciprocal link buttons in sufficient quantity at strategic locations throughout your website or including them in prominent positions within your resource center. Hence,

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How Google (Actually) Works
Timothy Carter

How Google (Actually) Works

Google is undoubtedly the world’s greatest search engine (at least until ChatGPT came around). In fact, Google controls about 92.05% market share in the internet industry. In plain terms, Google holds a monopoly as not only the most used search engine, but also the most popular online resource. It’s no secret that the word “Google” is synonymous with researching something. Consumers will even use Google to find local businesses. Improving your website’s ranking on a search engine is called search engine optimization (SEO). To better understand how SEO and website development works, it’s important to first understand how Google actually works. While Google’s algorithm is extremely complicated (and getting more so every day), understanding the Google basics and the basics of SEO doesn’t have to be extraordinarily complicated. Below is a complete guide in how Google ranks websites. What is Google? Google is a search engine, a platform used by browsers to process websites into search results. When you type in a search term, or a keyword, into the search bar, you’ll receive billions and even trillions of results depending on your query. A query is simply what you’ve searched for. Google’s corporate history starts with its founding by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. As the company grew, investors brought in Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg. Schmidt, a seasoned executive, was brought in to act as CEO until Larry and Sergey were seen fit to fully run all operations. Larry subsequently became CEO after Eric Schmidt. Google CEO Larry Page stepped down in 2015 to become Google’s executive chairman. In the early days of the internet, it was difficult to perform extensive research and searches into everyday topics. Google became one of the first search engines available, and it’s still widely used today. Google is owned by Alphabet Inc and receives much of its profit from its landmark advertising service, Google Ads. In fact, Google is the richest company in the world in regards to market capitalization. This is a measure of a company’s value on the market with the total amount of dollars in stocks. Google’s market cap is valued at $117 billion, which is unusual for a search engine. Compared to other search engines like Yahoo and Bing, Google is a global technology leader that acts as the de facto source of information on the internet. As a result of its ability to create superior products, the company has been able to attract smart, creative people who continue to help hone the company’s core search ranking algorithm. To learn more about how Google works, it’s important to first know what a search engine is. Below, we’ll discuss what a search engine is and how it works. What is a Search Engine? The internet is an infinite network that combines all computers from across the world. This way, data, like websites, can be accessible to everyone. If you build a website and host it over a server, other people access it on the internet. The question is — how will others be able to find your website? The answer is through a search engine. A search engine is a software system that helps people carry out web searches. To put it simply, it organizes all information on the internet and compiles them into results based on how relevant they are to a query. To achieve this feat, search engines are built using algorithms, constructed by machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). For example, the internet serves as a library of information. A search engine serves as a card catalog, or the system that shows people how to locate books in the library. The Dewey Decimal system, a system for ranking items in the card catalog, is the search engine’s algorithm. With all of this said, how has Google built a reputation as the world’s top search engine? The answer is actually simpler than you may think. What is Google’s Business? Like other search engines, Google managers pride themselves on having the most accurate search results in the world. When you search for a pair of “Nike basketball shoes” on Google, you’ll usually be paired with results showing where you can buy the shoes: How does Google know to pair these types of results with queries that have buyer intent? The answer lies in what is known as search intent. This is the intent that a person has when searching for a keyword. When analyzing search intent, search engines assess: Does the web user want to buy a product or research something? Does the web user want to perform research before buying? Does the web user just want to buy something? Google has a very complex algorithm that answers all of these questions. Currently, it’s a mystery exactly how Google’s central algorithm works. Internet marketers rely on snippets of Google’s algorithms through updates to learn more about how the search engine has improved and how they should adapt. To the average person, knowing how Google or a search engine works isn’t necessary. However, billions of people use Google everyday to find local businesses, research products before buying, and even interact with corporate enterprises. Business owners should have an internet in elevating their website’s presence on Google. This process is known as search engine optimization (SEO). What is SEO? SEO is the process of improving your website’s ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). The higher your website appears in search rankings, the more visible it will be to your target audience. There is a strong correlation between social signals and rankings. There are literally dozens of Google ranking factors that make up SEO. That’s why SEO is a very in-depth process that involves optimizing a website’s appearance to Google’s standards. For example, websites need to be fast to retain users so they can eventually convert. Positioning is important when it comes to SEO. Over 25% of people click on the first Google search result. Many of these people may even click on the second

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How to Merge Websites Together for SEO
Timothy Carter

How to Merge Websites Together for SEO

Have you rebranded recently or acquired a new domain? Then you may need to merge websites, but you need to do it carefully to maintain your SEO rankings. Below are some of the best practices that a skilled SEO team should follow to merge two sites successfully. Why Merge Your Websites? Before we dive into how to consolidate your sites and content, let’s examine some of the reasons you need to do it: You purchased another domain, and you want to blend the content from both sites. You own an outdated site with followers and authority, and you want to merge it with a newer website. You need to rebrand your company with another URL (perhaps as the result of a broader, company-wide merger or acquisition). Are you in one of those categories? Then you’ll need to merge your sites carefully to ensure that you have the best SEO results. How Does Merging Sites Help SEO? Merging two sites together can have the following SEO benefits, if done properly: A powerful, authoritative site can pass its authority to a less-known URL Two sites with mediocre SEO authority can be combined to create a more authoritative, industry-dominating presence Two authority sites can target a greater number of keywords, significantly improving rankings for many more keywords than the individual sites alone The best case studies for website mergers include a 1+1=3 scenario, where the combined quality of two websites can create a higher authority site that ranks better overall had the site’s remained separate and single ranking entities. As we’re fond of saying: A site ranking in position 0 or 1 on Google is worth infinitely more than two owned sites taking up 20% of page 1 rankings without the top position. If combining two sites could mean improving rankings to high positions and removing some pages out of the index, then the effort is very worth the cost. Strategy To Merge Websites Below are the steps you need to follow to merge your sites for the best SEO results: Perform a Comprehensive Audit Your comprehensive SEO audit should include a review of the following: A complete backlink audit between both sites, including the creation of a disavow link list for nefarious links as well as comprehensive updates to internal linking strategies. A full content audit, taking into consideration the content overlap and cannibalization potential between the competing sites. Some pages on either site may need to be removed and replaced by existing and better ranking content on the corresponding site. This is a tedious task that can take a great deal of time. A review of all title, H1, meta descriptions and other areas critical to your rankings success. Create a NEW, Combined Sitemap When you make a sitemap of the site you need to merge, you’ll obtain an inventory of every page. This is what you need to make sure that you include every page you need on the new or merged site. Design The New Site Well When you are merging an old and new site, you want to spend time and money to ensure the new product is one that you’ll be pleased to show off. So, as you design your new site, pay close attention to load speed, mobile-friendliness, attractive design, and simple navigation. Take The New Site Live Before you merge the sites, you should ensure that the new website is working correctly.  If you don’t pay close attention to this critical detail, you could create many problems with the new site. Map All URLs It’s important to use your old sitemap to determine where you want the URLs on the new website. This part is a pain in the neck, but you’ll need to do it for a successful merge. Also, this is how you will make a 301 redirect list, mapping pages 1-to-1 to the new site’s equivalent page or updated page. Update Your Internal Links It’s also vital to alter every internal link on the new site. When the new site has links to the old one, remember to convert them to your new URL. Move The Old Site You’re almost there! Now you need to move the old site to the new one. If it’s a small site, moving it at once will alert Google to the move, which will lead to the search engine indexing your pages quicker. If you have a big site, it’s fine to move things by section, and you can correct problems as they occur. Make 301 Redirects With your old sitemap and the new one, you can make the 301 redirects that ensure that the power of the links on the old site will go to the new one. Update All Robots.txt Files On the old website, you need to take out every robots.txt orders or directives. This ensures that search engines can find the new redirects on the new website. The new site should be made so that the robots.txt file lets search engines crawl the site. As part of this process, you should tell Google that you’re changing your site address. Provide Sitemaps To keep the site merge going, you need to give Google the old and new sitemaps. This will help the search engine find your redirects. Watch Your Site’s Indexed Pages You can use the index coverage report at Google to see which pages are getting indexed. Mistakes To Avoid When Merging Sites Now that you understand how to merge sites effectively for SEO purposes, let’s look at what not to do: Failing To Weigh Risks Merging or migrating sites usually occurs because someone made a high-level decision somewhere. But these folks may not be tasked with running the site or SEO part of the business. Unfortunately, this means that all of the implications of merging sites may not have been considered. The most significant risk is that site migration can cause a reduction in web traffic. If you follow best practices, this risk can be reduced, but it still may

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