: When merging website B into website A, is there and pros / cons to having two different designs? A client currently owns two websites. They want to take the content from Website B and move

@Cugini213

This is domain cannibalism and it's a common SEO tactic. There's actually not a problem with the different design, so long as it's optimised. Run it through all the standard page tests, and bring it's quality up or above that of your original content. Here's a run down of domain merging:

Pros:


You acquire a percentage of the original domains link equity. (some is lost with a 301 redirect)
Your content expands, giving you new relevant keyword searches.
Natural traffic from the links to the old domain.
It's a really cheap way to boost a domain with an auctioned/retired one.
Relatively easy to do, from a technical standpoint.
Almost always cheaper than building the same number of links from scratch.


Cons:


You lose the old domains trust. If it's 5+ years old, and your new site is 5 months, you should actually be moving to the old domain for SEO benefit!
If the new content isn't relevant to the rest of your site, you've created a folder in a bubble. It will strengthen your domain but it's not going to have a great effect on the keyword rankings you want.
It's less efficient than running the current site as a separate entity and linking your main domain from it, assuming the content isn't that relevant.
It's time consuming rather than an upfront cash investment. This can produce a blurred view of what the true 'cost' is. Employee time is money!

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