In such a complex and competitive landscape, providing exposure even for regionally targeted keywords can be a challenge; doing so for a global campaign is near resource-prohibitive. Outlined below is a simple strategy that effectively merged the message from 6 separate domains to one “parent” site using 301 redirects as the vehicle for success.  Rather than optimizing each domain and spending tremendous resources to achieve the same objective, we chose a cost-friendly solution that maintained the integrity of the backlinks, provided users with one unified message from a singular source, and not only maintained the traffic this client was familiar with, but increased total site visits by 28% in 30 days…all visits, of course, now directed to the parent site integral in helping our client cross-market his services, provide a strong branding message and simplified user experience.

The following are steps you must implement when choosing a 301 redirect as a SEO strategy:

• It’s all about traffic. Make sure you have a Plan B in place should the new domain not rank well in the short term (such as SEM implementation)
• Each originating page must have a corresponding landing page on the new domain, with a similar (or the same) message
• When migrating several sites to one domain, make sure you test one migration at a time before rolling all other sites over to the parent site
• Create 404 error messages helping users navigate to the new site on pages where errors occur
• Make sure the information architecture on the new site is as good (or better) as the IA on originating sites
• Keep hosting original sites until you find that the new domain has replaced them in SERP’s
• Check internal and external links often to ensure that they’ve migrated to the new site as well
• Review crawl errors regularly in the first 90 days

Adherence to the process above will ensure that, while your sites may experience early-on SERP turbulence, the rankings will come back quickly…..and, as is often the case, you will enjoy a noticeable increase in site traffic that puts a smile on everyone’s collective faces.