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Your Post-Acquisition Website Integration Toolkit

Name: Direct Online Marketing
Brand: Direct Online Marketing
Rating: 4.9 (44 reviews)

By Ryan Norman| 11 Min Read | August 7, 2024

Your Post-Acquisition Website Integration Toolkit

Updated: 8.7.2024

Acquiring a new company often comes with the exciting yet challenging task of integrating websites. This integration is crucial for maintaining brand consistency, user experience, and SEO value. Here’s a toolkit to guide you through a seamless website integration process post-acquisition.

Table of Contents

Assessing the Existing Websites

Are you thinking, “I just acquired a company. What do I do with their website?” Start with a thorough audit of both websites. This audit will highlight strengths, weaknesses, and areas that require special attention. Key areas to examine include:

Content: Identify high-performing content, redundant pieces, and gaps between the two sites.
Design: Assess the visual appeal and consistency of design elements so that you can maintain continuity between the sites where desired.
Functionality: Check for features that enhance user experience.
SEO: Evaluate current rankings, backlinks, and keyword performance; there will likely be some drop off in rankings, but the more you prepare, the more you can mitigate the downturn.
Analytics: Understand user behavior and traffic sources.

Tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, and Screaming Frog are great for assembling a detailed picture of how each site looks in these areas. This assessment lays the groundwork for a unified strategy.

If you’d like help getting a sense for where you are, DOM offers a free website audit.

Creating a Unified Strategy for Website Migration

The highest-level decision you have to make with a post-acquisition site migration is which site to migrate into which.

Once you’ve reviewed the legacy site as well as the newly acquired site, it’s time to decide which site you’d like to migrate material to. There are various factors to consider in choosing between the two. For instance, the legacy site may be valuable for the historical record it has with search engines. A newly acquired site may have a URL that better reflects the future direction of the company and may have better search ranking potential. Perhaps one site is built in a more user-friendly content management system, like WordPress.

Whatever you choose, you’re going to be compromising. That’s the nature of integrating websites. But that’s not a bad thing. A skillful website migration can deliver great elements of each site into one new online experience.

Defining clear goals and objectives is the next step. What do you aim to achieve with the integrated website? Increased traffic, improved user engagement, or higher conversion rates? Involve key stakeholders from marketing, IT, and content teams to ensure all perspectives are considered. Develop a timeline with milestones to track progress and keep the project on schedule.

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SEO Considerations for a Post-Acquisition Site Migration

SEO is a critical concern of any website migration. The owners of each of the extant sites have likely worked hard to optimize their site for search engines. Now you’re challenged with preserving and bettering that SEO work.

Minimize duplicate content when merging websites. Search engines like Google will penalize pages that have substantially the same content as others on the same domain (or elsewhere on the internet for that matter). So it’s important to bring pages together across the new site that talk about the same topic. Think about trying to have each page focus on one keyword. You don’t have to have multiple pages cover the same keyword in depth because those pages will then compete with each other for rankings, rather than that content ranking even more strongly when on a single page.

Implement 301 redirects from the sunsetting site to the site that will be continuing. A 301 redirect helps users and search engines find the new site. A redirect points from the old site to the new in a way that passes some of the ranking status of the old site over to the new. Plus when users ask a question that the old site used to answer well, search engines can direct them into the new site and still get their answer with the help of 301s.

Update meta tags and headers to reflect the new site structure. The meta title and heading 1 of each page are prime signals to search engines. These elements are where organizations tell sites like Google what they believe a page is about. Optimizing the meta title and headings can be a relatively quick way to show the intended structure of a migrated site. While fully updating the content of dozens of pages may take months, a little spreadsheet magic can get hundreds of meta tag in order quickly.

Adjust internal links to increase the footprint of newly migrated pages. Google’s search engine can only crawl pages that it can find links to. Internal linking is a core activity to getting every corner of your site seen online. This is especially important to new pages that you will likely be creating during a post-acquisition site migration. Connect those pages to the rest of your site with internal links. It’s a technically simple step that can have a big impact on the visibility of new pages.

Content Integration for a Post-Acquisition Site Migration

Content is king. Integrating it effectively is crucial. Your initial assessment of each site should have revealed the highest-ranking pages. These are the ones you should focus on. Make sure that the content on those top-ranking pages is still represented on the newly integrated site, either by retaining that page whole cloth, or stitching together multiple old pages into one new page.

Create a content migration plan. This often takes the form of a spreadsheet that maps the location of valuable pages on each site to the new locations (the new URLs) where that content will be moved or combined on the new site.

When you combine pages, do give attention to the tone and style you want going forward. Likely the two extant sites won’t be in total sync. So make sure you clearly communicate the vision you have for the new site so that your content writers can edit and adjust any migrating content.

Site Migration Design & User Experience

A post-acquisition site migration is a unique chance to make some optimizations to a website’s design and user experience. Outside of building a new site, there’s probably no better time to get buy-in from your team to make site-wide changes to branding and UX/UI design.

When you have two sites that you now need to combine, you’ve essentially got two experiments that you can learn from. Your assessment of each site pre-migration will reveal what’s working and what’s not on each site. You’ll see what pages are driving traffic and which never convert. Just by diving into Google Analytics or Semrush, you’ll be able to make data-driven decisions.

Branding — Unify the visual and text elements that will signal the new direction of the migrated site.

UX/UI — Take the learnings from each site and make the user experience of the new site better.

Navigation — Make the site architecture clear and intuitive with clean, comprehensive menus.

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Technical Aspects of a Post-Acquisition Site Migration

Integrating the technical infrastructure of two websites post-acquisition is a critical phase that requires meticulous planning and execution.

Hosting and Domains

Transferring hosting and consolidating domains are fundamental to a successful integration. Consider server performance, uptime reliability, and customer support. If the acquired company uses a different hosting provider, decide whether to migrate to one unified hosting service or maintain separate hosts. A unified approach often simplifies management and can reduce costs.

Schedule the hosting transfer during off-peak hours to reduce the impact on users. Tools like cPanel or Plesk can aid in a seamless migration, ensuring that all files, databases, and configurations are correctly transferred.

Domain consolidation is equally crucial. If the acquisition involves multiple domains, decide on a primary domain and set up 301 redirects for the others. This process helps preserve SEO value and ensures users can find the new site easily. Additionally, update DNS records to point to the new hosting environment. Make sure SSL certificates are correctly configured to maintain secure connections and user trust.

Back-End Systems

Integrating back-end systems is often the most complex part of the technical integration of multiple websites. This includes merging databases, integrating customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and ensuring compatibility of content management systems (CMS). Tools like SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) or Talend can facilitate the data migration process.

Security Measures

Implementing robust security protocols during and after the transition is vital to protect the integrated website from threats. Start with a security audit of both websites to identify vulnerabilities. During the integration, employ secure transfer methods, such as SFTP, to move files and data. Encrypt sensitive data to prevent unauthorized access. Set up firewalls and intrusion detection systems to monitor and block malicious activities.

Post-integration, ensure that the new site complies with security best practices. Regularly update software, including CMS platforms, plugins, and themes, to patch known vulnerabilities. Use strong, unique passwords for all administrative accounts and enable two-factor authentication (2FA) where possible.

By meticulously addressing these technical aspects, you ensure that the integrated website remains functional, secure, and efficient. A well-planned technical integration not only provides a solid foundation for the newly merged entity but also enhances user experience and trust in the brand.

Communication Plan for a Post-Acquisition Site Migration

You can dot all your i’s and cross all your t’s behind the scenes, but if you don’t clearly announce your new site some users may be confused.

Sending out an email to any lists you’ve gathered from each site is one way to approach getting the word out about a site migration. This gives you a chance to reconnect with your clients and let them know that the great products, services, and experience that they are used to with the old site will still be available in an upgraded form on the new site.

Consider putting an explanation on the homepage for a few months that calls out how this site is now the central home of once separate entities. This can help take old brand recognition and transfer it onto the new organization and the new website.

An email blast is also a great way to stimulate traffic to the migrated site. You can announce the new site and invite users to check it out. It’s a way to refresh client relationships and to start getting user behavior data.

Experience the DOM Difference in Post-Acquisition Site Migration

Integrating websites post-acquisition is a complex but rewarding process when done right. By following this toolkit, you can ensure a smooth transition that enhances user experience, maintains SEO value, and supports business goals.

For expert assistance with website migration and integration, consider the website migration services offered by Direct Online Marketing. We have the experience and expertise to guide you through every step of the process.

These are best practices we carry out with each website migration:

Review your site for keywords in the top 100 positions on Google
Compare your site to competitors for keyword gaps
Analyze traffic volume and project volume post-migration
Note technical issues that limit the reach of old and new sites

Your website is where you showcase your goods and services. Launching a new site is always a bit nerve-wracking. You know you only get one chance to make a first impression.

Careful planning can ease your site launch tensions.

At DOM, hundreds of companies have trusted us to guide them through launching new sites. We are well-acquainted with the meticulous prep work that makes for a successful launch. And we’ve helped sites recover rankings after shaky website redesigns.

If you need help transitioning your site, consider our Website Migration Services.

Key Takeaways for a Post-Acquisition Site Migration

Conduct a thorough audit of both websites to identify strengths, weaknesses, and key areas that need attention, such as content, design, functionality, SEO, and analytics.
Use tools like Google Analytics, Semrush, and Screaming Frog to gather detailed insights and establish a foundation for a unified strategy.
Decide which site to migrate into the other by considering factors like historical SEO value, future company direction, and the usability of the content management system.
Minimize duplicate content, implement 301 redirects, update meta tags and headers, and adjust internal links to preserve and enhance SEO during the integration.
Integrate valuable content from both sites, create a content migration plan, and ensure consistency in tone and style for the newly integrated website.

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