How to Merge Websites and Keep Your Content Intact

What merging a website means and why you might do it

Merging websites means combining two or more separate web properties into a single site. You might consolidate a company rebrand, combine an old site with a new one, bring together multiple regional sites into one national presence, or fold a secondary product site into your main domain. The goal is usually to simplify your web presence, reduce maintenance work, or create a better user experience by housing related content in one place.

The technical and strategic work of a merge is substantial. You are not just moving files around—you are redirecting traffic, preserving search engine rankings, updating internal links, and making sure visitors land on the right pages instead of broken ones. Done poorly, a merge can tank your search visibility, frustrate users, and lose you the audience you built on the old site. Done well, it strengthens your online presence and makes your site easier to navigate.

Key Takeaways

• A website merge combines multiple sites into one, requiring you to plan which content stays, moves, or gets removed before you touch any code.
• Redirects are the technical backbone of a merge—they tell search engines and browsers where old pages now live so you do not lose traffic or rankings.
• You must audit both sites, map old URLs to new ones, and test every redirect before going live to catch broken links early.
• After launch, monitor your search rankings and traffic for several weeks to spot pages that lost visibility and fix them.

Planning what content to keep, move, or remove

Before you write a single redirect, decide what happens to every page on both sites. Create a spreadsheet listing every URL from the old site and mark it as "keep," "move to new location," "combine with another page," or "delete." This is tedious work, but it is the foundation of a successful merge. If you skip this step, you will end up making redirect decisions on the fly, which leads to inconsistency and missed pages.

Look for duplicate content across the two sites—pages that cover the same topic or serve the same purpose. You usually want to keep the better version and redirect the other to it, rather than keeping both. Decide whether you are keeping the old site's navigation structure or reorganizing everything under the new site's architecture. If you are reorganizing, that affects where every page redirects to. Also identify pages that are outdated, rarely visited, or no longer relevant to your business. These are candidates for deletion rather than redirection.

Document your decisions in writing and share them with anyone who needs to know—your development team, content team, marketing, and leadership. A merge affects how people find your site in search results and how they navigate it once they arrive. Misalignment between teams leads to missed redirects and confusion about what the new site should look like.

Setting up redirects from old URLs to new ones

A redirect is an instruction that tells a browser or search engine: "This page moved. Go here instead." The most common type for website merges is a 301 redirect, which is permanent and tells search engines to transfer the ranking power of the old page to the new one. You set up redirects in your web server configuration (usually a file called .htaccess on Apache servers, or through your hosting control panel) or in your content management system if it has a redirect tool built in.

The redirect must point from the exact old URL to the exact new URL. If the old site was example-old.com and the new site is example.com, a redirect from example-old.com/products/shoes to example.com/shop/footwear tells the browser where to go. If you redirect to the homepage instead, or to a page that does not exist, you lose the user and waste the search engine credit that old page had built up.

Create a redirect map—a document that lists every old URL and its corresponding new URL. This becomes your checklist during implementation and your reference if something breaks later. If you have hundreds of pages, you might be able to set up pattern-based redirects that handle whole sections at once, but individual redirects are more reliable when you have structural changes or content reorganization.

Testing redirects before you go live

Test every redirect on a staging server or test environment before you point traffic to the new site. Use a redirect checker tool (many are free online) to verify that each old URL redirects to the correct new URL and that the new URL actually exists and loads without errors. Spot-check at least 10 to 20 percent of your redirects manually by typing the old URL into your browser and watching where it takes you.

Also test the user experience: click through your old site's navigation and internal links to make sure they land on sensible pages on the new site. If your old site had a "Contact Us" page and you are redirecting it to your new "Support" page, verify that the new page actually helps users get in touch. Test on multiple browsers and devices because redirect behavior can sometimes differ.

Create a list of the most important pages—your homepage, top products, main service pages, and any pages that get significant search traffic. Test these first and most thoroughly. If something is going to break, you want to catch it on a high-traffic page before launch, not after.

Handling search engines and rankings during the merge

Search engines like Google need time to discover and process your redirects. A 301 redirect tells Google that the old page has moved permanently and that the new page should inherit the old page's ranking signals, but this does not happen instantly. It typically takes a few weeks to a few months for rankings to stabilize on the new URLs.

Before you launch, update your sitemap to include only the new URLs and submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Remove the old site's sitemap from these tools so search engines know not to crawl it anymore. If you own both the old and new domain, add both to Search Console and set the new domain as your preferred version.

Monitor your search rankings and traffic in Google Search Console and your analytics tool for at least four to six weeks after launch. Look for pages that lost significant rankings or traffic—these are usually pages where the redirect is broken, the new page is not as good as the old one, or the redirect is pointing to the wrong place. Fix these quickly. A page that ranked well on the old site should maintain roughly the same ranking on the new site if the redirect is set up correctly.

Updating internal links and navigation

Redirects are a safety net, not a long-term solution. Over time, you want to update internal links throughout your new site to point directly to the new URLs instead of relying on redirects. Every time a user or search engine follows a redirect, there is a tiny delay and an extra step. Direct links are faster and cleaner.

Go through your new site's navigation menus, footer links, and any pages that link to other pages on your site and update them to use the new URLs. If you have a blog or resource section, update links in old posts that point to pages that have moved. This is ongoing work—as you add new content, make sure new links point to the correct new URLs from the start.

Also check for links in external places: partner sites, directories, social media profiles, and email signatures. You do not need to update every external link immediately, but over time, as you refresh these materials, point them to the new URLs.

Communicating the merge to your audience

If your merge is visible to users—for example, if you are consolidating two customer-facing sites—let people know what is happening. A simple announcement on both old sites explaining that you are merging and where to find content on the new site prevents confusion. You might add a banner at the top of the old site for a few weeks that says, "We have moved. Visit us at [new URL]."

If you have an email list, send a message letting subscribers know about the change and reassuring them that their subscriptions will continue. If you have social media followers on both old accounts, announce the merge and direct people to follow the new account. The goal is to make the transition as smooth as possible so you do not lose people in the shuffle.

For internal teams, document the merge in a way that new employees can understand. Include the redirect map, the list of pages that were deleted, and the reasoning behind structural changes. This helps future team members understand why the site is organized the way it is.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens to pages I delete instead of redirect?

Deleted pages that had search traffic will lose that traffic. If you are certain a page is no longer needed, deletion is fine. But if a page ranked well or received regular visits, redirect it to the closest relevant page on the new site instead. This preserves the traffic and search value you built up.

How long do redirects take to work?

Redirects work instantly for users and browsers—when someone clicks an old link, they land on the new page right away. Search engines take longer to process redirects and transfer ranking signals, usually a few weeks to a few months depending on how often Google crawls your site.

Can I redirect multiple old pages to one new page?

Yes, but use this sparingly. If you have three old product pages and you combine them into one new product page, redirecting all three to the new page makes sense. But redirecting unrelated pages to your homepage or a generic page frustrates users and wastes search value. Redirect to the most relevant page available.

What if I do not have access to set up redirects?

If your hosting provider or CMS does not give you redirect tools, ask your web host or developer to set them up for you. Most hosting companies can configure redirects in your control panel or through server files. If you are using a site builder, check its documentation for a redirect or forwarding feature.

Should I keep the old site running after the merge?

You can keep it running with redirects in place for as long as you want, but eventually you should take it down. Keeping two versions of your site confuses search engines and splits your audience. After redirects have been in place for several months and traffic to the old site has dropped significantly, you can safely remove it.