I just made a major website acquisition, how do I transition the site?
 

Ok, I need some sharp ideas from some sharp minds. I just made a major website acquisition (To be announced officially later this week) how do I transition the site? I mean, should I just make all links on the site auto-forward to my current site? Or should I delete al content on the site, so that everyone that visits it goes to a 404 splash page that says, company x, has been acquired by company y? Also, I know I have to keep in mind maintaining the SE traffic, if I take down all the page, and forward them to a 404, will search engines start to drop all the links?

Any and all feedback is appreciated!!

:helpme

Keep all the pages up for SE & hardlinks, and make them all foward to website Y (or a 404 page) after lets say 1 second. But I'm still not sure if it will be okay for the SE..

Yes, I dont want the SE's to start dropping the links. Thats one of the major items of this, at http://www.uptimebot.com this site has over 100,000 links to it on Yahoo!

if it's the website + domain name, just tarball the entire thing and unpack it on your server. Then you have all the time you want to modify stuff

Right but..
 

Right, but how do I modify it is the question....

I think I'm missing a piece of your conundrum!
OK, so you have the website on your own server, so the question is what you will do with it? If it's a major website like you say, then you must have already decided what to do with it before purchasing it? If not, then it may help to explain what type of site it is?
If it's a paysite, just collect the earnings. If it's something with affiliates, just change all the ref codes to your own.

Lacking a bit of info to help you decide!

Format C:

Well heres the deal...
 

Well, heres the deal. Its actually a webmaster resource site thats getting over 1,500 uniques per day (which is alot in my opinion for a niche like a webmaster resource site) SO.. I also run a webmaster resource site with similar content. I dont want to use their pages, design etc. Just include their content on my original pages. So basically, I want to find out how to best take advantage of this sites 1,500 unique visitors without losing any traffic. Does that make sense?

iframe? just an idea, but really don't get excatly what do you need

where in Boston are you?

I get it - so why not change all referrer codes over to you then keep the existing site running for a while but advertise the hell out of your site on it. That way the SE traffic, links are still there, but your site gets more PR bonus... after a few months redirect all traffic to you...

... and gradually, bit by bit incorporate their content onto yours.

Good Idea...
 

Thats a good idea.... I think thats the route I will go!


BTW: I am in Boston's North End!!

he said 'conundrum' nice!

Does this make me dumb??
 

I headed to http://www.m-w.com on that one!!

Best of luck with the renewed popularity to your site :thumbsup

Lived in Back Bay/Femway myself for 3 years before moving back to Europe. Loved Boston very much! There's a quarter in the Red Hat down by MGH paced strategically for when I return. You know, in case I need to make a call. If you find it, replace it with a dollar :winkwink:

Maybe you should think again if you dont want to use their design etc... probably out of those 1500 there are quite a few bookmarkers. They'll find it odd if they get a totally different site when they go to their bookmark. You might want to take over the site into your style in steps.

Good Idea
 

I didn't think of that. Yes, what I will most likely do is keep their design and slowly transition it over to my site... I think this is the best approach. Thanks.

Thanks for your input!

FireFox.. Hmm, thats right around the corner. Good to know! Maybe ill replace it with something if I ever find it!