Search Engine Optimization During Mergers and Acquisitions

A well-planned search engine optimization strategy is critical for any company going through a merger or acquisition.  (All companies should be concerned with the M&A effect on search engine optimization strategies, but it can be especially useful in B2B SEO strategies).

Even as a company restructures its primary website for the addition of products and services, one of the last things that is taken into consideration is the impact of website consolidation/restructuring on the search engine visibility of the website(s).

Our concern as search engine marketers is to help management understand that it is possible not only to maintain current search engine visibility during the transition, but to make visibility even better by using the combined assets (the web sites acquired in the merger) to maximize their combined entities’ presence on the Web.

During an M&A, impulsive decisions can leave lasting, irreversible effects on overall search engine optimization. Managers might disregard the positive impact of an acquired site, which could already be highly optimized for search engine visibility, and the benefits that can accrue. Following an acquisition, firms may rob themselves of these benefits in an effort to gain control and manage the new brand.

A common move is to take down an acquired company’s site after content has been transitioned over to the “winning” website.

Unless a pressing legal issue makes it necessary to take down a site, take time to develop a search engine optimization strategy for the website transition.

Some things to consider:

1) Do any of the websites that might be taken down have good link popularity or especially good ranking exposure for strategic keywords?

2) Do any of the existing websites have a good aging history? The longer a domain has been active, and has been a good citizen of the Web, the more value it has with a search engine (particularly Google and Ask.com).

3) Can you leave up existing websites for a period of time to link keyword text into the appropriate sections of the primary website?

4) How will you notify sites that link to the sites that will be taken down that the link destination is changing?

5) Can you get the website owners to not just change the destination of the link, but also use keyword-rich text in the hyperlink?

6) Have you created an effective landing page on the main website to help users navigate through the combined companies’ entire site?

7)  Do any of the sites provide customer service functions that have helped build a loyal user base and network of inbound links? Can that domain be left active as a customer service portal?

8) Even if a product or service is being phased out (or re-branded), attempt to use the existing Web pages to improve the SEO presence of the new site/pages.

9) Of course, for any domain, or URL with high exposure, that is being taken down, there should be a 301 redirect put in place to help search engines (and users) understand that the presence and content have a new home.

10) Don’t forget to use PPC to help drive traffic to the new site/pages. PPC can help maintain awareness for keywords that may lose rankings temporarily, and to help users see that there is a new company offering the product/service, but that the quality and benefits are still there (or that things have improved!).

So, if you can get management to give you some breathing room while all of the critical branding and corporate strategy issues are being folded into website strategy, make sure you don’t lose something useful from a search engine perspective. You might even be able to leverage a net gain in driving traffic.