Best SEO - redirect url or 301 links to new site

Question

I've got a website promoting local resorts - Xresorts.com (X being the location of course).

It's only been live a few months and isn't doing a lot yet, but it's indexed and has a little bit of juice and popping some commission into my pocket.

I recently acquired Xaccommodation.com which I'm building at the moment and will include Resorts, Holiday Houses, Bed & Breakfasts and Hotels etc.

My question is "what's the most effective way to move the resorts juice over to the accommodation?

My options:

1. Domain Redirect- Xresorts.com to the resorts page on Xaccommodation.com quick and easy, but I think a bit of a waste.

2. 301 Redirect the individual-resort-name pages to Xaccommodation.com/resort/individual-resort-name

3. Link from Xresort.com homepage to Xaccommodation.com/resort/individual-resort-name. So Xresort.com still exists and brings in traffic, but instead of homepage links pointing to Xresort.com/individual-resort-name, they point to Xaccommodation.com/resort/individual-resort-name.

Xresorts.com is registered for another year so it seems a shame to waste it.

a. What do you think will push the most juice to the new site?
b. Does Xresorts.com become a 'doorway' page and risk penalties with option 3 (even option 2 possibly)

I'm thinking 2 or 3 are the best options ... with 3 being the more 'risky' version ... what do you guys think?

Answer 1

1. Domain Redirect- Xresorts.com to the resorts page on Xaccommodation.com quick and easy, but I think a bit of a waste.

To be honest, when I first read this I thought you meant something like #2 (ie. redirect all URLs like for like). But anyway, redirecting just the domain is indeed "a bit of waste", particularly when redirecting all URLs as in #2 is no harder.

2. 301 Redirect the individual-resort-name pages to Xaccommodation/resort/individual-resort-name

Realistically, if you are wanting to transfer everything over to a new domain ("link juice" and all) then this is the only option. This is not a "doorway page" - the pages are moving.

3. Link from Xresort homepage to Xaccommodation/resort/individual-resort-name So Xresort still exists and brings in traffic, but instead of homepage links pointing to Xresort/individual-resort-name, they point to Xaccommodation/resort/individual-resort-name.

This doesn't really "transfer" everything to the new domain. The new domain must slowly build up its own ranking. You are essentially splitting SEO between the two domains, which must both be maintained. And is probably confusing for users. I see problems in the future with this method, particularly when introducing SSL etc.

Xresorts.com is registered for another year so it seems a shame to waste it.

You will need to keep the 301 redirects in place for this time (if not longer).

The other thought is whether you should even change the domain name? Ok, maybe it describes the site better, but it doesn't really help SEO directly (exact/partial match domain names don't necessarily help too much these days). Xresort.com is shorter and maybe easier to remember and arguably easier to type. Xaccommodation.com - "Hey Jo, does accommodation have one 'm' or two?!"