u/armandionorene

I just picked up a project that is a bit messier than a normal site migration.

A company bought another company in the same space, and now they want to fold both brands into one website. The problem is that both brands already have some search demand, especially branded searches, but one of them is going away completely.

I have handled migrations before, but this is the first time I've dealt with a “merge the sites, keep the traffic, and slowly retire one brand name” situation.

Right now my plan is pretty basic:

• set up page-to-page redirects where they make sense
• keep a clear “formerly X” message on the site for a while
• make sure the old branded pages dont just all get dumped onto the homepage
• update profiles and listings that still point to the old brand
• keep an eye on branded search pages and Search Console closely after launch

What I am still unsure about is the old brand demand. I'm curious how other people here would handle this, especially if most of the search demand is still tied to the old name.

When growth stalls, what makes you decide it's actually a positioning issue rather than a distribution issue?

I keep seeing founders respond to flat growth with we need more traffic. Sometimes that's true, but sometimes the bigger issue is:

• The product is framed too broadly
• The homepage talks about features before the pain
• The offer sounds useful, but not urgent
• the wrong audience is landing on the page in the first place

In those cases, more traffic just gives you more confused visitors.

That's why I'm starting to think some traffic plateaus are really positioning problems that happen to show up as channel problems.