As a business, it is possible to get tempted into owning several websites for various purposes or to offer different products/services. 

There are several reasons why a need to consolidate a website may arise, some of which are:

• Technical Restraints: An already existing website may be difficult to change, therefore this may lead to the creation of new websites for marketing purposes. 
• Brand Repositioning:  A brand has grown and advanced, its products or services that seemed supplementary are now the focus. 
• Acquisitions: New businesses that already have existing websites may be integrated into the brand’s main website. 
• Change of Focus: A website that was dedicated to a particular purpose or offering, is now being reevaluated. 

These are some basic questions that will help you when considering consolidating websites. 

• Who are your audiences? 

The cardinal objective of building a website is to provide the best and most rewarding experience for users. For you to consider consolidating a website, you must understand your audience. For instance: Do you have different audience groups? Does their demography differ? 

• Does a particular look and feel appeal to all your audience groups? 

A similar audience group may be comfortable with a familiar look and feel on your website. Nevertheless, that may not always be the case. There may be instances where one audience is looking for a design that conveys professionalism, whilst another is looking for luxury or fun, a single design cannot hold all these desires. 

•  What are the SEO benefits to be expected? 

Basically, if you have contents that are relevant, you will get maximum SEO benefits on a single domain. This is usually the case because search is competitive and ranking is hard, so one really good page is better than several average pages.

•  Will you be able to track users effectively between multiple sites?

You will want to make sure you do not lose sight of traffic passing your websites if they are linked. Else, it is difficult to know the difference between a user that has left your website forever than from one that just simply hopped from one of your websites to the other. 

• Is there a need to support websites in different languages and countries?

You may need to consider domain strategy, whether your global websites should live on subpages (johndoe.com/uk), subdomains (uk.johndoe.com), or their own websites (johdoe.uk). Your decisions will have an impact on your global SEO  which needs to be correctly set up to surface the appropriate language and country’s versions of pages to searchers in each of your markets. 

At 63 WebStudio, we are an experienced website design and development agency and we typically see these questions arise when clients embark upon a full website redesign. We pay attention to the critical factors while considering the clients’ needs.  

Should your brand be seeking an orderly website presence, these questions can serve as a great commencement point.