What To Do With a Website Post-M&A
A business merger or acquisition brings with it a mountain of change. People, policies, offices, operations—numerous areas may be shifting.
The same goes for the website (or more commonly websites) involved. You can set yourself up for success post-M&A by employing SEO best practices to create a modified site that represents the best of all the merging entities.
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M&A and Websites
You may have ended up here because you’re wondering what to do with websites after an acquisition.
Rest assured you are in good hands. Direct Online Marketing has helped hundreds of companies with SEO after M&A, including full site migrations.
What you’re aiming to do with websites after a merger is to create one place online that displays the strengths of the newly joined businesses.
One of the biggest decisions after an acquisition or merger is deciding which site will absorb the others. After evaluating the legacy and new sites, it’s time to choose where the combined content will live.
Several factors might affect this decision:
—historical search engine standing,
—the newer site’s alignment with the business’s future direction, or
—perhaps a more user-friendly content management system, like WordPress, on one of the sites.
Expect some trade-offs during this integration.
However, a well-executed website migration can blend the best of both sites into a single, polished online experience.
The next step? Defining goals for the new site. Whether you’re aiming for better traffic, engagement, or conversions, involve stakeholders across marketing, IT, and content teams to gather input. Set clear milestones and a timeline to keep things on track.
SEO for M&A
SEO takes priority in any website migration. Especially those conducted after a business merger or acquisition.
The companies involved likely invested in optimizing their websites for search engines, so the challenge now is retaining and improving that work.
Start by reducing duplicate content, as search engines penalize repeated material across a domain. Consolidate pages on similar topics into single, focused pages to avoid keyword competition and maximize ranking potential.
Implement 301 redirects from the outgoing site to the remaining site. This helps retain some of the ranking power of the old pages, guiding search engines and users to the right spot on the new site.
Updating meta titles and headers to match the new site structure also signals search engines about the content’s purpose. Adjust internal links to boost visibility for newly merged pages—this is a straightforward way to strengthen SEO without major adjustments.
Website Migration Services
With a thoughtful approach, merging sites after an acquisition can be seamless and rewarding. Following a roadmap laid out by a trusted partner will smooth the way for a site that boosts user experience, preserves SEO value, and supports business goals. DOM has helped numerous companies through similar transitions and can guide every step—from SEO analysis to technical setup to user experience.
Check out our post-M&A website migration services.
With every website migration, we employ these hard-won best practices:
- Content Review
DOM identifies top-performing pieces, duplicated content, and any information gaps between the sites. - Analytics Analysis
DOM monitors user behavior and traffic sources to understand how visitors engage with each site. - SEO Optimization
DOM assesses existing keyword rankings, backlinks, and general health in terms of how well the overall site is optimized to rank highly on search engines. - Functionality Testing
DOM examines features that impact user experience, such as dropdown menus, navigation paths, and checkout flows. - Design Consistency
DOM looks at the various brand style and design elements to keep a cohesive look across sites where possible.
Not ready to engage site migration services? No problem. Assess your situation post-M&A with a free website audit.
Paid Advertising for Mergers
All this website migration work means little if people aren’t pointed to the optimized site.
Send an email to existing contacts from all the sites involved, announcing the combined website. It’s a good time to reconnect with clients and let them know that they’ll still find familiar products and services on an improved platform.
Consider a homepage announcement explaining the merger for a few months to ease the transition for returning visitors.
Those efforts are often quite effective. And you can do them right now. You already have the contact info. You just need to set up the email campaign or make a few adjustments on the new site.
However, to truly grow your audience, you may benefit from pay-per-click advertising to publicize the migrated site to the world.
PPC advertising post-M&A lets you reach new people. And not just any new people, but a target group of people who fit the demographics most likely to engage with your business.
Review our internet marketing company’s PPC service offerings.
Direct Online Marketing offers comprehensive PPC and paid search advertising services, specializing in Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, YouTube, and Google Shopping.
As a Google Premier Partner (top 3%), DOM provides campaign management, ad copywriting, audience targeting, and regular performance analysis to maximize ad spend and boost conversions.
The service also includes free audits, personalized insights, and growth-focused strategies, helping clients improve revenue, lead quality, and reach across local and global markets.
Key Takeaways: Post-M&A Website Optimization
- When merging two websites post-acquisition or -merger, start by auditing each site’s content, design, functionality, SEO, and analytics to establish what each brings to the table.
- Then, choose one site to keep as the flagship site and consolidate valuable content from the others into it, based on factors like historical SEO strength and the direction of the business.
- From there, address SEO needs like reducing duplicate content, setting up 301 redirects, and adjusting internal links, while also working on technical aspects such as hosting, security, and a smooth user experience for the final combined site.
