The former four websites had been established for a number of years and had therefore built search engine trust and authority, proving that these were valuable sites which should rank appropriately.

When a new website is built, it is usually a case of migrating the existing content over. However, in this instance, we were merging four websites into one, on a completely new domain with a new URL structure. Therefore maintaining organic visibility whilst providing an effective Drupal CMS was essential.

All four historic websites were audited and analysed in order to best determine how to merge established brands and websites onto just one domain: jacksonlees.co.uk

The audit collected user and conversion metrics of all pages across the sites, in order to determine which were the best-performing pages and sections. As there were multiple pages existing for the same services, the content for the top performing pages was identified for migration. All other pages were to be redirected to the most relevant page on the new site.

This content mapping allowed us to assist users and search engines in accessing the new site’s pages and help to inform where this content has moved.

Although it is important to detail the vast array of services available, we trimmed the content considerably, to include strictly relevant and high converting pages. Thousands of redirects were applied to four domains, pointing to a new domain of under 300 pages.

In order to further clarify the website navigation and structure, we determined that Jackson Canter, Lees and Lees Medical would combine into Jackson Lees, as they offer the same services. These services would all sit under the Jackson Lees taxonomy terms, whereas Broudie Jackson Canter would remain a separate brand, existing as a subfolder on the Jackson Lees domain: https://www.jacksonlees.co.uk/broudiejacksoncanter

Keeping this brand separate enables a user to reach the appropriate services, without information overload.