(Entry was posted by Rick Kirk on this post in the Dumb SEO Questions community on Facebook, 10/08/2013).

How we loose "as little as possible" of the search rankings that already existed on the previous sites when merging them into one

We are in the process of combining about 40+ unique domain based websites into one single corporate website at a new domain.
Over the next month we are building out phase 2 of the new site which includes uniquely addressable pages for each location.
Once all locations are in place on the new site we plan to use 301 redirects on the existing domains to point to the new location.
We have already achieved significant SEO traction with the pages on the new site, I`m most interested to hear any other comments or suggestions on how we loose "as little as possible" of the search rankings that already existed on the previous sites.

thanks :)

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YOUR ANSWERS

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

Tony McCreath: Sounds like a good plan.

Try to update as many links as possible so that they avoid the redirect. E.g. absolute internal links or external links you can control.
Mark Steenbakkers: To move 40 sites is a paramount task that takes al lot of time and effort. ;
You probably reuse at least parts of the current content from the "old" websites.

To prevent that your new website is marked as "spammy" because you "scrape content" from your old website, make sure that if you publish content on the new website that is not available on the old ones.
Rick Kirk: thanks Mark, fyi, the old sites will be deleted once the new site is up.
W.E. Jonk: From the expert panel in this weeks SEO Questions hangout on air on 00:23:49 into the YouTube video: https://dumbseoquestions.com/q/how_we_loose_quotas_little_as_possiblequot_of_the_search_rankings_that_already_existed_on_the_previous_sites_when_merging_them_into_one