Cross Linking two related ecommerce websites

[Kepass]

Hi Guys,

Hope you'll be able to help me with a technical problem I am facing right now.

We are a company right ? We own 2 webistes.

Let's say one sells car parts, the other one buys second hand car parts to refurbish them and sell them. (It is not our case, just an example very similar to ours).

sellparts.com

buyparts.com

Both are ecommerce websites, with large catalogues (7000 skus). sellparts sells a lot and is a big actor in its market. buyparts.com doesn't work nad has a really low DA.

My new SEO external consultant, which I am not too convinced about, is telling me to cross link the sites on product level using cross-linking extensions. He want have them do-follow.

That would mean having hundreds or thousands of links with really similar linking patterns.

buy [parts] [model ] [make]

sell [parts] [model ] [make]

That to me seems a bit too much and I am worried it compromises the sellparts site's SEO.

So should i no-follow the links ? Or do it differently ?

[Kepass]

That's really true.Perhaps the best solution is to have another shop @ sellparts.com/buyparts

Perhaps the best affordable solution is to have another shop @ sellparts.com/buyparts ?

It then could be another site on the same Magento install with different shopping cart extensions.

I really appreciate your help. Thanks.

[EGOL]

Keeping all of your business on one domain will help with your branding, since there is a natural overlap in buyers and sellers of auto parts.  It will expose your buyparts business to everyone to comes to the sellparts domain.

My preferred method would be to keep all of the pages in folders on the sellparts domain.  That is best for SEO purposes since Google does not give subdomains the full benefit of their root domain.  I would work hard or pay for development to make that happen.

My very last resort would be to use a subdomain.  The pages on the subdomain would not perform as well as if they were on the root domain.

[Kepass]

That answer, truly, is a spot on. Combining sites is actually what our competitors are tending to do.

The matter is that buying and selling on the same site is a really tricky thing to do on a Magento based website as shopping cart aren't prepared for that and custom development is a nightmare on the long run.

One last question. What about if, buyparts would be on a subdomain where shopping carts wouldn't be shared. The development would be easier.How do you think it could affect the SEO ?

How do you think it could affect the SEO ?

Thanks.

[EGOL]

If these sites belonged to me, I would not place site-wide links on either of them that point to the other.  In this situation, links from BuyParts will probably be of little to no value in lifting the rankings of SellParts since it is so much stronger.

If I thought that many customers of these sites would be natural customers of the other, then I would combine the sites.  I would test this by making a large pdf of parts that I am willing to buy, placing it on the SellParts domain and linking to it from several obvious places saying "we also buy parts, click here for our buy list".

That is what I would do if these sites belonged to me.

[Kepass]

You are absolutely right and I am glad you pointed it. English isn't my first language...

Buyparts.com has a REALLY low traffic and revenue as no SEO work has been done on it. It receives very few orders a month although the potential is good.

Nonetheless, it will never make the profits of sellpart.com. sellparts.com represents 99% or our revenue.

Thanks

[EGOL]

"buyparts.com doesn't work"

I don't want to give a response without having a clear understanding of this.