Dual / Multi Site Strategy

[tstolber]

My client has asked a question which I have already advised on, however I wanted to get more opinions for completeness.
I am asking this question on behalf of my client.

NB: My normal advice is to concentrate all SEO activities on one main site, however in this instance there were additional domains available and the main site was doing very well, hence going to a multi site strategy.

Situation

1 - We have a main site that does very well in its niche
2 - We have a development domain with some strong link building and now ranks well with some initial content
3 - We have another development domain with weaker link building

The question is, do we join the two domains (2&3) by redirecting one to the other, or do we keep them separate.

My advice is to leave them separate, however I would be interested to hear if there are any thoughts to the contrary. My rationale is that it is better to cover more SERP real estate, we get the options to keep one site as a test bed not risking any of the higher value domains.

The sites are not connected or linked in any way and have had completely different SEO activities conducted on them.

Very interested to hear people’s thoughts on this subject.

[Test-ok]

I would leave them separate. No linking between the sites? are they all the same type of site or are they complementing each other or do they have the ability to do so. If their both covering the same real estate I'd think about using one to boost the other to the top. And maybe use #3 to boost #2 and or #1. I guess it depends on what they are used for, the niche, url's ect.

[imexperttools]

Are these websites located on different hosting location, different class C IP? I also agree that you should leave the two sites separated because it is better to have backlinks from two different domains than one.

But if these sites are staying on the same hosting location with the same IP then it is better to redirect 301 , site 3 to site 2 and linking from site 2 to site 1.

[tstolber]

I would leave them separate. No linking between the sites? are they all the same type of site or are they complementing each other or do they have the ability to do so. If their both covering the same real estate I'd think about using one to boost the other to the top. And maybe use #3 to boost #2 and or #1. I guess it depends on what they are used for, the niche, url's ect.

No linking, all the same type of site. The redirecting of #3 to #2 is the big question. Point a low quality domain to a high quality domain?

Are these websites located on different hosting location, different class C IP? I also agree that you should leave the two sites separated because it is better to have backlinks from two different domains than one.

All on different hosting accounts, Class C's & IPs. They also have different WHOIS info.

I am leaning towards keeping them separate, although I have heard some compelling reasons to link #3 to #2.

Thanks for your thoughts, any other input?