Anticode Open builder

How to merge two websites into one without confusing either audience

Two sites usually happen by accident: a side business that grew, a company that bought another, a shop and a studio with the same owner. Keeping both means double the updates and two half-maintained places for customers to land. To merge two websites into one well, decide the structure before you build, give each audience a clear path, and plan what the second domain does afterwards.

Updated · By the Anticode team

Is merging the right call?

Merge when the audiences overlap or the same person would reasonably buy from both, when one site is clearly neglected, or when the brands are becoming one. Keep them apart when the audiences would be put off by each other (a children's party business and a nightclub), when they need to look entirely different, or when one is about to be sold. If you merge, the business should be ready to answer to one name.

Inventory both sites side by side

Make one spreadsheet with a row per page from both sites. Columns: site, address, purpose, visits, inbound links, keep or drop, and where it goes in the new structure. Add rows for every form, booking flow, payment button and list of items (team, products, projects). This is the document every later decision refers back to.

Settle the structure and the look

One name
Usually the stronger brand, or a parent name with the other as a service line.
One home page
Says who you are in a sentence and offers each audience its own route: "For homeowners" and "For builders", for instance.
A clear split per audience
Separate pages come from a fixed set (Work, Shop, Services, About, Pricing, FAQ, Book, Contact), one of each, so give each line its own page where it fits (Services for the landscaping, Shop for the furniture) or its own clearly headed section, so each set of visitors finds what they came for without wading through the other.
Shared pages
About, Contact, FAQ. One of each, covering both.
One look
One design system and one action colour. A merged site that switches style halfway down reads as two sites stapled together.

Rebuild the combined site

  1. Brief the Architect with both links and your structure in a sentence: "Merge these two sites into one for a landscaping firm that also sells garden furniture; separate pages for each, one contact page." It reads both and asks up to three questions.
  2. Check the plan against your spreadsheet's "where it goes" column and add or remove pages.
  3. Move lists into CMS collections where one site had a team page and the other a projects page; one collection each, edited in the dashboard.
  4. Rewrite overlapping copy. Two About pages become one story; two contact routes become one.
  5. Refine with change requests ("add a short section on the home page linking to the furniture range") and the visual editor.
  6. Decide where enquiries go. Connectors belong to the whole account and tag each submission with the site's name. A merged site sends everything from one name, so if two teams handle different enquiries, ask the visitor which they're about in the message, or route through a webhook.
  7. Payment links: there's one per account, so every buy button opens the same checkout. If both businesses sold online, link to a product list at your provider that covers both.
  8. Publish to the anticode.dev address and click through as a customer of each business.

The two domains

Connect the main domain to the new site on a paid plan: add it in Anticode, set the CNAME or TXT record it asks for at your DNS host, and wait for the certificate. For the second domain, the usual choice is a forwarding rule at your registrar or DNS host, if it offers one, sending visitors to the merged site or the right page on it. Letting it lapse is only sensible if it had little traffic. Don't let it lapse by accident: someone else can register it once it's released.

Anticode doesn't redirect old page addresses, so deep links into either old site will land on a not-found page unless the address still exists. Update the links you control: Google Business Profile, social profiles, email signatures, directory listings.

How you know the merge worked

Customers of either business can find their part of the site from the home page in one click. Enquiries from both audiences arrive in one place and reach the right person. Only one site needs updating. Within a few weeks, visits to the merged site by source should account for traffic both old sites used to get.

Limits

No import from either old site, no redirects for old addresses, and no per-page analytics (views are counted per site). Connectors and the payment link are shared across the account, not split by audience. For the domain move itself see moving a domain to a new website, and for the rebuild, the website redesign process.

Questions people ask

Will merging two websites hurt search rankings?

There's usually a dip while search engines notice the change. Keeping strong pages' content and updating the links you control limits it.

What should I do with the second domain?

Keep it registered and forward it to the merged site through your registrar or DNS, at least for a year.

Can each audience have its own look?

Not within one site: it uses one design system and one action colour. If they truly need different looks, keep two sites.