Reading an acquisition through redirected link equity

Reading an acquisition through redirected link equity

Here's a move the big players make that barely makes the news. When a brand acquires a competitor or an old niche site, they 301 the whole thing into their own domain to absorb its backlinks.

In the profile it reads as a sudden inheritance: hundreds of aged referring domains appearing at once, all pointing at URLs that 301 to the acquirer.

— Tell: the 'first-seen' dates on these links are years old but they only entered your target's profile this month — the links predate the redirect.
— Map the redirect source and you've found exactly which property they bought and what they paid for in authority.

Multiple consolidation plays show up this way before any press release. The link graph announces the deal early.

Watch this space.