Swapping site contents over.

[ozsubasi]

My #1 site was hit by Penguin, #2 was not. Both are built on the same platform (Open Realty) and I have an idea which I would be grateful for opinions on.
Basically what I am considering is swapping the contents over between the two sites. #2 site is ranking quite well for most of the keywords that I was aiming it with #1 site (and which prior to Penguin were mostly on the first page of a Google search) without my trying very hard.
The difference between them is that #1 features all the real estate we have for sale whereas #2 is all about only those which we have built ourselves. So they both have similar information pages and I wouldn't need to rename them, and in fact could leave some of them as they are.
In the main it would mean deleting some from #1 and adding them to #2, and likewise with the property listings.
For the home pages, I would swap the main content but leave everything else the same.
I don't plan on doing any 301 redirecting because I don't want to tansfer any possible problems from bad links from #1 to #2.
#1 is PR4 home page with PR2 and PR1 inner pages, #2 is PR3 home page and PR2 inner pages so I don't really have any "link juice issues". The pages and property listings I migrate from #1 to #2 are going to be "new content" so that should help further with SERP.
I'm not concerned about exisitng clients being confused because I can simply email them, and in the main the sites are for potential new clients anyway.
There is no issue over the domain names, because both are relevant to the contents of both sites. There is the added advantage that site #2 is a .co.uk (#1 is .com) and the UK is my main geographic target.

So far I can only see possible benefits, and what I need please is some realism and fault finding with my plan.

[claybutler]

DON'T DO IT! I'm serious. Just don't do it. A dramatic change like that could send both sites into a tailspin. Who knows what algorythmic filters that could trip.

Just keep working the content and inbound links on the fallen site. It will probably swing back over time.

[timesheet]

Actually one must not forget that Google has its own database of all internet websites that are crawl-able. Also, when a content from one website is swapped onto another, Google believe its content duplication and then a lot of problems arise, such as complete website copy, Inner link problems, onpage problems, etc. So, never do something innovative and something new, as Google is tracking down everything, now a days.

[ozsubasi]

DON'T DO IT! I'm serious. Just don't do it. A dramatic change like that could send both sites into a tailspin. Who knows what algorythmic filters that could trip.
Just keep working the content and inbound links on the fallen site. It will probably swing back over time.

Thanks very much for your advice. It is difficult to be patient, as whenever I think I have made some progress, the site slips back again and I'm losing business opportunities. Although the #2 site is ranking well it isn't delivering leads because the content isn't there for it to happen. It wasn't designed to be much more than an indulgence really, it is aimed at a small market. Without potential clients seeing the range that we have, I'm not going to attract them. That range is on the #1 site but the pages are so far down that they may as well not be there, #2 site can be found but it doesn't carry the range.

I wasn't planning on a wholesale changeover all in one go, but to do it over a period of time. Perhaps move one information page that is now doing nothing from #1 to #2, leave it for a week or so and see what happens. I couldn't transfer the listings in one go anyway because I'd have to do it manually and it would be quite a long job.

But you have given me something more to think about, and I appreciate that. I hadn't seen a downside to my plan and I needed to be able to.

[davidweb]

Thanks very much for your advice. It is difficult to be patient, as whenever I think I have made some progress, the site slips back again and I'm losing business opportunities. Although the #2 site is ranking well it isn't delivering leads because the content isn't there for it to happen. It wasn't designed to be much more than an indulgence really, it is aimed at a small market. Without potential clients seeing the range that we have, I'm not going to attract them. That range is on the #1 site but the pages are so far down that they may as well not be there, #2 site can be found but it doesn't carry the range.

I wasn't planning on a wholesale changeover all in one go, but to do it over a period of time. Perhaps move one information page that is now doing nothing from #1 to #2, leave it for a week or so and see what happens. I couldn't transfer the listings in one go anyway because I'd have to do it manually and it would be quite a long job.

But you have given me something more to think about, and I appreciate that. I hadn't seen a downside to my plan and I needed to be able to.

I would prefer to do Hara-Kiri on my website myself rather than indulging in this content swapping and letting Google to do the same. Google can behave very strangely when it comes to playing with content.