Partnership and SEO Implications

[chris_simonite]

I have a site (site A) which I merged about 7 years ago with another site (site B) for the purpose of branding and link building opportunity. Site a and site b became one site, namely site AB, but pointed at his domain name. We are now in a position where my partner from site B needs a contract for our services as he is taking on new directors. Until now we have always directed links to site B. I still own the copy from site A and he owns the copy from site B. Both sites are focussed on the same topic.

For the purpose of our contract we are thinking about what happens if we separate and need to minimise the impact in terms of seo. Ostensibly I will continue to own site A and he will continue to own site B. However, as I don't currently have a domain name pointing to the site, in the event of separation, I would lose domain authority and take a massive hit in terms of website traffic as I would ostensibly be starting again from scratch.

I am thinking of adding a domain name to the site (with a low authority score but about 10 years of domain age) and directing links to both domains. This way, if we were to separate, I could take back site A with a domain name and improved authority and he could have site B back. Would this work? Obviously there will be some adverse impact on traffic, but I would hope this would be minimised? Any feedback would be gratefully received.