New website on old domain

[Vision]

We had our new website go live just before Christmas replacing our old site which was about 4 years old.

The new website is built using a totally different system (opencart) so all product and category page URLs have changed, i was wondering how long is it likely to be until our new pages are coming up on google searches?

I've submitted the site map to google and its saying 805 pages are indexed but im still finding URLs for the old site coming up in searches. . is there anything else i need to do or do i just need to sit and wait?

Cheers

Mark

 

[Faevilangel]

Did you do 301 redirects?

Sent from my HTC Desire using UK Business Forums

 

[stender]

As above you should redirect the old pages to the new using redirects in your hot access file. assuming your site ranks ok on the old site.

 

[ITsoldUK]

Was the old site using the same ext (such as .php) as the new one?

 

[Tin]

If it's the website that's mentioned in your UKBF profile http://www.visionguitars.co.uk then it's currently got some sort of problem as it's taking more than 5 mins to load into my browser at the moment.

 

[nitro23456]

Personally, I would revisit site design.

There is very little content on there presently and there is a hell of a lot of code for the search engines to wade through before they hit meaningful text. Also, to me your rotating banners are a little meaningless possibly only with the exception of the £139 package banner. Yes people like to see your physical store as it builds buyer trust, but I would have had that static behind your main vision guitars logo (or on an about us page) with your rotating banners pointing towards more defined areas of the online shop with less random products on the homepage and more content.

That aside, as mentioned above, 301 redirects should have been used if your new pages don't match up to the old version.

 

[Vision]

Thanks Nitro,

Just wondering, when you say more content do you mean i should have more products or should i add more info about the products on the home page?

What is good content for an ecommerce homepage without getting in to the "About Us" stuff which as you said should be on its own page.

Cheers

Mark

 

[ITsoldUK]

Your shop window or homepage can be full off offers and teasers.

In my humble op concentrate on content via your product pages.

So. BOT has your new site got the same ext as the old one? .html for example

I advise for FREE. If I touch it, I charge.

 

[Vision]

Thanks, yeah i have been concentrating on product pages, yes i think both websites have the same ext

Cheers

Mark

 

[Faevilangel]

I can't be very specific as website reviews aren't allowed (gotta be a paid member) but your product pages are good but the homepage is awful, it needs redoing.

Google wants content, and the homepage has very little and it's at the bottom of the page.

Tone down the number of items, and get the content at the top, with blurb about your products.

 

[babblemouth]

your product pages are good but the homepage is awful, it needs redoing.

Google wants content, and the homepage has very little and it's at the bottom of the page.

Faevilangel
That really chuckled me

 

[Alan]

Back to the original question, how long will the old URLs hang around.

The answer, in my experienece, is a couple of weeks normally, once google has tried to index them a few times and they are missing multiple times they fade away.

(others have mentioned 301 redirects, which can be a painful excercise on a large e-shop if there is no way you can link your previous structure to you new url structures, but it is worth looking at your webmaster tools to see if you have any specific valuable (deeplink) backlinks to the old structure and 301ing them - chances are that most of your backlinks woul dbe to your root domain anyway and not specific products/ categories - but it is worth checking)

 

Thanks, yeah i have been concentrating on product pages, yes i think both websites have the same ext

Cheers

Mark

You need an SEO to run through the site with you.

Titles,targeting,content.e.t.c are doing you no favours.IMHO

 

[Fresco_Creative]

We had our new website go live just before Christmas replacing our old site which was about 4 years old.

The new website is built using a totally different system (opencart) so all product and category page URLs have changed, i was wondering how long is it likely to be until our new pages are coming up on google searches?

I've submitted the site map to google and its saying 805 pages are indexed but im still finding URLs for the old site coming up in searches. . is there anything else i need to do or do i just need to sit and wait?

Cheers

Mark

Has there been a fully prepared xml site map submitted? This will help no end

 

[Vision]

Has there been a fully prepared xml site map submitted? This will help no end

Yes its set up as a feed in webmaster tools, this is the site map link

http://www.visionguitars.co.uk/index.php?route=feed/google_sitemap

Cheers

Mark

 

[Alan]

Opps, I misread - it isn't how long the old ones hang around, it is when will the new ones show!!!!
(the answer is a few minutes after google has crawled and indexed the site)


Looks like the new ones are not indexed at all yet.

Have you 'forced' a re-index using webmaster tools yet?

Go to webmaster tools > health > fetch as google
FETCH tthe top level domain
after a few minutes you will get a tick with a buttom [submit to index]
click that
when the box opens up, change the radio button to ' URL and all linked pages' and hit OK

this hopefully will force a recrawl of your site very quickly.

 

[Vision]

Opps, I misread - it isn't how long the old ones hang around, it is when will the new ones show!!!!
(the answer is a few minutes after google has crawled and indexed the site)


Looks like the new ones are not indexed at all yet.

Have you 'forced' a re-index using webmaster tools yet?

Go to webmaster tools > health > fetch as google
FETCH tthe top level domain
after a few minutes you will get a tick with a buttom [submit to index]
click that
when the box opens up, change the radio button to ' URL and all linked pages' and hit OK

this hopefully will force a recrawl of your site very quickly.

Just done as you suggested, thanks so much for that.

Mark

 

[Alan]

Yes, that has done the trick

google "site:http://www.visionguitars.co.uk 1.5m-Jack-to-Jack-Speaker-Lead" and you will get the new site page for that item, indexed correctly.

the old .html pages will still remain indexed for a while (as per my original answer) until google gets bored not finding them (your webmaster tools 404 missing pages stats will go crazy for the next couple of weeks)