Will changing my website hinder SEO?

[Curtis]

I'm currently thinking of removing the ecommerce function from my site an opting to have a more brochure style. Basically I don't want to be as focussed on selling more on the quality etc. I could still have online transactions as I do most often through email, which leads to payment through PayPal or BACS.

My main concern is that I'm 1 on Google for 'printing hull' and high up for similar terms and this does mean I get a fair few enquiries as a direct result. Would changing the site, pretty much completely (except 50% of content - text etc) would stay the same cause these rankings to drop do you think?

 

[unet]

depends if you are changing the structure of the site ( aprt from ecommerce bit ) easily sorted out though - 301 redirect.

 

[upsite]

Hi Printing Hull,

I think it's good that you have raised the question, especially if you are unsure. There's quite a few knock-on effects that can be caused by changing a website's structure, navigation and hierarchy.

In a nutshell it's important to 301 redirect old pages to new equivalent ones. This keeps their 'juice' from external links flowing. Without redirects, Google will crawl these pages and notice they are gone (and cause 404 errors) - this is bad news.

It's also poor from the user's perspective - they may find one of your old pages in the search results. If it isn't 301 redirected, they will just see the good old error 404 page cannot be displayed message. If that's the case they will probably move onto a competitor having not found what they wanted to.

The first thing to do would be to gather a list of all of the pages that you have indexed in all of the major search engines. As you undergo your planning and re-build, bear these in mind and don't forget about them.

It's not as daunting as it sounds, it's just that not done correctly, it will definitely have repercussions. I work closely with a design agency who re-build websites regularly and turn to me to ensure the transition in the eyes of the search engines is smooth.

If you have any questions or would like any assistance, just drop me a message.

John.

 

[Blagger]

I doubt the rankings would drop if you are just removing the ecommerce side and keeping the rest. Google can't crawl anything past your sign in page after the shopping cart page so you really aren't losing much in SEO terms.

However if it was me I would leave the ecommerce side as an option for a customer to complete purchase from. Do you get a lot of business through the checkout side on the site or do more customers call to place orders?

 

[astutiumRob]

Would changing the site, pretty much completely (except 50% of content - text etc) would stay the same cause these rankings to drop do you think?

Very, very likely, although not necessarily to any detriment.

Whenever you change *content* you (potentially) alter your ranking - and 50% is a *serious* rework of the content.

First you need to ascertain
* which pages are indexed
as well as
* which are driving *real* visitors for you

 

[OliviaSSLGuru]

IF the ecommerce section has anything to do with the meta details, description or keywords on the page, then it can affect the rankings. But you can regain from such changes.

 

[breaktheseal]

I'm guessing you are the domain printinghull .co.uk (that was number 1 when I ran the search)

To be honest, any changes you make are going to be minimal for those kind of rankings, you have an exact match domain and your title tag for the homepage is Printing Hull. Which is a major reason you hold #1 on google for that term.

However, some rankings that may be effected are for the long tail keywords - have a look at analytics and see which pages get traffic through which keywords - eg 400gsm business cards.

I'm not sure why you'd want to remove the convenience of being able to buy online? Rather than taking that away, why not just make your value proposition more quality orientated and still sell online?

Hope this helps.