Wordpress advice needed

[andy@telecomhelpcouk]

Hiya folks, seeking some advice on changing a website completely. I've built what I want using a separate domain and using a new Theme I bought in the market. Everything has changed including pics, links etc.

Are there any major SEO pitfalls in just replacing the old content with new? There's precious little traffic to the site at present but it has been up for 3 years in its present form.

Your advice is appreciated.

PS I will need to pay for design help with the layout, outline SEO, Analytics etc. Please PM me if interested.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

you will need to ensure that the urls remain the same, if not, then you must set up a 301 redirect for each page if you want to keep its age. Try to keep the content in the same niche per page.

 

[fisicx]

I've done just as you have. The pages have exactly the same content and the navigation is unchanged. I set up 301 redirects from the old html site to the wordpress pages and within a day or two Google had updated the index and the site ranks exactly where it was before.

So with a little care and attention you should be ok.

 

[Faevilangel]

As above, you will need to do 301 redirects from the old url to the new, add that to the htaccess file and anyone landing on the old url will be taken to the new one.

If you didn't want to edit the htaccess file, then this plugin may be of use (I have never used it but seems to make the process easier for those not familiar with htaccess rules).

 

[CabinLIving]

you will need to ensure that the urls remain the same, if not, then you must set up a 301 redirect for each page if you want to keep its age. Try to keep the content in the same niche per page.

I beleive he said it was on a separate domain so re-directs will not apply.

Basically google will rate one or the other if the new site grows and gets more links and more pages it will be rated higher than the old site. There is some debate about having both up and running but we have sister sites that generate a healthy percentage of traffic (15%) and over tiime have established their own identity as the content grows.

 

[fisicx]

Still fairly easy to do.

On the old domain set up a permanent redirect to the new domain.

On the new domain sett up the 301 redirect to the new WP pages.

So anyone going to the old site will be redirected to the new and when they get there the 301 will send them to the new WP pages.

 

[andy@telecomhelpcouk]

The new domain is purely a holding device to test what my new site looks like.

I'm effectively replacing my main website content and structure.

Andy

 

[FreshPage Web Design]

There are no SEO pitfalls to changing content as long as the new content is better (from an SEO point of view) than the old and as long as the topic is roughly the same. In fact, Google likes sites which are updated - it's an indicator that the content may be more relevant to today's internet users.

As for changing structure, the best thing to do is to put 301 redirects into your htaccess file which redirect from the old pages to the nearest corresponding new page. This will indicate to Google (and to users) that the page has permanently moved, so all the "Google juice" will flow onto the new page.

 

[manjit129]

There are no SEO pitfalls to changing content as long as the new content is better (from an SEO point of view) than the old and as long as the topic is roughly the same. In fact, Google likes sites which are updated - it's an indicator that the content may be more relevant to today's internet users.

As for changing structure, the best thing to do is to put 301 redirects into your htaccess file which redirect from the old pages to the nearest corresponding new page. This will indicate to Google (and to users) that the page has permanently moved, so all the "Google juice" will flow onto the new page.

This is not strictly true, if the new content weighs up, then it should be ok. But, be ready for your ranking to drop for a few days/weeks, then rise again afterwards. It may not rise to the same position again, there are a few factors to consider. But, if you do this properly, you can actually beat your previous ranking.

Main thing is though, don't expect your ranking to stay the same when you change the content, there will be some movement. Just don't want you to get a huge shock when you see that your website is no longer ranked where it used to be.

 

[tycoonist]

As long as you don't change the domain name, you won't have any problem with traffic, unless you do.

Cheers.

 

[UKSBD]

This shows the importance of futureproofing

When building little static sites I used to have pages like /contact.html, /about.html, /terms.html, etc.

A couple of years ago I changed to just creating directories /contact/ ,
/about/, /terms/ , etc. and putting an index.html page in them.

Now if I want to convert these sites to Wordpress it is so much simpler

 

[WPsites]

Its very easy to have your page names as /contact.html, /about.html, /terms.html in WordPress, just use a plugin called something like "html on pages" which puts the html extension on pages (not posts). Same goes for php.