Site Ranks on Page 1 - Would launching new site hurt that
-
Hello,
I currently have a website ranking in the top 7 for my main keyword.
The website was built in 2004 and is definitely outdated, yet still ranks very high and brings in business.
If i launched a new site on this domain, what would happen to my rankings?
Would they drop? would they rise?
If i don't launch the new site, will this site eventually drop due to being old and outdated?
Any advice would be helpful...
-
Excellent article covering everything that should be taken into consideration when launching a replacement website / website migration. Definitely recommended for the member asking the original question to work through each points contained within the article.
Great resource Keri.
-
We had a great guide posted about this in February that you might want to look at. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-site-migration-guide-tips-for-seos
-
I have actually done this a number of times with some of my businesses. Sometimes along with launching a new site I even changed servers - so it was a bit more drastic. The good news is that while I did sometimes see a slight drop for 2-3 days in the site traffic it came back quickly, and as long as the new design is esthetically more pleasing to your users, you will make up for the lost profit for those few days shortly.
Of course, as everybody says the key is doing the 301 correctly and making sure the main site structure is the same. In almost all the cases I did this, I kept most the file names the same. Also, try to keep the keyword density you have on your current site the same in the text on the new site (at least on the most important pages). This should keep the effect of the change to a minimum.Good luck.
-
There is literally tons of factors to consider. Primarily, how much will the website be changing, one would only presume considerate research has been carried out and the changes are for the better (both from a usability and optimisation perspective).
Some questions to ask...
- Will the URL's / URL structure change at all or will all URL paths be kept intact?
- Will the actual content on each page be changing at all?
- Is any content being removed or added?
These three questions will pose the biggest ranking changes...
All three should be addressed for the better which should then see a positive climb in rankings (if anything at all). If any URL's are changed, as Erik points out, 301 redirecting these is essential, however this won't pass 100% weight through to the new destinations so it's possible the authority leakage on these alone could cause a drop in rankings (temporary of otherwise).
Hope that helps for now.
-
You should be alright with a new site, just make sure you don't lose your architecture. If you are going to have a completely new architecture, then you need to make sure you are 301 redirecting everything correctly. You may see a little dip, but if done well, you will be fine.
-
You can hold youre positions and maybe rise, but work with 301 redirects on old pages!
Every old page need to be redirected.
Read al the information here: http://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=83105
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Changing top level navigation between site sections
We've got an internal proposal to change our top level nav depending on the section of the site. For example, on our homepage it might read: Products, Library, About with relevant links dropping down below. As we have varied products, the drop down underneath it would include the various families. When arriving on the product family page the top-level nav would change to represent more specific offerings. For example: xxx.com 1. Products; 2. Library; 3. About xxx.com/xxx 1. Product family 1; 2. Product family 2; 3. Product family 3; 4. Library; 5. About What are the SEO/UX implications of this? It seems confusing but allows more specific navigation via the main nav depending on the section of the site. Also it seems that an alternating TLN might not be too Google-friendly.
Web Design | | gwelch0 -
How to correct error in customized posttype WP site
Hi folks Can anybody help me. I foolishly, dogedly followed a Lynda.com tutorial for developing an 'online portfolio in WP'. Little did I know that my initial assumption - to use the 'twenty twelve' rather than the 'twenty eleven' theme would land me in such deep water. I was attempting to learn php on my own. All went well, until, --- the index page for the customized post type. Now I have two beautiful customized posttypes, 'companies' 'coverage' and no idea how to create an index page for either. I can't do the next step! I have tried every permutation - changing the permalink settings, changing them back, desperately searching for any handle to the nebulous links within the menu section. The only thing I can do (and have done for now) is to link the menu item 'company' and the menu item 'coverage' to a single post. Then the poor visitor has to scroll through the posts individually. I tried contacting the tutor and Lynda.com, to no avail! I have searched forums and found this is a common problem, but because I am so confused and novice to php they might as well be speaking Chinese. To compound my problems, looking through 'Wordpress SEO' for Yoast, I am painfully aware I can't go to the first basic step and fix the peramilinks to 'Postname' as that just makes my flakey menu collapse like a pack of cards. Help!
Web Design | | catherine-2793880 -
Duplicate page title caused by Shopify CMS
Hi, We have an ecommerce site set up at devlinsonline.com.au using Shopify and the MOZ crawl is returning a huge number (hundreds!) of Duplicate Page Title errors. The issue seems to be the way that Shopify uses tagging to sort products. So, using the 'Riedel' collection as an example, the urls devlinsonline.com.au/collections/riedel-glasses/ devlinsonline.com.au/collections/riedel-glasses/decanters devlinsonline.com.au/collections/riedel-glasses/vinum all have the exact same page title. We are also having the same issue with the blog and other sections of our site. Is this something that is actually a serious issue or, perhaps, is Google's algorithm intelligent enough to recognise that this is part of Shopify's layout so it will not negatively affect our rankings and can, essentially, be ignored? Thanks.
Web Design | | SimonDevlin0 -
I need help with international SEO for two sites?
I'll try to keep this clear... I am working with an company based in Germany, they own company.com/de and company.com/en, and that's how they are currently structuring their domains. They also own companyusa.com that they really want to show up in USA only. They want to keep company.com/en for England/english speaking Europe and company.com/de for their German audience in Germany. They are wanting us to optimize/SEO for companyusa.com, and they want that URL to show up as the top google search in the USA for their "company" keyword. What is showing up now is www.company.com/en 1st in Google because it's been around longer and it has more domain authority. What is the best practice for us optimize companyusa.com so that it is the top dog in the USA while not messing up the other domains? Should we merge? Subfolders all around? Thanks for all the input.
Web Design | | Rocket.Fuel0 -
Does Google have problem crawling ssl sites?
We have a site that was ranking well and recently dropped in traffic and ranking. The whole site is https and and not just the shopping pages. Thats the way the server is setup, they make whole site https. My manager thinks the drop in ranking is due to google not crawling https. I think contrary, but would like some feedback on this. Site is here
Web Design | | anthonytjm0 -
What else should you call the Home page?
In the menu bar and footer the main page is called Home. Would it confuse people to rename it to Business Name Home or Business Name? How do you handle this?
Web Design | | CFSSEO0 -
International SEO issues for multiple sites
We currently have 3 websites: oursite.co.uk oursite.fr oursite.ch We also own Oursite.com, and that URL currently redirects to Oursite.fr. We are considering a complete site redesign and a possible merge of the 3 sites. Assumptions: ** the 3 sites currently receive organic search traffic to varying degrees
Web Design | | darkgreenguy
** Oursite.ch is almost identical to Oursite.fr in terms of the site content
** Our target market is NOT the USA for English-language searches. It is the UK. With a re-design, we see our options as follows: Merge the 3 sites and make Oursite.com the "main site" and then have subfolders as follows: /uk /fr /ch Keep the 3 sites as they are. We see Option 1 as the best in terms of saving time when updating the site, and saving money paid to the site developers (1 site vs 3 sites). We see Option 2 as the best in terms of ability of the site to rank, as well as confidence of searchers when seeing our site in the search results (in other words, a person searching in France would be more likely to buy and/or submit a form on our site if they saw Oursite.fr vs Oursite.com/fr). I guess we're looking for some suggestions/guidance here. Are we missing any big issues? Does anyone have experience with an issue such as this? Thank you in advance...
-Shawn0 -
What is the optimal URL Structure for Internal Pages
Is it more SEO friendly to have an internal page URL structure that reads like www.smithlawfirm.com/personal-injury/car-accidents or www.smithlawfirm.com/personal-injury-car-accidents? The former structure has the benefit of showing Google all the sub-categories under personal injury; the later the benefit of a flatter structure. Thanks
Web Design | | rarbel0