Will There Be Much Impact When Moving Site To New Root Folder?
-
Hi, ok so I have a pretty big site that is located on my sever /root/current-folder/. I want to rebuild the site completely as it's using software that is out of date and not our main focus anymore (OpenCart).
We want to move to a Wordpress platform, but want to have as little impact on the SEO as possible.
Our current strategy is:
- List all URLs/Titles/Meta indexed with Google on current site
- Create new folder on the server /root/new-folder/
My question is... if I move to a new folder on the server (same TLD) and then re-route the TLD to go to this new folder, will there be more of an impact on SEO that if I start a fresh in the current folder?
Thanks
-
Hi Alex
If I understand this, you're changing the literal file folder on your server, but to the user and in the browser the URLs and folders stay the same?
If so, there's no danger here. Just redirect and URLs that do change.
-Dan
PS (I think James, understandably, misunderstood the question - you only need to worry if URLs in the browser change.)
-
Thanks James. My issue is that I need to keep the current site (Opencart) rolling whilst I build the new one in the background (Wordpress).
If I install Wordpress on the current root folder where the current website is, it files will conflict and I'll be in a right mess.
-
What is the best way forward then? I have a root folder - then inside that root folder are tonnes of OpenCart files for the current website.
Do I just create a new folder in the root, call it v2 and install a Wordpress site there? Then have the domain name point to that new folder? Obviously keeping all urls in tact and 301 redirecting any unused previous urls.
Alex
-
Yes this will be exactly the same structure - just in a new folder on the same server
-
Hi Alex,
I would say if you maintain the exact same url structure e.g.:
before:
after:
You will be good with the search engines, independent in which server folder the new site is (current or new).
Hope this helps
-
Hi Alex,
Honestly I am not sure if I understand your problem correctly.
What does this mean "...I start a fresh in the current folder?"
1) /root/new-folder/
2) /root/new-folder/??? or what?
If you just put your files (new installation) in another folder and make your domain point to that folder, you should only taking care of redirecting the old urls to the new ones. There is nothing else to do in my opinion.
Cheers,
Cesare
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
-
Services\Companies that expertise to improve WP site speed ?
Hi guys, I used few companies to improve my WP site speed but in general the results were not that good. I wanted to know if there's any recommendation for companies that expert on improving speed of WP sites ? I need companies that this is what they do and that's their expertise! Thanks in advanced
Web Design | | EdmondHong870 -
Site Speed for Magento Site
We have our site all ready for test users but the site speed is painfully slow. Our developers are a bit stymied about what to do. Is anyone a site speed expert or know of anyone good that can evaluate our site and tell us what's going wrong? Thanks!
Web Design | | EcomLkwd1 -
New Website Redesign: Any Design Comments or SEO Suggestions?
Hi! We recently launched our new website after MONTHS of work. Now that it is live, we are looking to fine tune the design and SEO efforts. This is our new website. And for reference, this is our old website. Any and all comments on design and SEO would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your help! Mike
Web Design | | Mike.Goracke0 -
Hom much does getting a mobile website improve the "mobile ranking"?
There's been speculation about Google totally not ranking sites that are not mobile, but as far as I can see many sites rank THE SAME on mobile devices as on regular stationary PCs/lap-tops. I had hoped for a radically improved ranking once a mobile site was built. Or is it just that it takes a TON of time for it to go through and then it gets better or is it like with regular sites that a new mobile site on a sub-domain is parked in some form of mobile-sand-box? Also, does putting a mobile site on a ranking domain, as subdomain help, e.g. m.testingsite.com instead of testingsite.mobi ? Thanks.
Web Design | | yvonneq0 -
Hi Everybody. I have a large site that is made up of the main site then a large support site. The support site has a lot of overlapping content and similar titles. Would it be beneficial to separate the two? Thank you. All answers appreciated.
Hi Everybody. I have a large site that is made up of the main site then a large support site. The support site has a lot of overlapping content and similar titles. Would it be beneficial to separate the two? Thank you. All answers appreciated.
Web Design | | arithon0 -
Will upgrading my dedicated server improve my site speed
hi, at the moment i am concerned about my site speed for www.in2town.co.uk My hosting company is tmd hosting and my package is Intel Atom 330 1MB L2 Cache 1.6GH $159/mo $189/month500GBStorage4GBRAM10TBBandwidthi am looking at increasing this to**$219/mo** $289/month500GBStorage6GBRAM10TBBandwidthcan anyone let me know if this will make a difference to my site speed please
Web Design | | ClaireH-1848860 -
Multiple Sites, multiple locations similar / duplicate content
I am working with a business that wants to rank in local searches around the country for the same service. So they have websites such as OURSITE-chicago.com and OURSITE-seattle.com -- All of these sites are selling the same services, but with small variations in each state due to different legal standards in the state. The current strategy is to put up similar "local" websites with all the same content. So the bottom line is that we have a few different sites with the same content. The business wants to go national and is planning a different website for each location. In my opinion the duplicate content is a real problem. Unfortunately the nature of the service makes it so that there aren't many ways to say the same thing on each site 50 times without duplicate content. Rewriting content for each state seems like a daunting task when you have 70+ pages per site. So, from an SEO standpoint we have considered: Using the canonocalization tag on all but the central site... I think this would hurt all of the websites SERPs because none will have unique content. Having a central site with directories OURSITE.com/chicago -- but this creates a problem because we need to link back to the relevant content in the main site and ALSO have the unique "Chicago" content easily accessable to Chicago users while having Seattle users able to access their Seattle data. The best way we thought to do this was using a frame with a universal menu and a unique state based menu... Also not a good option because of frames will also hurt SEO. Rewrite all the same content 50 times. You can see why none of these are desirable options. But I know that plenty of websites have "state maps" on their main site. Is there a way to accomplish this in a way that doesn't make our copywriter want to kill us?
Web Design | | SysAdmin190 -
Question about web site structure
Is there an SEO advantage for individual pages to be in sub folders vs not being in a folder? Of course site managemnt is easier with folders if you have 100;s of pages...clearly a shorter URL is easier for humans to naviagte. store.com/gadgets store.com/lasers vs. store.com/gadgets/lasers
Web Design | | johnshearer0