Would it be better to Start Over vs doing a Website Migration?

[MarshallThompson]

Hey guys /gals

I have a question please.  I have a computer repair business that does extremely well in search and is on the front page of google for anything computer repair related.

However, I am currently re-branding my company and have completely redesigned every aspect of the UI and the SEO Site structure as well as the fact that I have completely written vastly different content and different title tag lines and meta descriptions for each page.

So basically when doing a migration we know that we want to keep our content, titles, headlines and meta descriptions the same as to not lose our page rank.

Seeing that I have completely went against the grain in all directions on a much needed company re-branding and everything is completely different from the old site is it even worthwhile 301 redirecting my old urls to the new ones that would (best) correspond with the new?

In the plainest English, would I do better at Ranking the New Website QUICKER without doing 301 redirects from the OLD to the NEW?

In an EXTREME instance like what I have done, would the Domain Migration IMPEDED me ranking the new site seeing how nothing is the same?

I have build a Rock solid SILO Site Architecture on the New site which is WordPress using the Thesis Framework and the old domain is built on JOOMLA 1.5

Thank fellas

Marshall

[MarshallThompson]

Hey thanks Keri and how are you?

[KeriMorgret]

Moz has recently had a little bit of experience with a rebrand, changing domains, changing URLs, implementing redirects, and a variety of other fun things to keep us busy. Ruth Burr, our in-house SEO, is giving a Mozinar that talks in-depth about this migration on Thursday, with a chance for you to ask questions at the end. If you're not able to attend the webinar, we'll have it online for download within two days.

You can reserve your spot at http://moz.com/webinars, as well as see all the past webinars we've done, and what else is scheduled in the future.

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Marshall,

one resource I think is very valuable regardless of if someone is new or have been doing it for long time this is a great search engine optimization is this guide please do not think that I am giving you this because I think you are a beginner I know you are not. And I agree with you Google has made things kind of nuts in the last 3 to 5 years.

http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

It is definitely the right place to start if you are just picking up after a couple years off.

Sincerely,

Thomas

[MarshallThompson]

Thanks gents and figured as much.

I had to ask though. Although I am very good at SEO and coding and everything else, that means moot if you are not current with the recent GOOGLE drama that has been punishing everyone for the last 2 years now.

3-5 years ago, I could build a site and rank it on the first page for pretty much everything without even doing any back link building but...once again.. we are talking 5 years ago when things were a lot different and a lot less harder too.

Never hurts to ask the folks that do this stuff for their primary source of income know what I mean fellas?

Thanks once again to all of you for your responses to my question.

Sincerely,

Marshall  : )

[Anti-Alex]

Just like the 2 suggestions, it's really best to keep both sites. Move forward with the new site and re-brand your company but don't scrap the original website. Add a banner, write up, some news explaining the re-brand and point the original site to the new site. You'll create a backlink and if the person is genuinely interested in what you have to offer, they'll follow to the new website.

301 any page that are relevant from the original site to the new site. If both sites have a products page then you can point it over. Google will naturally figure out what you did and start passing any relevant benefits to the new site.

[BlueprintMarketing]

Hi Marshall,

You're rebuilding your current website in WordPress using thesis framework. And you're asking basically if you you should do 301 redirects or not?

Absolutely you should do 301 redirects if you want to keep any part of your rank which sounds like it is doing pretty good. I would feel when redirect every page to the new page that has taken it's place. Also for word press I would strongly recommend using manage WordPress hosting

WP engine, zippykid, web synthesis, and Pagely are excellent choices.

I hope I've been of help,

Thomas

[Mike_Davis]

Please...dear God don't scrap your website (especially if you are ranking well for it).  Even if the content is completely different, figure out where to redirect your legacy pages to and use 301 redirects.  Just make sure that you are doing one to one redirects to maintain as much of your link equity as possible.  Sorry for such a short and simple response to your long question, but this only required a simple answer.  If you are offering the same products or services create a massive .htaccess file and redirect the hell out of your old site.

You owe me a Coke.