SEO Considerations for a Platform Change
-
We are getting ready to move our e-commerce platform from Zencart to Magento as the original Zencart framework is pretty dated. while I'm excited to move to a more modern platform, I'm terrified at the potential SEO risk involved with doing so given that all URLs will likely be different and we're considering updating many product listings. Almost all of the site's traffic is organic, so maintaining rankings is extremely important.
I'd love any advice, but especially that related to:
-
Best way to redirect all new URLs sitewide
-
The prudence of heavily editing product listings at the same time of redirecting the URL (i.e. updating product descriptions)
-
Site structure: Should I strive to keep the new site link structure as similar to the old as possible?
-
Resources or guides on transitioning a site from a SEO perspective
-
Other major facets I'm missing
I appreciate any help or sights you can offer! Thank you....
-
-
I'd say to start with an excel spreadsheet and then copy them all over in one big batch. You're probably going to need some coffee.
At the very least, you should keep the redirects there for 6 months. If you drop the 301's then you also lose the inbound links, so it's best to keep them there as long as possible.
-
Bryce,
Thanks for your reply! A follow-up question:
Is the best way to do 300+ page-to-page redirects simply by entering them all into the .htacess file? If so, how long do I need to keep these .htaccess redirects available? Once Google indexes them, and indexes the redirects, will they be permanently stored in the Google cache? Or should I leave them permanently just in case?
-
1) Best way to redirect all new URLs sitewide
Page to Page redirects is the best solution, even though it's a major pain. I would take a look at your traffic data for at least the past 90 days, possibly even further, and create a 301 map from every page with inbound traffic to the correlating page on the new site.
2) The prudence of heavily editing product listings at the same time of redirecting the URL (i.e. updating product descriptions)
If you're up to it. However if rankings drop then you won't be able to track it back to a particular change.
3) Site structure: Should I strive to keep the new site link structure as similar to the old as possible?
If the current site structure converts well, then maybe you should stick with it. The nice thing about switching to a new platform is it's a great opportunity to reinvent your site if you feel like it needs it.
4) Resources or guides on transitioning a site from a SEO perspective
This article might be a little dated, but it should point you in the right direction. http://www.seomoz.org/blog/10-things-relaunch-your-website
Good luck!
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
-
Does interlinking on mobile site helps in seo & improvement in rankings
Hi, Does interlinking on mobile site helps in seo & improvement in rankings. Our desktop site & mobile site has same urls. Regards
Web Design | | vivekrathore0 -
Booking Engine SEO Question
Hello, I am working on a travel site-mostly content based, but for the deals section of the site, we were thinking of being powered by expedia...if we go with a booking engine (Expedia) will that hurt us with regards to SEO? If Google is looking for content and not another booking engine how can we overcome this? Do you think this approach is positive? any thoughts or advice on this, thanks so much.
Web Design | | lanigreg0 -
Does having a Blog link in the top level navigation provide any better SEO value, or would having it in a footer or top navigation work just as good?
Trying to decide on whether placing a link to the blog in our top level navigation would have a better SEO value than just placing it in top or footer navigation. I have an ecommerce site.
Web Design | | RPD0 -
How do I gain full SEO value from individual property pages?
A client of ours has a vacation rental business with rental locations all over the country. Their old sites were a messy assembly of black hat, broken links and htaccess files that were used over and over on each site. We are redoing everything for them, in one site, with multiple subdirectories for individual locations, like Aspen, Fort Meyers, etc. Anyhow, I'm putting together the SEO plan for the site and I have a problem. The individual rental properties have great SEO value (lots of text, indexable pictures, can create google/bing location pages), and are great for linking in social media (Look at this wonderful property, rental price just reduced!). However, I don't want individual properties, which will have very similar keywords, links, descriptions, etc, competing with each other when indexed. Truth be told, I don't really want search engines linking directly to the individual property pages at all. The intended browsing experience should allow a user to "narrow down" exactly what they're seeking using the site until the perfect rental appears. What I want is for searchers to be directed to the property listing index that most closely matches what they're seeking (Ft. Meyers Rental Condos or Breckenridge Rental Homes), and then allow them to narrow it down from there. This is ideal for the users, because it allows them to see all available properties that match what they want, and ideal for the customer, because it applies dozens of pages of SEO mojo to a single index, rather than dozens of pages. So I can't "noindex" or "nofollow", because I want all that good SEO mojo. I can't REL=CANONICAL, because the property pages aren't similar enough to the index. I can't 301 Redirect because I want the users to be able to see the property pages at some point. I'm stymied.
Web Design | | SpokeHQ0 -
SEO and Modal Windows
Hi all, My website has a Login and Join Us option on every page in the site. Each Login and Join Us window pops up as a modal window. In other words, the user must interact with it before they are taken somewhere else (whether they close it or fill it in). It has come to my attention that this is being counted as duplicate content. Is there any way around this? It's calling duplicate content on practically the whole website. Thanks in advance!
Web Design | | Info12340 -
Video SEO?
What is the best way to get SEO benefits from video? Which service is best? YouTube, Vimeo or any other? Or is best just to upload direct to my own site? But then how would I handle mobile devices i.e. iPad and iPhone? How does one go about marketing a video? Thanks
Web Design | | bronxpad0 -
Site Activity, SEO, and behind login
I have a site that provides online education and as such, most of the user activity happens behind a login. This has me thinking about potential SEO impacts with a few questions that maybe someone could lend some light on: How important is activity (above just search activity) to the search engines Would it help to enter these pages, even though they're behind a login, into GA as we have with the front-end of the site Does a subdomain make a difference (right now we implement the course as a subdomain of the main site Lastly, as I was looking at compete.com, I am wondering how they get these use statistics?
Web Design | | uwaim20120 -
Turning my Design Business site into a site to promote SEO
I need advice on retooling my website for my SEO biz. I have shifted my business model from graphic designer who does websites, to "internet marketing consultant who does graphics too". My main website and domain name is over 10 years old, so I've made the decision to keep it, even though it has no keywords in the name. The name works well for the new business, otherwise. The site has a PR3 and I rank well for small business advertising terms, which gets me graphic design business. I intend to keep doing graphic design, but that is a smaller part of my income. I had considered making 3 satellite sites with keyword domain names to cover my offerings of graphic design SEO, website development, and internet marketing. But am leaning against it for several reasons (that all of us SEO's know) but mainly the fact that I cannot keep up with both working for my clients and blogging on multiple sites and link building for multiple sites. So my question is (you knew there was one coming, right?), what is the best approach to building categories of web development, internet marketing, and SEO into my existing graphic design/advertising oriented website? This is slightly embarrassing to ask as an SEO, but given the multiple approaches possible, and knowing the importance of doing it right the first time, it's best to get an consensus perspective on the BEST approach. My main concerns are the navigation system and the links from the homepage into the site. I have too many pages I've identified as essential to link off of the home page and navigation menus? (Website development, social media marketing, link building, keyword research, pay per click, online advertising, graphic design, brochures, catalogs, Logos, Branding, SEO, keyword research etc.) I've always tried for the ratio of one link off of any page for every 100 words of content. Do I create a home page that is of monster proportions? Do I just have the 4 basic areas linking off the home page then create a "landing zone" of 4 folders and create down from that? I am concerned about URL length as I go deeper with that approach. Or, does it make more sense to have a dozen second-level pages, and not link them all off the home page, and build from beneath (and relying on external juice). Next issue is the nav system. It will be huge. Am I best off just keeping it to 4-6, and creating subnavigation on everypage within the site according to section (PITA)? I've read dozens of blog opinions on how much nav systems do or do not hurt link juice. I've always thought footer links were right next to worthless to pass any juice, but given this situation, does it make sense to make a footer link for each major page (about 20)? Thanks for your opinions.
Web Design | | JCDenver0