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The website was built in 2004 and is definitely outdated, yet still ranks very high and brings in business.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If i don't launch the new site, will this site eventually drop due to being old and outdated?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
-
Are slides how's etc the new Splash Pages?
[How did Moz know that my question was about this?!] I've just completed an audit of nearly 50 websites in the tourism industry and 90% had a slideshow, large image or video taking up more than the initial screen on the fairly large screened Chromebook that I'm using. I'm advising them all to ditch this and am often getting resistance from the site owners and their web developers. I know that these can be better optimized for page load speed, which is poor for most of these sites, especially on mobile devices; but from a usability standpoint, are these affective at drawing in users? Do users take the time to view these? Are they annoyed at always having to scroll down to see if there is anything else useful on the homepage? I think they are like the splash pages of the past: poor for usability and SEO. I've advised to at least make sure that the images are sized so the top of the page fits any screen (some of them do resize well for mobile devices, but maybe not laptops/desktops), include text with calls to action and click through to relevant content. I've been noting that they aren't media businesses selling images or videos, so they need to get their offerings to the top of the page so that users can see and engage more quickly. Anyone have any stats or experience on this? Thanks, Ann
Web Design | | anndonnelly0 -
Migrating login page from website: SEO impact
Our current login page looks like www.website.com/log-in/. We are planning to migrate it to a sub directory login.website.com. For years, our login page is the top landing with highest visits after homepage. If we migrate this now, are we going to loose traffic and drop in rankings? Thanks
Web Design | | vtmoz0 -
Responsive Design vs Mobile For This Site?
They are going to do an entire website redesign for http://gaport.com/ and I think they should adhere to responsive design best practices. However, I'm just saying that because everything I have read says that's the "way of the future" if not the way of the present already. Any reason, they shouldn't do that and keep the desktop/mobile sites? Thanks, Ruben
Web Design | | KempRugeLawGroup0 -
Many errors from previous ecommerce site. Domain is now just a localized wordpress site.
Many errors from previous ecommerce site. Do I need to redirect every single page that no longer exists at this domain? loveyourcabinets.com used to be loveyourkitchenandbath.com but we have since changed course. We want loveyourkitchenandbath.com to be our local site on Long Island and NYC. Loveyourcabinets.com will be an ecommerce project that I'll be revamping in the coming months. I think Moz as well as Google still has all of the old ecommerce pages indexed. And of course, Moz is shooting me a bunch of error all regarding pages from the ecommerce site that used to be on loveyourkitchenandbath.com. Any thoughts? Commentary? Thx
Web Design | | loveyourkitchen0 -
Home page redirect - will this cause an SEO problem
Hello, We are using Wordpress to build a wiki site. The wiki plugin we're using (Wordpress Wiki lite) can only be set up on an internal page like nlpwiki(dot)org/wiki Can we redirect the home page to the /wiki subdirectory and use nlpwiki(dot)org/wiki as our home page? I've never done that, just wondering if it will be indexed as the home page or if there are any connonical issues. Thanks!
Web Design | | BobGW0 -
E-commerce Site Layout
I have got an e-commerce site already and i am thinking of staring a new e-commerce site with new domain, but i will keep the layout and design same. Products would be similar to what i sell on my other ecommerce site Will Google Penalise me of having same layout and same design or is it ok to open multiple ecommerce sites with same layouts
Web Design | | usef4u0 -
I have a question about converting a flash site to word press
We're changing one of our site to word press from flash and the old site had no content, so everything is going to be different. Should we try to match the page names and small amount of content and large amount of meta tags for now and slowly change them, or is it alright to change everything right now? The site has good ranking and I don't want to mess it up.
Web Design | | allstatetransmission0 -
Landing Page/Home Page issues
Hi. I was speaking with my designer last night (we are setting up a new website) and we were discussing the design of our homepage, now the designer said he wanted the first page of the website to be a sort of landing page page were the visitor has to click and enter, im sure everyone has all come across these before. However, I am concerned as to the SEO implications of this? Any help guys?
Web Design | | CompleteOffice0