How do we preserve images in google search after CMS migration?
-
Hi Folks
we are about to migrate to a new CMS (bigcommerce/volusion type of thing) are are advised that we will preserve our google love for our old URLS with 301 re-directs. OK
but what about images that show in search
(we have a lot of our images show up high in relevant google image search)
will this method work the same or should we do something else to keep the image benefits?
many thanks
Tom
-
If image search is important to you, I would suggest creating 301 redirects for all image URLs. Unfortunately, there's not an easier answer than that, especially on a self-hosted platform.
If you aren't able to do that then you'll need to get by with simply uploading a new image sitemap to Google webmaster tools, and start fixing the 404 errors manually when they show up in GWT. Assuming your pages are 301ing to the new URL, then Google should find the new images pretty quickly, but might take awhile to gain rankings back.
-
Hi folks sorry for slow reply and many thanks for the responses
here's a typical image url showing high up on page 1 for
petite shoes
searchhttp://www.pretty-small-shoes.com/acatalog/Petite-Size-Pretty-Wedding-Shoes-First-Dance-220.jpg
????
regards
Tom
-
I don't think your suggestion will work. Both of the platforms he mentioned are hosted, normally with hosted platforms you get very limited file access. I think to answer the question properly we would need to see a url format of your current images and the format of the new platform images. As it might have to be handled with re-directs, but you might also be able to pull some dns trickery too.
-
Tom,
Image search is a bit different - if you are dependant on image search & the names and/or location of the images is changing during migration you have to very careful. (as I am a bit lazy, I just repeat the answer I posted here)
In my experience, the image index is updated much slower than the normal index, and while google is quite fast to index the redirected urls it seems to need much more time for the images. On a previous migration we had the situation where the image thumbnails where still visible in the search results , but as soon you did preview the image the image didn't load as it had moved from it's original location. The problem with image search is that when this happened the position of the image remained in the results but the site behind it changed (at that point we also discovered that an huge number of sites who had stolen our original images).
To avoid this we now migrated the images to the new location and updated the links in the html, but we also kept the same images in the old location until we had the impression that they were no longer indexed.
This strategy seemed to work as unlike the first migration our results from image search were unaffected.
Apart from that, you will have off course have to update the image sitemap as well (if you currently have one)
If you have additional questions, don't hesitate to ask them (I migrated 3 sites over the last year which had 90% of the traffic coming from image search)
rgds
Dirk
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
-
Missing Google verification
I just went to check my client sites in Google search console and noticed a whole bunch of them no longer 'verified'. They were all previously verified. Why would they suddenly change status to 'not verified'? Does this affect anything (eg. search analytics data flowing through to GA)? Does this mean I have to verify all over again?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | muzzmoz0 -
My site shows 503 error to Google bot, but can see the site fine. Not indexing in Google. Help
Hi, This site is not indexed on Google at all. http://www.thethreehorseshoespub.co.uk Looking into it, it seems to be giving a 503 error to the google bot. I can see the site I have checked source code Checked robots Did have a sitemap param. but removed it for testing GWMT is showing 'unreachable' if I submit a site map or fetch Any ideas on how to remove this error? Many thanks in advance
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SolveWebMedia0 -
When i search for my domain name - google asks "did you mean" - why?
Hi all, I just noticed something quite odd - if i do a search for my domain name (see: http://goo.gl/LBc1lz) google shows my domain as first result, but it also asks "did i mean" and names another website with very similar name. the other site has far lower PA/DA according to Moz, any ideas why google is doing this? and more inportantly how i could stop it? please advise James
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | isntworkdull0 -
Is it worth putting images in your sitemap?
I am always trying to optimize our website and have came across adding images to the sitemap. Has anyone done this? Did it make a big difference?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | EcommerceSite0 -
Authorship image
Do you understand google authorship? They removed the image from google but left the name. Cant understand what is wrong. It still shows up in testing.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Joseph-Green-SEO0 -
Search terms that have the same meaning
If there are two fairly equally strong search terms that mean the same thing and want to direct people to a single page on my site, is it recommended that both phrases be placed in the H1? For example, Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Sandwich (BLT Sandwich) I don't want to rank high for only one phrase while ranking lower (and potentially losing users) for the second phrase. What's the best strategy for this?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | hamackey0 -
Google Reviews
I have a couple of reviews from clients on Google that seem to have just disappeared. What gives?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | bronxpad0 -
Google Webmasters not Accurate
I recently updated all the Meta titles, descriptions and keywords on my website because in the past most were duplicate and/or written in the incorrect language. According to Webmaster Tools they have indexed our site post update, but we still have the same number of HTML issues. When I click to investigate the issues further it is clear they are reflecting the old Meta not the new stuff we just added. Should this fix itself the next time Google crawls my site or is there something else I should be doing about the issue? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | theLotter0