HTML to Wordpress - a good idea?
-
I have an HTML site that is 12 yrs. old and ranks well in Google. I want the more user friendly Wordpress format to update content myself. Should I, and how do I make the transition. Thanks.
-
Hey Mark
Good idea? Yep!
Basic process;
- Plan out the structure of your new site.
- Map the old pages to the new pages.
- Create the new site on a development or local server (some folks will build it right on the main domain, but just keep it hidden - I don't recommend that). If using a dev server, use your privacy settings and "discourage search engines from indexing the site" - you don't want the dev site indexed!!
- Prepare your 301 redirects (as Kade suggested, I actually don't think you should keep your URLs the same at all - now's a good time for improvement).
- Move WordPress from the dev environment to the new server.
- You basically "pull the plug" on the old site by removing index.hrml and letting index.php (which is part of wordpress) take over.
- Put in your 301 redirects ASAP.
- Crawl the new site for 404s
- Monitor WMT like crazy for a few weeks looking for any missed redirects.
I definitely recommend getting a dev to assist you if you don't feel comfortable!
Hope that helps.
-Dan
-
I just moved 2 sites from HTML to WP. I will be moving 1 more next week.
ADVICE: Don't forget to have your 301s already prepared! My urls used to end like the example.com/whatever.html. On WP they end like this example.com/whatever/
So make a list of all your URLs and have it prepared ahead of time so you don't get ht with duplicate content.
BTW, I suffered ZERO loss of rankings going from HTML to WP.
-
I think you have the perfect responses from Kade, Takeshi and Christopher. I agree with each one of them. In my opinion, the crux is that if done correctly it can be very very beneficial in terms of functionality, features and how visitors like your website and interact with it. I totally understand the concerns, they are very legit concerns. I would suggest to build your new stie using Wordpress on a staging server, test it to make sure all images, file paths etc are consistent and the code is clean. If you like it all, do the switch. You'd be fine.
-
I am finishing up a project to move a site that is two years old from HTML to WordPress and from an old domain to a new domain. Although the URLs are not identical, there is pretty much a 1 to 1 mapping using 301 redirects in the .htaccess file. I also informed GWT of the move. It's a bit early, but so far, I have not noticed any drop in traffic.
But here's the best part. The site looks much much better and it is also responsive (about 25% of our viewers are mobile and growing). As a result, people are viewing more pages and spending more time on the site. I expect Google will notice that.
If the rankings hold, I plan to update several sites that are 20 years old from HTML to WP.
Best
Christopher -
Be very careful to make sure that when you move your old site to Wordpress that your URL's stay EXACTLY the same and the content does not have a major overhaul. Also, if images on your website rank well in image search, make sure that the URL structure and location of those images doesn't change. 12 years and ranking well is not something you want to lose.
The question of should you is completely up to you. Are you going to save money doing this? Is it enough money to warrant the time spent making the transition? How often do you need to be changing data? Do you have the technical know how to make the transition? Can you hire someone to do it for you? Will the end result be a better experience for your site's visitors?
These are just some questions to really get you thinking about whether or not it is worth it.
-
Wordpress is great because it's much easier to update than a plain HTML site, and you can quickly add a lot of features to your site through plugins. You also get built-in RSS feeds.
The main thing to keep in mind during the move, is to preserve your URL structure so that links pointing to your old content don't get lost. If you have to change the URL structure during the move, make sure to include the appropriate 301 redirects ("Redirection" is a great plugin that can do this for you).
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
-
Should Blog Category Archive URLs be Set to "No-Index" in Wordpress?
It appears that Google Webmaster Tools is listing about 120 blog archives URLs in Google Index>Index Status that should not be listed. Our site map contains 650 pages, but Google shows 860. Pages like: <colgroup><col width="464"></colgroup>
Web Design | | Kingalan1
| http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com/blog/category/manhattan-office-space | With Titles Like: <colgroup><col width="454"></colgroup>
| Manhattan Office Space Archives - Metro Manhattan Office Space | Are listed when in the Rogerbot crawl report for the site. How can we remove such pages from Google Webmaster Tools, Index Status? Our site map shows about 650 pages, yet Google show these extra pages. We would prefer that they not be indexed. Note that these pages do not appear when we run a site:www.nyc-officespace-leader.com search. The site has suffered a drop in ranking since May and we feel it prudent to keep Google from indexing useless URLs. Before May 650 pages showed on the Webmaster Tools Index status, and suddenly in early June when we upgraded the site the index grew by about 175 pages. I suspect the 120 blog archives URLs may have something to do with it. How can we get them removed? Can we set them to "No-Index", or should the robot text be used to remove them? Or can some type of removal request be made to Google? My developers have been struggling with this issue since early June. The bloat on the site is about 175 URLs not on the site map. Is there any go to authority on this issue (it is apparently rather complicated) that can provide a definitive answer? Thanks!!
Alan0 -
Wordpress - redirecting tags
I just ran a webmaster tool from Yoast SEO premium and notice I have a lot of problems with tags (restricted-robots-txt) For example : http://www.soobumimphotography.com/tag/wedding-group-photo/ Do I have to redirect to http://www.soobumimphotography.com/wedding-group-photo/ Should I do this to each and every posts Thank you
Web Design | | soobumim0 -
Wordpress or Joomla?
I'm very interested on what users here use and why? From my experience regarding online SEO, both CMSs are equal. However, the ease of use is a different story. While both systems have a learning curve, wordpress is the easiest to learn thus making it probably the most popular CMS today. Joomla on the other hand takes a bit more time to understand but when learned, can be quite flexible. So if anyone here is kind enough to add their thoughts, I'm all ears!
Web Design | | kumidiaweb0 -
Simple Wordpress Question regarding Footer Link
I have a client with a site that has the company that built their website's link in the footer. How can I remove this? I am pretty proficient with Wordpress but I am drawing a blank. The site is www.northatlantacleaning.com Thanks and I do extend the courtesy of awarding 'Best Answer' and thumbs up etc to good responses.
Web Design | | Atlanta-SMO0 -
Wordpress or custom built website?
Hello fellow mozzers, Hope you are all well. I am looking to get a website done and I am struggling to decide whether to get a custom build website site done or a website built on the WordPress platform. Would you be able to share your experiences and advice/suggestions on what you would use, and why? (pros and cons, etc.) Thanks in advance. Kind Regards
Web Design | | JonathanRolande0 -
Decreasing Page Load Time with Placeholder Images - Good Idea or Bad Idea?
In an effort to decease our page load time, we are looking at making a change so that all product images on any page past page 1 load with a place holder image. When the user clicks to the next page, it then loads all of the images for that page. Right now, all of the product divs are loaded into a Javascript array and loaded in chunks to the page display div. Product-heavy pages significantly increase load time as the browser loads all of the images from the product HTML before the Javascript can rewrite the display div with page-specific product HTML. In order to get around this, we are looking at loading the product HTML with a small placeholder image and then substituting the appropriate product image URLs when each page is output to the display div. From a user experience, this change will be seamless and they won't be able to tell the difference, plus they will benefit from a potentially a short wait on loading the images for the page in question. However, the source of the page will have all of the product images in a given category page all having the same image. How much of a negative impact will this have on SEO?
Web Design | | airnwater0 -
Wordpress drop down menu issue...
While I am tweaking my current site with getting rid of my footer links, my site will not allow a drop down menu for my service area parent page. It will do a drop down menu for any other tab. Could not find anything in a google search besides just link to parent for drop down... Any ideas?
Web Design | | greenjoe0 -
Random 302 Redirect (Wordpress CMS)
So this new project that i am working on is a redesigned CMS site using Wordpress (php based). Before i started on the project they made a few major updates that include: Changed from ID based URLS to SEO friendly URLS Added multiple languages in directories www.domain.com/en www.domain.com/fr www.domain.com/de etc... Due to the new languages they wanted to have the previous home page, www.domain.com, redirect to the proper language based on their IP address. Currently they are using a 301 redirect through a php header. So if i was visiting the site from my hometown of Cleveland, Ohio and i type www.domain.com into the browser. I would automatically redirect to www.domain.com/en and i would have the option to switch languages if needed. The issue: When i first added their site into SEOMoz the crawl returned a large amount of 302 redirects coming from their old homepage www.domain.com. So i took a look at the header calls using IE's webmaster tools and Firebug in Firefox. In both profilers it showed the same problem. Before the 301 header redirect there was a 302 redirect called first When viewing the response header it mentioned an x-pingback of some file that didn't even exist on the site: www.domain.com/xmlrpc.php This is obviously a huge issue because any link value from the old homepage will be lost due to the 302 not passing the value. I have tried search the almighty Google for help but it has gotten me no where. I have a hunch it is something to do with Wordpress but that is based on nothing but my gut. Any help is greatly appreciated. I got to get that 302 gone or changed to a 301 🙂 Regards - Kyle
Web Design | | kchandler0