What are SEO factors in re-doing a website?
-
Most of my work now involves converting older websites to CMS-based sites (in Wordpress) and I'm wondering about best practices here.
If I create a "dev" or "sandbox" directory for my development work how do I keep the pages from being indexed while I am working on the new site? Can I "noindex" a directory?
What do I do with the old html files when the new site goes live? I'm assuming I will do a 301 redirect from domain.com/index.html to the new domain.com/, and also on all of the inner pages that have equivalent pages in the new site. But there will be a lot of old files left that have no equal in the new site. Do I just delete these, or noindex nofollw them?
-
Sorry. I just noticed that my link in my earlier response was broken.
Here is the correct links http://bit.ly/feg8co
-
Thanks. It looks like an excellent resource!
Bill
-
Thanks for your response.
In this case I am not changing the domain name, but converting the site from html/css to Wordpress. Many of the url names will stay the same, but they won't be .html files anymore.
-
Make sure you follow the steps as listed on https://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=83105&hl=en.
Proper 301 direction, new sitemap upload, change of address notification and retaining your old domain for atleast a year will make your transitions smooth.
-
_But there will be a lot of old files left that have no equal in the new site. Do I just delete these, or noindex nofollw them? _
If any of the old pages left benind have" Page Rank" ascribed to them, you might consider creating "catch all" pages on the new site so as to be able to 301 the leftover old to the new "catch all" pages and thereby reatain the link juice.
This requires creativity as you don't want to lose usability just to catch more link juice. Not knowing your exact situation I'm not positive this is an option but mention it just incase.
-
There are tons of other issues to think about - I would suggest to make a research on that topix on that blog http://yoast.com/cat/seo/ - there you will find answers to several issues you should think about.
-
Ooops I meant plugin - Wordpress Plugin
@SEOmoz - maybe an edit feature would come in handy - the same as available in the blog comments!?
-
Thank you Thomas,
I don't quite understand what you mean by "use a Wordpress login to do a quick and dirty redirect"
Bill
-
Hi Bill,
In your new CMS, you can use this meta tag until you are ready to launch:
In regard to the old pages, 301 them to either the home page or the most relevant subpages. If there are MANY subpages, you can use a Wordpress login to do a quick and dirty redirect of all the URLs that don't occur in the CMS.
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
-
Why did my website DA fell down?
Hello, Could you please let me know why might my website's DA have fallen down in merely a week? What might be a reason? I also noticed traffic from google dropped down at the very same week. Will be very thankful for any advise!
Technical SEO | | kirupa0 -
Is Schema markup important for SEO?
I have recently come across the Schema markup and have researched what it's all about. Basically in short it helps search engines identify all the elements of the page. Our competitors have this implementated, so is this important for SEO? We have an e commerce store.
Technical SEO | | Jseddon920 -
Can a CMS affect SEO?
As the title really, I run www.specialistpaintsonline.co.uk and 6 months ago when I first got it it had bad links which google had put a penalty against it so losts it value. However the penalty was lift in Sept, the site corresponds to all guidelines and seo work has been done and constantly monitored. the issue I have is sales and visits have not gone up, we are failing fast and running on 2 or 3 sales a month isn't enough to cover any sort of cost let alone wages. hence my question can the cms have anything to do with it? Im at a loss and go grey any help or advice would be great. thanks in advance.
Technical SEO | | TeamacPaints0 -
Document.referrer Is that harmful to my website?
Someone (maybe my Competitors) open a subdomain on tumblr.com. Just like keywordxxx.tumblr.com , and use following script to redirect to my website. var s=document.referrer; if(s.indexOf("google")>0 || s.indexOf("bing")>0 || s.indexOf("yahoo")>0 || s.indexOf ("aol")>0){ self.location='mywebsiteurl'; } so , If anyone seach in google ,and click on keywordxxx.tumblr.com , this script will direct the user to my website. I have found many cases like that, is that harmful ? how can i avoid that?
Technical SEO | | sunvary0 -
Problem with re-direction
Please help me to solve a problem with redirection. I re-do the
Technical SEO | | NadiaFL
site and move it to new domain page-by-page as recommended. I use WordPress Redirect plugin. I did everything as written 10
days ago but don't see redirection. For example, old page http://aurora17.com/?page_id=2485 New page http://njcruise.org/alaska-cruise-tour/ Where is a problem? How to solve it?0 -
Does Bitly hurt your SEO?
I often use bit.ly or Google URL shortener in links when other websites post my articles so I can track clicks. However, I am thinking this may HURT my SEO given that it is taking away a back link to my website. Is that logic correct ? If so, what is a good way to be able to track clicks if a website posts your article without jeopardizing the SEO value?
Technical SEO | | StreetwiseReports1 -
Why is my website banned?
IMy website is Costume Machine at www.costumemachine.com . My site has been banned for 1 year now. I have requested that google reconsider my site 3 times without luck. The site is dynamic and basically pulls in feeds from affiliate sites. We have added over 1,500 pages of original content. The site has been running great since 2008 without any penalties. I don't think I got hit with any linking penalty. I cleaned up all questionable links last November when the penalty hit. Am I being hit with a "thin" site penalty? If that is the issue what is the best way to fix the problem?
Technical SEO | | tadden0 -
Switching Hosting & SEO
Hello friends, We are facing the prospect of switching to a new hosting account or company. We are currently using a third-party reseller account but are outgrowing that account. We are considering VPS and dedicated servers. However, this will mean updates for IPs and nameservers. Does anyone have experience with SEO consequences of making switch? Best practices? Tips? Obstacles? Any and all comments/advice welcome. We're trying to balance the potential SEO ramifications of making the switch with the consequences of reduced site speed.
Technical SEO | | Gyi0