How to Implement Massive SEO Modifications
-
Hi everyone,
I'm implementing some fairly significant changes on a clients website and wanted to know if it was better to implement all the changes at once or if I should implement the changes gradually.
The changes are:
1. Amended information architecture
2. Completely new URL's
3. New meta data and some new on page content
4. Meta robots 'no index, follow' approximately 90% of the site
Can I make all these changes in one go (that would be my preference), or should I gradually implement? What are the risks?
Many thanks
James
-
Hi Joe,
Thanks for the response. Having had a variety of different opinions, and still not being 100% on the right answer, I spent a LOT of time crawling through SEOmoz Q&A:
Takeaways from my digging around are:
- Changes to title tags and URL's should be implemented separately. As you state above, reason for this is so that you can pinpoint problems if they arise (see point 3 of the answer) http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/49136/revising-urls
- Title tag changes should also be implemented in stages. Homepage, top 50 pages, everything else (again, see point 3 of the answer): http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/39946/title-tags-global-changes. (As an interesting aside, Dr Pete clearly states that when making sitewide changes, dont make more than one set of changes per page, it could cause an over-optimisation penalty)
- URL structure changes should be implemented all in one go: http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/45183/update-url-structure (this link is an amazing guide from everett sizemore on exactly how to implement URL changes, recommended reading!)
I appreciate there's no right and wrong answer, but I think that with the above in mind, the approach I'm going to take to these changes is a scientific one. Make a change, assess results, move forward.
1. Implement title tag changes in stages (monitoring site performance at every stage). Homepage/Category Pages/Everything else.
2.Add new on page content.
3. Add new information architecture (couple of new categories- nothing significant)
4. Implement URL changes through 301 redirects all in one go. Keep old site XML sitemap in place. Once site has been crawled (and new pages found) move to new sitemap and update internal links
4. Implement meta robots 'noindex, follow' to various sections of the site. Not all in one go, but section by section, monitoring results and then moving on if no issues arise
Would be interested to know what you think of that as a plan? Also, need to send out love to Dr Pete and Everett Sizemore for their Q&A answers!
James
-
#2 - completely new url's says it all for me. The others are all subs of that change. If possible you need to address these changes in some form of 301 redirect so that the spiders can follow your changes. update the .htaccess file or even create static php redirect headers or similar if you have to. This should prevent the search engines from reporting the dreaded 404 and getting the page dumped.
#4 - The no-index is not something you have to worry about as you are removing pages from the SERPs, not trying to get them ranked. Any page that is getting no-index is out of the SEO equation at this point.
#3 - this will improve rankings/search-ability so you are not looking at seeing a negative effect here. Updates on these pages, if done correctly, generally have favorable results and at the worst have 'no change' in the SERPs
#1 - I would need to know more detail on this one, but the new architecture will probably be reflected in #2's urls so if that it solved, so is number 1. Again, a more clear, easily accessible architecture hopefully allows the spiders to effectively categorize the sections of your site. The new IA will probably be more pleasing to users which will have its own benefits as well.
---- And the final vote... All at once, just address the 404's and you should be ok
-
NoIndex 90% of a site? Interested to hear why that makes sense in any situation. Maybe only implement have of those noindex tags at first to see if you get the desired result.
As for the title, meta and content, all at once is fine. Hopefully your new stuff is better than the old! Best of luck!
-
I came here to tell him to do the exact opposite! I was going to suggest doing one change at a time to measure and or A/B test results to make sure maximum benefit of each was given. After reading your response and his issues, i've changed my opinion and agree with you that its probably best to do all of these at once in one MAJOR revision and then tweak after that.
-
Considering how massive the changes are, I'd say it's best to do them all at once. This will let you start rebuilding as soon as possible. Making one big change and then waiting to start ranking again, followed by another big change that could drop them out of the rankings again would likely cause a longer period of your client not getting traffic. I wouldn't say that the on-page and metadata changes need to be made at the same time, if there are limited resources.
One problem with doing this all at once is that it will be more difficulty to evaluate the effect of each change. This might not be a huge deal to you, but sometimes it is nice to know what return came from each change.
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
-
How should I implement FAQs?
My client is ranked #3 for their primary keyword and we want to add FAQs that are educational (ie, related to the technology, not specifically to the company’s products or how to work with the company). Should I add the FAQs to the existing ranking content page? Or to a new dedicated “keyword FAQs” page? I have a LOT, about 40 questions and 4000+words of answer content. And two secondary questions: Many of the FAQs have expanded content on other pages throughout the site. Is it okay to link to that internal content? Is it okay to have multiple FAQ pages? So keyword1 FAQs, keyword2 FAQs...? Thanks so much!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | DanaBinPA0 -
Few question about SEO
HI guys, I have few questions and I always find good answer here. I tried many SEO companies some very expensive and well known some with medium prices and some from India. I’m not an SEO expert but I always get the same things from SEO companies. They're saying you have to stay with us for few months before you’ll see any results. I completely understand however I don’t see the result on the end.1. What exactly Do I need SEO company for, after I do on page optimisation if they don’t work on proper backlinks. Just letting you know I’m getting content from other people.2. Is there something else which is really important after your page is optimised than backlinks? Or we should fully focus on get backlinks from customers, guest post, sharing on social media etc. to increase our DA and PA?3. Any advice about some individual or company who is good in backlink services?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Lukas-ST
Thank youLukasThanks a lot.Lukas0 -
Top SEO Influencers 2015
Hello! I'm doing a little bit of research into key SEO players and thought I would get some opinions from the Moz community. Who's your go-to SEO guru? Who's up-and-coming in the world of SEO? Who are your favourite SEO influencers on Twitter? Cheers, Lewis
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | PeaSoupDigital0 -
How do I Syndicating Content for SEO Benefit?
Right now, I am working on one E-Commerce website. I have found same content on that E-Commerce website from manufacturer website. You can visit following pages to know more about it. http://www.vistastores.com/casablanca-sectional-sofa-with-ottoman-ci-1236-moc.html http://www.abbyson.com/room/contemporary/casablanca-detail http://www.vistastores.com/contemporary-coffee-table-in-american-white-oak-with-black-lacquer-element-ft55cfa.html http://www.furnitech.com/ft55cfa.html I don't want to go with Robots.txt, Meta Robots NOINDEX & Canonical tag. Because, There are 5000+ products available on website with duplicate content. So, I am thinking to add Source URL on each product page with Do follow attribute. Do you think? That will help me to save my website from duplicate content penalty? OR How do I Syndicating Content for SEO Benefit?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CommercePundit0 -
Mobile SEO
Hey, In the following article, Google recommended using a 301 redirect but doesn't specify why. http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/making-websites-mobile-friendly.html I assume this is to pass over link equity to the relevant mobile/desktop variation. Can anyone confirm this? Also is there any other reason? Again assuming this would keep the correct URLs in the correct index? Anything else anyone can chip in would be great. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | CraigAddyman0 -
What is the best route SEO wise for implementing a Wordpress blog that has a domain under go daddy and hosting under a third party like Kalio Commerce?
I am currently trying to implement a Blog on a Ecommerce site that has its domain set up under Go Daddy, but it is hosted under a platform called Kalio Commerce. I am trying to implement a Wordpress blog because I am most familiar with it and believe it offers more strength SEO wise but the Ecommmerce platform by Kalio does not offer the ability to install Wordpress or any CMS platform other than its own. I am stuck wondering if I could find a way to either implement a blog through a sub-folder (mydomain.com/blog) while using wordpress on hosting added to the go daddy server under their domain. If Kalio Commerce doesn't have any way of adding a blog to its own hosting is this hindering my clients ability to be fully optimized for fresh content? Now I am not too familiar with adding sub-domains with hosting under a different platform. I am more in tune with building a wordpress ecommerce site and implementing blogs under the wordpress structure. This is a leap for me and it is getting to be a little overwhelming so if any one has prior experience with this please let me know if I can find a way through this without putting my SEO consulting at risk. So far I have gotten to the conclusion that I can set up hosting for the companies site under Go Daddy even though they have their hosting under Kalio. If I am to set up hosting under Go Daddy would this cause the DNS routing to be compromised. If this is so must I set up hosting under a separate domain (myotherdomian.com) and have Kalio set up a Sub-Folder like so (mydomain.com/blog) and just have the DNS of the blog installed on (myotherdomain.com) point to the folder in Kalio hosting for mydomain.com? So now that I explained my situation, what is the best route SEO wise for implementing a Wordpress blog that has a domain under go daddy and hosting under a third party like Kalio Commerce?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cscoville0 -
How Does SEO Help Local Businesses
Hello, I recently took a position as a digital marketing manger with a advertising agency. Its my job to grow the digital marketing department. One of the issues I am running into is 90% of our clients are local businesses. When doing keyword research it is very difficult to find keywords with lots of search. For example, if I am optimizing for a Ford dealership in Hackensack,NJ there are not a lot of searches for this term. How can I justify a larger SEO budget when there is just not a lot of search volume for these keywords? This is nothing like Dog Training Videos or something similar. Am I missing something? Where can I pull traffic from for local businesses to justify larger SEO budgets? Thanks, Bill
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wparlaman0 -
Your Biggest SEO Jobs Explained
What have been your most proudest moments in SEO ? What would you consider as being you best achieved job and in what industry was it achieved it. What are the reasons you have this down as your biggest achievement ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | onlinemediadirect0