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
-
Is managed wordpress hosting bad for seo?
hi, i would like to create my own website, but I am confused either to choose cpanel hosting or managed wordpress
Web Design | | alan-shultis0 -
Wordpress Tag Organization Tips
Curious if anyone has some good examples of ways to organize your WordPress tags without making your sidebar a football field long and hard to navigate. My blog is https://karmahill.com/blog and I could use some ideas. We have main categories of photo shoot types, for example, "Couples", located on the sidebar. We want to add tags to go with those main categories for further categorization and user experience example: Couples Engagement Proposals Honeymoon Maternity My question is, do I need to make "tag" pages for those posts to reside on or is their another way to get it done with less work, that is much faster? I don't want to have to make 30 tag pages or is that just what you have to do?
Web Design | | photoseo13 -
On-page SEO opinion on this Wordpress theme
Hi everyone. As an SEO agency we've been moving more toward genesis themes, however we have a client who really wants to redesign his website using the following theme: http://themeforest.net/item/this-way-wp-full-videoimage-background-with-audio/943634 - the theme would be images with no audio on the homepage. He is a remodeling contractor and likes the design and functionality of the theme. I'd like to get others feedback and opinions on what you think about the on-page SEO of this theme? Thanks.
Web Design | | WillWatrous0 -
Wordpress Custom Permalinks Plugin Issue
Hello, I installed this plugin and I'm having trouble making it work. I'm new to WordPress so was hoping someone can help me out. I'm looking to set up the following pages for example
Web Design | | ec1976
http://testsite.azurewebsites.net/Services/Services1
http://testsite.azurewebsites.net/Services/Services2 I do the following steps Add New Page Enter the following title "Services1" Enter the following text in the Permalink textbox "Services/Services1" replacing the default text "?page_id=140" Then I publish the page. This automatically updates the "Custom Fields" section below. The name is set to "custom_permalink" and the value is set to "Services/Services1". Then I "view page" but get a 404 error. The url is "http://testsite.azurewebsites.net/Services/Services1" Some additional info 1. WordPress version 9.8.3 Settings - Permalinks is set to "post name" Custom Permalinks version 0.7.18 Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks0 -
Wordpress themes causing google penalty(need experts to settle a debate)
Hi, I have been having a disagreement with another online marketing company. We are both promoting the same product under a different brand name but we ended up using the same theme to build our WordPress sites off of but in no way is the content the same. They are telling me that using the same theme in the same industry will cause a Google penalty. I do not believe this and do not see this causing a problem. The sites are relatively new so there is no proof of traffic dropping or penalties as of yet. What is everyone's professional opinion on this? Can a WordPress theme cause duplicate content penalty? If so would that not mean that anyone using themes will have some sort of penalty?
Web Design | | impact891 -
3 Ecommerce Stores All Under One Roof - Good idea? SEO Benefits? Concerns?
I run multiple ecommerce stores in one particular market. I've been considering merging them all together and using a Single sign-on and allowing users to swap between websites. Each site is unique in their own way and are already ranking well on their own. But the goal is to merge them altogether to create a better user-flow. An example of what I'm trying to do is what Zurb.com does (http://zurb.com/apps). They have all of their different products but they're under different domains. Another example is http://www.envato.com/sites and all of their brands to their sites. Will this negatively impact SEO efforts across the board or will we eventually benefit from merging them. Also, is there a correct way to do this. For example; Should I make one site the "parent website" and then create sub-directories of the other websites and work on the DNS to point to the right locations. I'm not the technical person on our team but I do lead the marketing and I can't find the right answer for this question.
Web Design | | venturagroup0 -
Best Practice issue: Modx vs Wordpress
Lately I've been working a lot with Modx to create a new site for our own firm as well for other projects. But so far I haven't seen the advantages for SEO purposes other then the fact that with ModX you can manage almost everything yourself including snippets etc without to much effort. Wordpress is a known factor for blogging and since the last 2 years or so for websites. My question is: Which platform is better suited for SEO purposes? Which should I invest my time in? ModX or Wordpress? Hope to hear your thought on the matter
Web Design | | JarnoNijzing0 -
Wordpress vs. mvc framework
What's the benefits of choosing an mvc framework such as codeigniter or cakephp over wordpress? Wordpress has so many plugins, and a universally known UI for customers, it just saves a ton of time. However, a lot of the 'big guys' like SEOmoz and Distilled(?) use Cakephp and other mvc frameworks so it has me wondering what the benefits are...... anyone?
Web Design | | DonnieCooper2