Major update to site architecture (outline)-Is Google going to drop?
-
I'm working with a lawyer client who has a table-based, outdated site. Her nav links consist of a jumble of topics and static pages in one long sidebar list on the home page. I'm moving her site to Wordpress and I've recommended that she organize the site based on categories that roughly match the topics/keywords she wants to rank highest for in Google.
The site will be much better organized and coded and the URLs for the new launch will be much stronger for SEO by being targeted and coded properly. So the site should rank better after, right? Right???
I know that when Google crawls the new architecture, it's not going to find the expected long sidebar list of internal nav links. It'll find better, more keyword targeted internal nav links. But will that keep the site from getting dropped off page 1?
I'm speaking w/ the client tomorrow and if she's going to drop or get bounced around, I feel like I should prepare her and let her know roughly what might happen. I'm thinking based on my current understanding that I should tell her to expect to be bounced around for a few weeks, but in the end she should rank higher than before.
What would you do/say?
-
1. Create 301 redirects from any of the old pages to their equivalent new pages - this tells Google that old content has moved from www.abcdomain.com/page1.html to www.abcdomain.com/category1/page1.html for example. Do that for every page. If there isn't an exact match for the old page - redirect it to an equivalent page where possible. (You can get a wordpress plugin to manage your 301 redirects - if you want to manage/monitor them - but modifying the .htaccess file is better.
You might want to create a spreadsheet or list based on an existing sitemap perhaps of the old url structure and the new one and cross reference them and mark each one as redirected as you create your 301 list for the htaccess file.
2. Resubmitting a new xml sitemap in Google.com/Webmasters may help the changes get picked up a little quicker.
3. Advise the client that 301 redirects can take a few weeks to properly kick in in terms of Google giving them back 90% of the authority they had previously - so you are likely to dip in the rankings for a bit - however, the better optimised site will eventually offset that and take it beyond where it was previously.
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
-
Can the Lightboxes on My Site be Crawled?
I'm trying to optimize my site, but I have lightboxes and I don't know if they are visible to the search engines. If they aren't, could you suggest something that I could do? THANK YOU so much!!!!! My site is lymphexpo.com
On-Page Optimization | | bosleypalmer0 -
Updated page not ranking.
Hi Guys. Bit flummoxed by this. I've recently updated our Mid year diaries page to be this years mid year products. i.e) Diaries that go from 2015-16 not 2014-15. Last year we rank really well for the search term 'mid year diaries 14-15'. All i've done is update the page to be focused on 2015-16 diaries, but when i type in 'mid year diaries 15-16' it's no where to be seen in the SERP. Even our home page is ranking higher! I'm really puzzled about this, nothings changed apart from the year! The only reason I can think of is that Google is reading the file name of the images which are related to lasts years products? For example the file name might say mid year diary 2014-15. Do you think this is what's effecting us? Very puzzling 😕 I've submitted it through Webmaster tool btw 🙂 Isaac.
On-Page Optimization | | isaac6630 -
Google Index HTTPS
Hi,
On-Page Optimization | | JohnHuynh
I had a HTTP protocol file which indexed. Now I want to change this file to HTTPS protocol. I wonder that is there any effects?
I don't know HTTPS would be indexed by google or not? Thanks,0 -
Site Wide Title Tag Discussion
Do you think it's good to have an instance of your primary keyword occur on most of your site's title tags throughout your site? Or do you think having the keyword occur in most title tags throughout the site will dilute the ranking ability for the home page? I haven't read much about this in "best practices" for title tags. hmmmm...
On-Page Optimization | | Joes_Ideas0 -
SERP - Hi How come I get different results on page one of Google with the same query from my colleague who sits next to me? We are both logged out of Google and it’s on google.co.uk thanks in advance Daniel
Hi How come I get different results on page one of Google with the same query from my colleague who sits next to me? We are both logged out of Google and it’s on google.co.uk thanks in advance Daniel
On-Page Optimization | | ds80 -
Site Structure
I'm confused about the best way for seo to set up the site structure . i understand the examples of the pyramid diagrams and how link juice flows, however does this mean that global navigation is not good? It appears the pyramid structure leads to the designated number of category pages (we'll use five) and they lead to the 5 content pages etc and some "superman pages" can be linked to from the home page but is this is global navigation or anchor text navigation and is gloval navigation acdeptable for content pages? Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
On-Page Optimization | | JulB0 -
Troubleshooting Drop in Rank - could it be one of these?:
At nlpca(dot)com, we've had a drop in rank of like 13 slots for our main term "NLP". Could this be caused by?: Adding keywords to title and meta tags that are not completely relevant to page. For example, "degree programs" on this page http://www.nlpca.com/DCweb/nlp-salt-lake-city-and-bay-area The word "degree" and "programs" do not show up on that page, but "program" does. Our courses are 'certification programs' but maybe 'degree programs' is not close enough. Adding keywords to title that do not show up in page. The same keyword "degree programs" is a good example. Another example is the keyword "learn about NLP" on this page: http://www.nlpca.com/DCweb/learn-about-nlp-techniques Targeting 2 different locations (California and Utah) Having our title 2 characters too big on the home page (we used to) And lastly, Do you think our ranking drop is reversible if it's on-site SEO? Thanks!
On-Page Optimization | | BobGW0 -
Site URL's
We are redeveloping our website, and have the option to amend URLs (with 301 redirects from old URL to new), so my question is: Would 'golfsite.com/golf-clubs' achieve superior rankings than 'golfsite.com/clubs' for the search term 'golf clubs' if all other factors were the same? Should the URL reflect the intended search term wherever possible?
On-Page Optimization | | swgolf1230