Site is getting crushed by spam traffic and Google Webmaster Tools giving crawl warnings. Also...
-
Currently hosting a site I'm planning on moving to a new server ASAP, 301 redirecting and have a domain that has nice authority and very old.
On the current site I need to clean up the blog. I have a few questions actually....
1. I'd like to remove most of the blog articles as I want the new site to be very high quality, but isn't it dangerous to do a 301 redirect to the same page for all these articles?
2. I want to focus on the new site as the current site has too many issues but still managing to hang in their. is highly outdated yet I don't want to spend a ton of time on the site before the 301 redirect. With the Pigeon and Panda 4.0 rumors being released soon, I want to get the new site completed ASAP. Do you think it's better if I fix the
3. Would removing cloudflare make things better or worse with the crashing of my site due to high traffic (mainly spam on the blog.)
4. My best article by far is outdated, but should I waste time updating it before redirecting or should I just get the new site going?
I did way too many guest posts thinking content is king, but at least checked the outgoing links Domain Auth, Page Auth, and MozTrust in OSE, but first off I'm going to remove a page that mentions I'm looking for guest bloggers. I tried to keep the posts relevant but at the time you could get away with
5. Anything I can do to slow down these spammers on Wordpress? I noticed most of them are checking for vulnerabilities but I'm keeping it up to date, have caching setup.
Thanks!
-
RE: "** I'd like to remove most of the blog articles as I want the new site to be very high quality, but isn't it dangerous to do a 301 redirect to the same page for all these articles..."**
While others have commented on that, what we've done before on this is to create (note a WP site) new Categories and then 301 all to the master Category post page....
This is or rather has been solid SEO in that it is okay to group like posts....gathered all together on this master Category page and save the linkjuice that way...
-
I **also plan on buying high quality internet marketing writers to edit the most important aspects of the site. I really am looking for someone that is good at hooking people in. **
This is a great idea, and one that can net you huge rewards. The benefits of quality content have shown themselves time and time again over the years, and continue to do so.
**Thanks so much for your help. Very appreciated. **
You're welcome
-Andy
-
Fantastic answer, and also happy to hear the advice. Thats the thing....I was DOMINATING 2 or 3 years back by adding content to the site that was mediocre at best. Just adding content that was half decent all day and everyday eventually would get an unexpected gems, but only around 12 I would want to keep if that. I just assumed 301 redirecting the pages is the only safe way as losing content would hurt the value of the site, but you'd hope Google would understand the pages aren't helping and its not about fresh content but about relevant, engaging content. If it wont hurt my rankings I'm going to only transfer the gems none of which I can think of were the guest posts.
Some were alright but nobody ever clicks their links. I look at links now as:
1. Is it relevant to the user not just to attempt to get better rankings. Are people really going to click it and be useful to them.
2. The content better be darn good (although I"m not ever doing guest posts with a followed link again EVER, hopefully no link at all unless its relevant to the user. Maybe if someone wrote a REALLY good article in the future on say for example the new hottest gadget, I'd let them link to an Amazon affiliate link for that product. Is that okay you think? I mean it does help the user.
I also have to take into consideration that links take the user away from the site. Taking a year off, and spending the last month on MOZ and listening to every SEO podcast I could get my hands on, I decided to learn how to make infographics, non-cheezy mascots, that are interactive usually and animated, and try to hook them in at the head of the page right away.
I also plan on buying high quality internet marketing writers to edit the most important aspects of the site. I really am looking for someone that is good at hooking people in.
Most importantly the service itsself is a tough one as its a volunteer based site that people think is fake so get a high bounce rate. I need to get people speaking with the volunteer right away. I need to have a call to action quick and prove that its credible and real. Thanks so much for your help. Very appreciated.
-
**My only question is I have hundreds and hundreds of articles....So I just keep them and remove the links? I'd say 15% of them are guest posts and they have followed links. **
If you are going to rework them over time (rather than remove them), then yes, remove the external links, or like you said, no-follow it. If you want to still give them a link that falls in line with Google standards, make the link their URL / brand at the end of the post. You can still no-follow it. It will clean the post up as well.
**Maybe I could redirect the links in sets? **
Seeing as you have so many articles, it might be best to do this, but don't be afraid of just killing off old posts that carry no real value. 301 all those you wish to continue with on the new site, but it does make sense not to have the articles in two places at once. If you intend to run with two live sites until all is transferred over, of course.
When evaluating old posts, look at what they add to the site. Is the post indexed? Is it similar to other posts on the site? You don't want to fall foul of similar posts that can cause issues with keyword cannibalisation either.
Glad I was able to help
-Andy
-
VERY helpful. My only question is I have hundreds and hundreds of articles....So I just keep them and remove the links? I'd say 15% of them are guest posts and they have followed links.
I'm at least going to no follow but I sortof made a promise to these people to give them a link and feel like a jerk. But the link is not valuable because its not getting clicked. Thats the whole point of links in the first place is to get traffic not trick search engines. I'm at least going to no-follow but actually I should really remove the links huh? Maybe contact them and explain that its hurting both of us.
Only like 3 or 4 pages on the blog are really popular. Its the actual chat page that gets all the traffic.
Maybe I could redirect the links in sets? Also another problem, the domain I have to switch to, is very old and good name. I can't keep the current domain because the site turned into something else on its own. (computer repair services business in Oregon, to volunteer based computer help site.
Is it wise to 301 a few articles at a time (the most important and the least important?) Also I don't want to be accused of plagiarism. A lot of the articles are lame topics too. What does one do in this situation? Thanks SOOO much. I'm sure you'll get the "best answer" judging by your first post.
-
**1. I'd like to remove most of the blog articles as I want the new site to be very high quality, but isn't it dangerous to do a 301 redirect to the same page for all these articles? **
Correct - you don't want to be redirecting multiple pages to a single page. This is bad for user experience and SEO.
**2. I want to focus on the new site as the current site has too many issues but still managing to hang in their. is highly outdated yet I don't want to spend a ton of time on the site before the 301 redirect. With the Pigeon and Panda 4.0 rumors being released soon, I want to get the new site completed ASAP. Do you think it's better if I fix the **
If moving the site, don't forget to advise Google in Webmaster Tools, as well as 301 pages. In terms of fixing issues, I would be tempted to correct issues before moving over so you don't have problems follow you.
3. Would removing cloudflare make things better or worse with the crashing of my site due to high traffic (mainly spam on the blog.)
I can't really give a definitive answer on this one, but I know of a lot of other cloudflare users who have experienced problems like this. I would also be looking to use Akismet to control the spam that comes through the blog comments.
4. My best article by far is outdated, but should I waste time updating it before redirecting or should I just get the new site going?
As long as it gets updated, I wouldn't worry about it beforehand. Lots of old articles can be resurrected by re-working them again to make them more current.
**5. Anything I can do to slow down these spammers on Wordpress? I noticed most of them are checking for vulnerabilities but I'm keeping it up to date, have caching setup. **
See the answer to question 3 above.
I hope this helps a little.
-Andy
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
-
Safest Route to Get from Drupal to Wordpress
Hi all, I have a prospective client who currently has a Drupal 7 site and they are interested in converting it to Wordpress (or simply building it new in Wordpress) and changing CMS. They would like to update the look of their site to make it a little more modern, but they are very concerned about preserving their SEO and rank, etc so they plan to keep the structure and urls, etc. pretty identical to what they have now with only minor cosmetic changes for the moment. I want to find the best and most economical route for them to take for a change like this. If an actual conversion/migration is the way to go, then I also want to help them find a professional developer they can trust to do the job correctly as I am not a Drupal person. I guess my question concerns what would be the safest and most economical route to preserve the SEO and rank, etc. that they have now? 1) Would that be an actual migration and conversion of their current site into a custom WP theme that's structured as closely as possible to the site currently? 2) Or, depending on the ultimate complexity of the site, would it be possible to leave out the step of migration altogether? Would there be huge cons or red flags to starting from scratch and manually building a custom WP theme while duplicating the architecture/links/urls, etc. as closely as possible to the current site? Anything else to be worried about if this is a possibility? 3) Or would you suggest some other way entirely? Thank you so much in advance for any guidance or suggestions on this! They are really nice people and I just want to make sure they do this safely because they get a lot of business from their site and they are justified to worry.
Web Design | | Pixelwik0 -
What’s the best tool to visualize internal link structure and relationships between pages on a single site?
I‘d like to review the internal linking structure on my site. Is there a tool that can visualize the relationships between all of the pages within my site?
Web Design | | QBSEO0 -
Thoughts on our Agency Site
Hi all, We'd all welcome opinions on our digital agency site http://www.newbrandvision.com/. We are in the planning stage of launching a new site; and we'd welcome any UX or SEO thoughts. It's a strange one but our agency has been around since 2002, and we operate in the heart of London; however we don't rank anywhere near the first page for "digital agency in London" or any long-tail /semantics around this. We feel that it's pretty clear from search and when landing on the site what we are; but would welcome any general thoughts as to why we aren't ranked that highly. Much appreciated!
Web Design | | Tangent0 -
Best Way to Re-Direct traffic from existing site to new site?
Good Morning, I have an existing site (http://goo.gl/QKkpi) running on a slow server. We decided to create a new site (http://goo.gl/XUH3f) with the intention of de-commissioning the first one. Both sites are on the same WMT account. What is the best way to permanently redirect any backlinks/traffic (all levels, from home page to product pages) from the old site to the new site (prior to shutting down the first one). Thanks a lot!
Web Design | | Prime850 -
Footer backlinks for sites I've developed
I link back to my website via my company name on the footers of sites I develop. Lately I've been changing this to my keyword and mixing and matching. This has been done for new sites I create and old sites I've not seen any benefit so far after a couple of months. Most my clients are hosted on the same server as my main site that it links back to. 1. Is this a bad idea to link back on the same IP?
Web Design | | sanchez1960
2. Is footer backlinks to the main developer going to annoy Google?
3. Should I change my main site's server, will it help? All my competitors seem to do it and as far as I can tell they seem to get better results than I do. Because I'm now changing them the reason I see no benefit? Thanks0 -
Recommended Website Monitoring Tools
Hi, I was wondering what people would recommend for website monitoring (IE is my website working as it should!). I need something that will:
Web Design | | James77
1/. Allow multiple page monitoring not just homepage
2/. Do header status checking
3/. Do page content checking (ie if the page changes massively, or include the word "error") then we have an issue!
4/. Multiple alert possibilities. We currently use www.websitepulse.com and it is a good service that does all the above, however it just seems so overly complex that its hard to understand what is going on, and its complex functionality and features are really a negative in our case. Thanks0 -
What are some on-pg recommendations for a flash resort site?
One of my clients want to be index for all their pages but I am afraid the website may have difficulty since it is all in flash. The website is a luxury brand for resorts. The website is me.graficode.com/preprod/ and currently has 6 main subfolers for resorts. Please let me know what recommendations will help me organically. It is hard to add content which will cause probelms for headers and keyword density.
Web Design | | Melia0 -
The ideal SEO e-commerce site
Hi All, I am currently writing a spec for moving our current e-commerce website and it got me thinking from an SEO perspective. We are all usually restrained by the current website set-up / CMS and there are things it can never do despite how hard we push for the changes. If you had the chance to start from a blank canvas (like I do currently) what would be on your wishlist?
Web Design | | RikkiD220