Delay release of content or fix after release
-
I am in the midst of moving my site to a new platform. As part of that I am reviewing each and every article for SEO - titles, URLs, content, formatting/structure, etc, etc. I have about 200 articles to move across and my eventual plan is to look at each article and update for these factors.
I have all the old content moved across to the new server as-is (the old server is still the one to which my domain's DNS records point). At a high level I have two choice:
- Point DNS to the new server, which will expose the same content (which isn't particularly SEO-friendly) and then work through each article, fixing the various elements to make them more user friendly.
- Go through each article, fixing content, structure, etc and THEN update DNS to point to the new server.
Obviously the second option adds time before I can switch across. I'd estimate it will take me a few weeks to get through the articles. Option 1 allows me to switch pretty soon and then start going through the articles and updating them.
An important point here is the new articles already have new (SEO-friendly) URLs and titles on the new server. I have 301 redirections in place pointing from the old to new URLs. So, it's "only" the content of each article that will be changing on the new server, rather than the URLs, etc.
So, I'd be interested in any suggestions on the best approach - move across to the new server now and then fix content or wait till all the content is done and then switch to the new server.
Thanks.
Mark
-
I would definitely at least clean up the article HTML and structure before launching the pages, since you don't want people who might land on them before they're updated to have a weird experience. As far as optimizing them for SEO, I think you could go ahead and make the pages live and roll out edits as you make them. Prioritizing the pages based on highest-traffic/best-converting first is the way to go. If switching your platform is going to make your site easier to crawl, you definitely want to do that sooner rather than later - plus, having the new pages live will allow them to start accumulating some links even before you make keyword-related changes.
In general with a major change like this I recommend changing as few other things as possible simultaneously. It's OK to make more gradual changes, and it gives Google fewer things to get used to at one time.
-
If search engines did not catch up with changes we make and improve our ranking for positive changes, there'd be little point to Search Engine Optimization.
If Google is already seeing your pages anyway and the move will only make them better (even if they are still not where you'd like them to be), then you can go ahead and move them if you like, as long as the move will not create a confusing situation for the people looking at the pages.
As you fix the pages to your satisfaction, wait for them to be crawled again or resubmit them using Fetch as Google to possibly get them crawled faster. [And as far as H2 tags, if that is your main worry, I wouldn't worry too much--they probably won't make much difference.]
-
Thank you for the response, Linda. So, this is a slightly tricky one because I don't have a specific deadline per se, but also want to build a plan that gets me over to the new server as soon as possible, without falling into a trap of the switchover date just "floating". Let me put it this way.
I have the following "phases" for each of the articles (as reminder, I have around 200 such articles):
- Create all articles: Using the planned titles, categories and URLs but with no content.
- Move content across from old site to the new articles. Done with straight cut-and-paste (don't ask about importing - long story :)). This gets the data into WordPress posts as-is, but includes HTML markup from the old CMS, doesn't correctly use styles (some articles look pretty messy) and doesn't have a consistent use of H2 tags (H1 is the title). Most articles look "OK" but a) some are messy but readable for the human eye and b) the lack of H2 tags means there's no structure from an SEO-perspective.
- Clean up article HTML/structure. Review each article, cleaning up the HTML and ensuring the content still makes sense and reads well. HTML clean-up includes removing HTML relevant to the old CMS and making sure I have article structure through use of H2 tags
- Review each article for SEO. Will be using the Yoast SEO plugin and making changes recommended. The keywords are already decided (the URLs and titles in step 1 reflect those decisions) so for each article I will be reviewing the rest of the content and making sure it looks acceptable from an SEO perspective,
I am currently done with step 2 (all articles moved across, albeit some looking somewhat untidy and without any document structure). I am starting to work through step 3 now, but this is a time-consuming process.
I guess what this all boils down to is if I switch across will search engines "catch up" later, when I revise the content for structure and SEO changes. The existing site is not good - so, as it stands, search engines don't look on the site kindly.
One option is to just bite the bullet and move across (I'd see benefits from the title and URL changes, with the associated 301 redirects in place) and subsequently do steps 3 and 4. I'd actually like to do that but ONLY if I can be confident the search engines will end up in the same place as they would if I just waited till step 4 is done.
Another option is to finish step 3, move to the new server and then start updating articles for SEO (step 4).
Thanks.
Mark
-
Why are you switching? If there is no reason to be in a rush, then I'd wait and make the change when everything is ready--a few weeks isn't that long.
If there is a particular reason for haste (like you were having technical problems with the old platform or a lot of your traffic is mobile and you want to make the April 21 Google deadline), then I think it depends on the state of the content.
If it is not perfect but still makes sense with the new titles and URLs, I'd do the update for your most important content and switch. If it is terrible, I'd wait. There is no point getting traffic for bad content.
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
-
Defining duplicate content
If you have the same sentences or paragraphs on multiple pages of your website, is this considered duplicate content and will it hurt SEO?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mnapier120 -
IFrames and Thin Content Worries
Hi everyone, I've read a lot about the impact of iFrames on SEO lately -- articles like http://www.visibilitymagazine.com/how-do-iframes-affect-your-seo/ for example. I understand that iFrames don't cause duplicate content or cloaked content issues, but what about thin content concerns? Here's my scenario: Our partner marketing team would like to use an iframe to pull content detailing how Partner A and my company collaborate from a portal the partners have access to. This would allow the partners to help manage their presence on our site directly. The end result would be that Partner A's portal content would be added to Partner A's page on our website via an iFrame. This would happen about across at least 100 URLs. Currently we have traditional partner pages, with unique HTML content. There's a little standalone value for queries involving the bigger partners' names + use case terms, but only in less than 10% of cases. So I'm concerned about those pages, but I'm more worried about the domain overall. My main concern is that in the eyes of Google I'd be stripping a lot of content off the domain all at once, and then replacing it with these shell pages containing nothing (in terms of SEO) but meta, a headline, navigation links, and an iFrame. If that's the case, would Google view those URLs as having thin content? And could that potentially impact the whole domain negatively? Or would Google understand that the page doesn't have content because of the iFrames and give us a pass? Thoughts? Thanks, Andrew
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | SafeNet_Interactive_Marketing0 -
Does Google see this as duplicate content?
I'm working on a site that has too many pages in Google's index as shown in a simple count via a site search (example): site:http://www.mozquestionexample.com I ended up getting a full list of these pages and it shows pages that have been supposedly excluded from the index via GWT url parameters and/or canonicalization For instance, the list of indexed pages shows: 1. http://www.mozquestionexample.com/cool-stuff 2. http://www.mozquestionexample.com/cool-stuff?page=2 3. http://www.mozquestionexample.com?page=3 4. http://www.mozquestionexample.com?mq_source=q-and-a 5. http://www.mozquestionexample.com?type=productss&sort=1date Example #1 above is the one true page for search and the one that all the canonicals reference. Examples #2 and #3 shouldn't be in the index because the canonical points to url #1. Example #4 shouldn't be in the index, because it's just a source code that, again doesn't change the page and the canonical points to #1. Example #5 shouldn't be in the index because it's excluded in parameters as not affecting page content and the canonical is in place. Should I worry about these multiple urls for the same page and if so, what should I do about it? Thanks... Darcy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 945010 -
Duplicate content on sites from different countries
Hi, we have a client who currently has a lot of duplicate content with their UK and US website. Both websites are geographically targeted (via google webmaster tools) to their specific location and have the appropriate local domain extension. Is having duplicate content a major issue, since they are in two different countries and geographic regions of the world? Any statement from Google about this? Regards, Bill
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | MBASydney0 -
How to promote good content?
Our team just finished a massive piece of content.. very similar to the SEOmoz Begginer's Guide to SEO, but for the salon/aesthetics industry. We have a beautifully designed 10 Chapter, 50-page PDF which will require an email form submission to download. Each chapter is optimized for specific phrases, and will be separate HTML pages that are publicly available... very much like how this is setup: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo My question is, what's the best way to promote this thing? Any specific examples would be ideal. I think blogger outreach would likely be the best approach, but is there any specific way that I should be doing this?.. Again a specific start-to-finish example is what I'm looking for here. (I've read almost every outreach post on moz, so no need to reference them) Anyone care to rattle off a list of ideas with accompanying examples? (even if they seem like no-brainers.. I'm all ears)
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | ATMOSMarketing560 -
Keyword/Content Consistency
My question is: If you have a keyword that is searched more when it's spelled wrong then when it's spelled right - what do you do? Do you do the misspelled word or keep true to the spelling and say oh well to SEO? Also - Along the same lines of that question: What if you have a keyword that has a - in the middle of it. For instance: website and web-site (this isn't the keyword just an example). and drupal website is searched more then drupal web-site but wordpress web-site is searched more then wordpress website. Technically website is the correct spelling and way to write it, but people put web-site (again not the case in reality - just an example).
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | blackrino0 -
Duplicate Content - Panda Question
Question: Will duplicate informational content at the bottom of indexed pages violate the panda update? **Total Page Ratio: ** 1/50 of total pages will have duplicate content at the bottom off the page. For example...on 20 pages in 50 different instances there would be common information on the bottom of a page. (On a total of 1000 pages). Basically I just wanted to add informational data to help clients get a broader perspective on making a decision regarding "specific and unique" information that will be at the top of the page. Content ratio per page? : What percentage of duplicate content is allowed per page before you are dinged or penalized. Thank you, Utah Tiger
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Boodreaux0 -
ECommerce syndication & duplicate content
We have an eCommerce website with original software products. We want to syndicate our content to partner and affiliate websites, but are worried about the effect of duplicate content all over the web. Note that this is a relatively high profile project, where thousands of sites will be listing hundreds of our products, with the exact same name, description, tags, etc. We read the wonderful and relevant post by Kate Morris on this topic (here: http://mz.cm/nXho02) and we realize the duplicate content is never the best option. Some concrete questions we're trying to figure out: 1. Are we risking penalties of any sort? 2. We can potentially get tens of thousands of links from this concept, all with duplicate content around them, but from PR3-6 sites, some with lots of authority. What will affect our site more - the quantity of mediocre links (good) or the duplicate content around them (bad)? 3. Should we sacrifice SEO for a good business idea?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | erangalp0