Prioritizing SEO Items for a New Website Launch
-
Hello, a beginner SEO question I'd love to hear your perspective on.
We're launching a new site and need to prioritize our SEO work. For a news site with multiple articles published daily, using RSS feeds to push stories to Google News is our top priority. Which item should we focus on next, an XML sitemap for Google, or an article directory based on our internal taxonomy that would provide backlinks for the individual posts to rank? Are XML sitemaps still relevant? Is an article directory a must-have or nice-to-have?
Appreciate any suggestions you may have!
-
Very helpful, Daniel. Thank you very much!
-
Thanks, Martijn! Appreciate your time.
-
I think Daniel already did a great job answering the question what you should be focused on around the migration itself. By to answer your question specifically. I would focus on making sure that the actual directory links + pages will be in place. Sitemaps is usually something that you build for making sure that there is support for them so you can have more insights. It's not something that can help you lead your SEO strategy, it provides insights but in itself doesn't create a ton of value compared to the other stuff that you can work on.
-
Hey,
Personally, if this were me, I'd focus on making sure that traffic loss was kept to an absolute minimum when I launched. To do this, I would take a crawl of your current (live) website and get a list of all URLs and do exactly the same for your new site (dev site).
You'll want to make sure that you map out 301 permanent redirections for all of the URLs from your old website and point them to the most relevant URL on the new site. For example:
http://www.yoursite.com > Add a 301 permanent redirection that goes to > https://www.yournewsite.com
That way, you will maintain as much link equity as you can and look to maintain your traffic levels when you go live.
As well as that, make sure you complete the basics;
- Meta optimization
- Fix any broken links
- Complete an audit to check for improvements
- Image optimization
Those are just a few, but there are loads more than you can do. Check out this post from the Moz blog for some extra help.
Hope this helps?
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
-
Merge 2 websites into one, using a non-existing, new domain.
I need to merge https://www.WebsiteA.com and https://www.WebsiteB.com to a fresh new domain (with no content) https://www.WebsiteC.com. I want to do it the best way to keep existing SEO juice. Website A is the companies home page and built with Wordpress Website B is the company product page and built with Wordpress Website C will be the new site containing both website A and B, utilizing Wordpress also. What is the best way to do this? I have research a lot and keep hitting walls on how to do it. It's a little trickier because it's two different domains going to a brand new domain. Thanks
Technical SEO | | jarydcat10 -
Can redirect URL website also shown on the google ranking? and higher than the original website?
can redirect URL website also shown on the google ranking? and higher than the original website? For example, I create URL B which redirect to website A, and do good SEO on URL B, can URL B rank higher than my original website A?
Technical SEO | | HealthmateForever0 -
Mobile website indexing
Hi we have a mobile version of our website at mobile.gardening-services-edinburgh.com its been live for 5, maybe 6 months, it has its own mobile-sitemap.xml have tried submitting this sitemap to google and for some reason it does not index these pages any ideas, most welcome
Technical SEO | | McSEO0 -
My SEO friend says my website is not being indexed by Google considering the keywords he has placed in the page and URL what does that mean?
My SEO friend says my website is not being indexed by Google considering the keywords he has placed in the page and URL what does that mean? We have added some text in the pages with keywords thats related the page
Technical SEO | | AlexisWithers0 -
SEO for sub domains
I've recently started to work on a website that has been previously targeting sub domain pages on its site for its SEO and has some ok rankings. To better explain, let me give an example...A site is called domainname.com. And has subdomains that they are targeted for seo (i.e. pageone.domainname.com, pagetwo.domainname.com, pagethree.domianname.com). The site is going through a site re-development and can reorganise its pages to another URL. What would be best way to approach this situation for SEO? Ideally, I'm tempted to recommend that new targeted pages be created - domainname.com/pageone, domainname.com/pagetwo, domainname.com/pagethree, etc - and to perform a 301 redirect from the old pages. Does a subdomain page structure (e.g. pageone.domainname.com) have any negative effects on SEO? Also, is there a good way to track rankings? I find that a lot of rank checkers don't pick up subdomains. Any tips on the best approach to take here would be appreciated. Hope I've made sense!
Technical SEO | | Gavo0 -
Multiple domain SEO strategy
Hi Mozzers I'm an AM at a web dev. We're building a new site for a client who sells paint to different markets: Paint for boats Paint for construction industry Paint for, well you get the idea! Would we be better off setting up separate domains - boatpaintxxx.com, housepaintxxx.com, etc - and treat each as a searate microsites for standalone SEO activity or have them as individual pages/sub doms from a single domain - paints4all.com or something? From what i've read today, including the excellent Beginners Guide - I'm guessing there's no definitive answer! Feedback appreciated! Thanks.
Technical SEO | | rikmon0 -
Google not showing my website ?
The website is medicare.md. if you search for term "medicare doctors PG county maryland" it is #1 in bing and yahoo but not even showing on google.com first TEN pages, although not banned. Interestingly if you do that search on google.co.pk it is #4. Quite Puzzuling !! Would appreciate any help or advice . Sherif Hassan
Technical SEO | | sherohass0 -
Where to get expert SEO help?
I joined SEOmoz knowing very little about SEO (it turns out even less than I thought!) I signed up because my business website that had be ranking very well for years made a fast and furious fall to the purgatory of page 2, 3, whatever. We'll I've definitely learned a lot and made a several changes that have helped. Specifically link building (directory submissions) and eliminating duplicate content. But we're still far below where we used to be and I've done everything I can do without making a career change to SEO. I've hired a few offshore SEOs to help but they have all failed to live up to their promises. So, I would love to find a GOOD SEO that can 1. Fix the remaining on-page technical issues in our CMS website (Business Catalyst), and 2. help us develop an SEO strategy for the next year. (I prefer not to post the name of the website for competitive reasons) Our keywords are really not very competitive at all due to the uniqueness of the business. Where should I look for help? Thanks
Technical SEO | | Placeboo0