Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Thanks so much for your detailed response!!

The 19 hours that I was quoted did not include the design or mock up, it was strictly for coding.

Did your response assume that design was also involved or was it only for coding?

In term of hourly rates I understand what you mean and agree 100%. I would rather pay $100/hour for a senior developer than $26 for a junior developer who will take 5 times as long. I believe there is a huge difference in productivity and quality among developers. It is the final cost and quality that matter not the hourly rate.

Thanks, 
Alan

My developer says that is will take 19 hours to modify a listing page of the wpcasa London real estate theme because the existing template is difficult to customize.

I am attaching an image of the existing page before customization and an image of a final mock up.

Is 19 hours a reasonable amount of time to customize this page?

Look forward to feedback.

New Design is visible at: https://imgur.com/a/42XBqDD

Alan

IQ1i0kg

Last April we migrated our old domain www.nyc-officespace-leader.com to a new domain www.metro-manhattan.com. The old domain has been receiving numerous links from very spammy sites such as these:

-adinternet.net/the_worlds_most_visited_web_pages_958.htm

<colgroup><col width="263"></colgroup>
| -www.online-advertisement.net/the_worlds_most_visited_web_pages_958.html |

<colgroup><col width="263"></colgroup>
| www.webfind.org/the_worlds_most_visited_web_pages_958/ |

Since the old domain redirects to our new domain we are concerned this could be very detrimental. Oddly enough the 50-100 spammy domains that link to us all are a site called: "http://theglobe.se/start/" when the linking domain is entered in the browser.

What should we do? Should we disavow these links? Is this some kind of an attack?

Would very much appreciate some input/advice.

Thank, 
Alan

My firm has hired an SEO to create links to our site.

We asked the SEO to provide a list of domains that they are targeting for potential links. The SEO did not agree to this request on the grounds that the list is their unique intellectual property.

Alternatively I asked the SEO to provide the URL that will be linking to our site before the link is activated. The SEO did not agree to this. However, they did say we could provide comments afterwards so they could tweak their efforts when the next 4-5 links are obtained next month.

The SEO is adamant that the links will not be spam. For whatever it is worth the SEO was highly recommended.

I am an end user; the owner and operator of a commercial real estate site, not an SEO or marketing professional. Is this protectiveness over process and data typical of link building providers? I want to be fair with the provider and hope I will be working with them a long time, however I want to ensure I receive high quality links. Should I be concerned?

Thanks,
Alan

I have noticed that several competitors that rank very well rarely update their blogs, www.42floors.com for instance.

We are redesigning our commercial real estate Wordpress website in the hopes of improving traffic, ranking and conversions.

How critical is it to invest resources on creating and categorizing blog posts? Is frequently updating a blog post less necessary in late 2018?

Curious to hear how much effort we should take to create new blog content and whether or not it will assist us in a competitive niche.

Thanks,

Alan

We purchased a Wordpress Real estate theme called wpcasa.  My developer started coding it. We hired a new SEO. The SEO looked at a simple page (About Us) and saw about 70 Java scripts and 11 templates and was very dissatisfied with the coding and heavy source code contained in the theme. My SEO claims the optimizing this theme (removing the unnecessary Java Scripts and combining the templates is way too much work and that it would be better to start from scratch and purchase a theme like https://my.studiopress.com/themes/agentpress/   with more compact, efficient and streamlined code. Problem is we need to throw out 2 months and thousands of dollars worth of code. My SEO says that in the day of Google's "mobile first" streamlined code is particularly important. My developer has taken the position that the code can be cleaned up after the design. Where it seems my SEO wants clean code to stat with. I don't know who to is right. Any ideas? Am I better of starting from scratch with a new more efficient theme, or cleaning up the code on the wpcasa theme?

The code for the test page is below. Thanks!

| |
|   | lang="en-US" prefix="og: http://ogp.me/ns#"> |
|   | |
|   | charset="UTF-8"> |
|   | http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge"> |
|   | name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> |
|   | rel="profile" href="http://gmpg.org/xfn/11"> |
|   | rel="pingback" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/xmlrpc.php"> |
|   |   |
|   | <title></span>About Metro Manhattan - Metro Manhattan Office Space<span class="html-tag"></title> |
|   | |
|   |   |
|   | |
|   | name="description" content="New York City real estate brokerage service helps business tenants acquire office, commercial loft, retail or showroom space anywhere in Manhattan."/> |
|   | name="robots" content="noindex,follow"/> |
|   | property="og:locale" content="en_US" /> |
|   | property="og:type" content="article" /> |
|   | property="og:title" content="About Metro Manhattan - Metro Manhattan Office Space" /> |
|   | property="og:description" content="New York City real estate brokerage service helps business tenants acquire office, commercial loft, retail or showroom space anywhere in Manhattan." /> |
|   | property="og:url" content="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/about-us/" /> |
|   | property="og:site_name" content="Metro Manhattan Office Space" /> |
|   | name="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image" /> |
|   | name="twitter:description" content="New York City real estate brokerage service helps business tenants acquire office, commercial loft, retail or showroom space anywhere in Manhattan." /> |
|   | name="twitter:title" content="About Metro Manhattan - Metro Manhattan Office Space" /> |
|   | name="twitter:image" content="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/process-01.png" /> |
|   | |
|   |   |
|   | rel='dns-prefetch' href='//maps.googleapis.com' /> |
|   | rel='dns-prefetch' href='//maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com' /> |
|   | rel='dns-prefetch' href='//fonts.googleapis.com' /> |
|   | rel='dns-prefetch' href='//s.w.org' /> |
|   | rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Metro Manhattan Office Space » Feed" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/feed/" /> |
|   | rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Metro Manhattan Office Space » Comments Feed" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/comments/feed/" /> |
|   | rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="Metro Manhattan Office Space » About Metro Manhattan Comments Feed" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/about-us/feed/" /> |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='font-awesome-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/menu-icons/vendor/kucrut/icon-picker/css/types/font-awesome.min.css?ver=4.7.0' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='menu-icons-extra-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/menu-icons/css/extra.min.css?ver=0.11.2' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='contact-form-7-bootstrap-style-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/bootstrap-for-contact-form-7/assets/dist/css/style.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpsight-favorites-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/wpcasa-favorites/assets/css/wpsight-favorites.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpsight-listing-labels-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/wpcasa-listing-labels/assets/css/wpsight-listing-labels.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpsight-listings-map-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/wpcasa-listings-map/assets/css/wpsight-listings-map.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpfront-notification-bar-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/wpfront-notification-bar/css/wpfront-notification-bar.css?ver=1.7' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpfront-scroll-top-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/wpfront-scroll-top/css/wpfront-scroll-top.min.css?ver=2.0.1' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='chld_thm_cfg_parent-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/style.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='fontawesome.min.css-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london-child/assets/css/fontawesome.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='load-fa-css' href='https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.1.0/css/font-awesome.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpcasa-london-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london-child/style.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='bootstrap-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/vendor/twbs/bootstrap/css/bootstrap.css?ver=3.3.6' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='bootstrap-dropdownhover-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/vendor/kybarg/bootstrap-dropdown-hover/css/bootstrap-dropdownhover.min.css?ver=1.0.0' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='bootstrap-select-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/vendor/silviomoreto/bootstrap-select/css/bootstrap-select.min.css?ver=1.10.0' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='awesome-bootstrap-checkbox-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/vendor/flatlogic/awesome-bootstrap-checkbox/awesome-bootstrap-checkbox.min.css?ver=0.3.7' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='pushy-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/assets/css/pushy.css?ver=1.2.1' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='lightslider-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/vendor/sachinchoolur/lightslider/css/lightslider.min.css?ver=1.1.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='lightgallery-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/vendor/sachinchoolur/lightgallery/css/lightgallery.min.css?ver=1.2.15' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='animate-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/themes/wpcasa-london/assets/css/animate.min.css?ver=1.2.1' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='dashicons-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-includes/css/dashicons.min.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='google-fonts-css' href='//fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lato:700,400|Raleway:400,300&subset=latin' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='wpmtst-custom-style-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/strong-testimonials/public/css/custom.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='zcffront-jquery-ui-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/zoho-crm-forms/assets/css/jquery-ui.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | rel='stylesheet' id='zcffront-end-styles-css' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/plugins/zoho-crm-forms/assets/css/frontendstyles.css?ver=4.9.5' type='text/css' media='all' /> |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | rel='https://api.w.org/' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-json/' /> |
|   | rel="EditURI" type="application/rsd+xml" title="RSD" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/xmlrpc.php?rsd" /> |
|   | rel="wlwmanifest" type="application/wlwmanifest+xml" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-includes/wlwmanifest.xml" /> |
|   | name="generator" content="WordPress 4.9.5" /> |
|   | rel='shortlink' href='http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/?p=3800' /> |
|   | rel="alternate" type="application/json+oembed" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-json/oembed/1.0/embed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdev.metro-manhattan.com%2Fabout-us%2F" /> |
|   | rel="alternate" type="text/xml+oembed" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-json/oembed/1.0/embed?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdev.metro-manhattan.com%2Fabout-us%2F&format=xml" /> |
|   | |
|   | |
|   |   |
|   | |
|   |   |
|   | |
|   | |
|   | rel="icon" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/metromanhattan_icon-75x75.png" sizes="32x32" /> |
|   | rel="icon" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/metromanhattan_icon.png" sizes="192x192" /> |
|   | rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/metromanhattan_icon.png" /> |
|   | name="msapplication-TileImage" content="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/metromanhattan_icon.png" /> |
|   |   |
|   | |
|   |   |
|   | |
|   |   |
|   | class="page-template page-template-page-tpl-about page-template-page-tpl-about-php page page-id-3800 page-parent custom-background wpsight-london" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/WebPage"> |
|   |   |
|   |   |
|   | id="top" class="site-wrapper"> |
|   |   |
|   |   |
|   | class="header-widgets"> |
|   |   |
|   | class="header-full-width"> |
|   | id="section-wpsight_london_listings_search-2" class="widget-section section-widget_listings_search">id="wpsight_london_listings_search-2" class="widget widget_listings_search"> <form <span="" class="html-attribute-name">method="get" action="http://dev.metro-manhattan.com/search/" class="wpsight-listings-search horizontal"></form> |
|   |   |
|   | class="listings-search-default"> |
|   | class="row gutter-30"> |
|   | class="listings-search-field listings-search-field-text listings-search-field-keyword col-xs-12 col-sm-9"> |
|   | class="listing-search-keyword text form-control" title="Keyword or Listing ID…" name=" |

I have subscribed to MOZ Local and it is not showing my domain as listed in Google My Business even though when I Google my business it appears in Google on the right. Is MOZ Local experiencing a bug?

Hi Joseph:

Thanks for your response!

I absolutely intend to A/B test with different versions of designs, calls to action and text. I am new to Adwords so a few questions please:

A campaign is meant for a product? So let's say "loft space" and "medical space" were products, I would set up a different campaign for each, and the campaign would contain different ad groups, which would be different text ads. Is that correct?

But I don't understand the concept of extensions. What is an extension?

Thanks,
Alan

Hi Sean:

I assume we can set up the 2 landing pages on Instapage and then use on of the 4 methods to have the ad served according to whether the user is viewing on a desktop or mobile device, is that correct?

How long does this take to set up? 15 minutes an hour? Pretty simple to do or takes some skill?

Can we use the Worpress plugin? Our website is on Wordpress and the ads will be designed using Instapage.

Is it possible to have Google Adwords display different page versions according to whether an advertisement will be displayed on a mobile or desktop device?

We are a commercial real estate brokerage based in New York City. Most converting website use desktop rather than mobile. We are considering advertising on Google Adwords. Is it possible to have Google serve a more elaborate form of desktop  landing page but have Google serve a stripped down version to mobile users? The stripped down version would be created using Instapage. From a technical perspective how would we create a more elaborate desktop version and have Google distinguish between the two?

In our experience, mobile converts much less. How much less should we bid for keywords displaying on mobile?

Thanks!
Alan

Hi Chris:

We migrated the exact, identical content from domain name "A" to domain name "B". No on site optimization was done at the time. We did file a disavow file for some very spammy links at the time of the migration.

We are planning on launching a design upgrade next month (4 months after the domain change).  In the meantime we will focus on link building.

But is the gradual improvement in domain authority a sign that the site is recovering; that organic traffic will return eventually?

We depend on this site for lead generation so this is a serious issue.

Thanks, Alan

Hi Sean:

Makes a lot of sense. So what objective measures of quality can request when I hire an SEO firm to create links. I know there are page authority and domain authority but understand these can be manipulated as well.

My concern is that I will order 4-5 links for $2,000 and will be provided with 4-5 links purchased on FIVRR for $20.00.

How as a consumer can I protect myself from this scenario? Now I guess I can research potential links targets myself, but how do I ensure they are of decent quality? Should I ask the SEO to run initial research and then I can say what links I feel are OK?

Also, there will text embedded in links back to our site that the SEO will create. This text may contain a keyword, company name or other info. Should I specify text this should contain or leave it to the SEO?

We migrated our domain in early April and simultaneously added an SSL certificate. Everything was done by the books. All redirects implemented perfectly, very few errors. Google notified via Search Console.

Despite all steps being done perfectly our domain authority dropped from 24 to 8. Organic traffic dropped from about 80 per day to about 10.

Each month domain authority increases by 2 or 3.  We are now back up to a DA of 16. But no improvement in organic traffic yet. At what point should organic traffic start to return? Hopefully the consistent improvement in DA is a good sign. I have been told that adding SSL and moving the domain at the same time was a very bad idea.

We are starting link building next week. Hopefully that will help further.  Any ideas as to when this situation will improve? Needless to say it has been awful for our business.

Hi Sean:

Apparently I may have misunderstand.

Keeping in mind that I as a business person I am trying to spend the least possible for the highest quality, how much do you think is reasonable to budget on a monthly basis for 4-5 decent quality links?

Thanks, 
Alan

Hi NgEF:

So from what you say for about 4 for to 5 decent quality links around $800 to $1,000/month would be reasonable. But this would not include articles, infographics, content which I could either create or pay for. It would also not include featured blog posts which could run anywhere up to $1,000.

OK, so maybe $2,000/month is not that far off.

Do I understand this correctly?
Thanks, Alan

Hi Sean:

From what you are saying, there must be several thousand visitors a month in order for a PPC campaign to have sufficient data to adjust bids run a/b tests.

In our situation the average click will probably average between $5-$10. Our monthly budget will not exceed $3,000 (maybe $4,000). So we will probably never get more than 600 visits per month driven by PPC.

Do you think we will have enough data for a successful PPC campaign? Your response talks about several thousand hits per day for a successful campaign.

I am in a very competitive and expensive niche. And if success is not possible I would prefer to save the $10,000-$15,000 that a test will cost.

Thanks, 
Alan

I simply want to understand what I am paying for. If a vendor takes 15 minutes a month and uses an automated systems to create links I would like to know. If the hourly rate the vendor is charging me is $4,000/hour I think I am entitled to know.

I am not fixated on $500, $1,000 or $2,000 per month. I am fixated on getting fair value. When one party (vendor) has more information than the customer, the customer is in a vulnerable position and apt to overpay. That is why I am asking.

It seems reasonable to pay an SEO what a CPA, a decent attorney or other professional earns on an hourly basis. But an hourly rate equivalent to a Fortune 500 executive or a neuro-surgeon seems excessive.

I am simply trying to determine what is fair and customary.

Thanks, Alan

What is a reasonable cost to set up Adwords Campaign? This would include keyword research, set up of Adwords, set up re-marketing banners, creative and coding landing pages using Instapage.

Lets say there are 3 ad groups and two landing pages per add group. Assuming the vendor is highly experienced and located in the United States, what is a fair price? $700, $1,000, $1,500?

How about for the monthly management of the campaign? Let's assume advertising budget is $3,000. Is $500 per month reasonable, $800, $1,000?

I do not want to over pay not under pay and am trying to determine a cost which is fair to both of us. Answers should be based on a US based vendor with native English and extensive experience with PPC.

Thanks,

Alan

We need about 5-10 high quality links to our website created every month. We need the link targets researched and outreach done to these sites.

The sites most be legitimate and high quality; decent domain authority, real sites, not phony low quality sites. Sites that would show traffic in similarweb.com with decent metrics. We absolutely want to avoid any link building schemes that could get us penalized. I have been told that such a project would take a qualified SEO about 8-10 hours per months (more during the additional month of research, less afterward).

As such, what is a reasonable cost for these 5-10 links per month? $300, $500, $700, more? I only want to work with a highly experienced SEO, native english speaker with extensive experience. What is fair? I don't want to overpay or to under pay.

Thanks,

Alan

I would like to use MOZ to identify a competitors broken links. Does MOZ have such a tool? Where is it?

My SEO consultant suggests that we have bloggers write contend and then link it to our site. I am concerned about the quality of the links that will be generated. He is confident that they will be of high quality and the process will be relatively quick and easy. My concern is future spam penalty or low quality links.

Another consultant suggested replacing a competitors broken links. How effective is this? Is it more labor intensive than other link building techniques?

Thanks,
Alan Rosinsky

Hi James:

We acquired the domain in 2012. We have used it for Gmail but have not used it as a web domain. I don't see how it could be contaminated....

What do you mean by hand submitting daily? Do you mean manual submissions of each URL on Google Search Console? Are you saying that very frequent submissions of new content will help? Are you saying that perhaps it will take 6 months to recover???!!!!!!!

I am really puzzled because we really did everything 100% by the book.

Thank, 
Alan

Hi James:

Thanks so much for your response!

We did not change anything on our Wordpress site. It is the identical site on the identical server.

According to my developer the errors in Google Search Console for the old domain (domain A) are normal considering that domain "B" has taken its place.

All the redirect work. We are not seeing any errors. All pages have been reindexed according to domain "B". However we are seeing a 90% drop in traffic.

This does not at all seem normal for a domain migration. Everything was done by the book.

I wonder if there is some sort of Google Penalty at play? What is strange is that traffic from Bing and Yahoo remain at levels prior to the migration.

Thanks, 
Alan

5 weeks ago we migrated our site to a new domain. We also installed an SSL certificate on the new domain. The new domain was purchased 5 years ago but we only used it as a redirect address. It was more consistent with our brand so we decided to migrate to it.

Great care was taken setting up page to page redirects. A formal domain change request was made to Google. In fact the move was implemented with only a handful of broken links on a 500 page site. Those links were quickly fixed.

Our traffic declined from about 350 visitors a week to as low as 40 visitors the first full week after the move. Now the number of organic Google visits is up to 80, a drop of 75% !!!

All except 20 (out of 500) pages are reindexed on Google Search Console. MOZ domain authority for the new domain has climbed from 5 to about 12. The old domain had a DA of 23.

In Google Search Console hundreds of "URL Not Allowed" errors are the site map for our previous domain that redirects to our new domain. Attached please see image of this. The site map for the new domain appears normal, but about 160 pages are indexed that are not in the sitemap. I wonder if these two issues have somehow contributed to the drop in ranking. I have included images showing GCT for the 2 domains.

I posted on MOZ a month ago and was told it just might take time. No improvement and now I am wonder if there is not some issue with the sitemaps causing havoc. Are traffic is down more than 80%. This does not seem normal.

Any advice? Any suggestions as to how to expedite recovery?

Thanks, 
Alan

We are rebranding our web site and intend to create more visual pages with less text on the assumption that no one want to read anymore.

What is the least amount of text that we can include in a home page without damaging out ability to rank on Google?  Google recently increased the permitted amount of text on description tags. Can we shift text to the description tax and place more on ALT tags that are not immediately visible to visitors.

Any thoughts, comments, advice??

I am adding image of the old home page and new home page (text to be written, 3 columns of dummy text) so the change in the amount of text is visible.

Thanks, 
Alan

GkvnNR8 UH9ptbh

170 of the 420 pages were indexed after March 20th. 222 were indexed before March 11th. There was no drop in traffic until about April 7th, 3 days after the domain change.

I have checked and double checked with my developer and all pages were redirected correctly. We have gotten only a few redirect errors and they were fixed within the first few days of the migration.

Also, I would like to emphasize that no changes at all were made to the content or the structure.

The old site was www.nyc-officespace-leader.com
The new domain is https//:www.metro-manhattan.com

So you see we add SSL and migrated the domain as well.

My developer seems less concerned and believes it could take up to 90 days for domain authority to transfer from the old domain. I am more concerned. Certain MOZ posts claim that if implemented properly the drop in traffic should be minimal and very temporary.

Any thoughts?

Hi Donna:

Yes, on official domain change got processed via Google Search Console.

I ran a MOZ crawl of the site. Every URL including the home page has a domain authority of 1. Previously the DA of the home page was 23.

No wonder the ranking and traffic dropped of the cliff! Assuming redirects were implemented correctly, (they were) is such a drop in DA normal after a migration?

Thanks, 
Alan

Yes, 301 redirection was done. We only had a handful of 404 errors. At the start the process appeared to progress very smoothly. Ranking dropped on all URLs. Some important URLs experienced a lesser drop (say position 2 to position 10). Most pages dropped form say position 12 to 60.

No content was changed during the move. Only 2 changes were:
-Different domain
-Secure domain (HTTPS).

The old domain was www.nyc-officespace-leader.com
The new domain is https://www.metro-manhattan.com

Actually the number of daily visitors has dropped from 80 to about 10. The migration occurred on April 3rd, about 16 days ago.

The number of impressions Google is serving us is gradually increasing. But because the ranking is so low, the number of clicks is low.

So your suggestion is to incorporate keyword rich content into pages that ranked well previously? Do you think this will revive ranking?

Is it possible that this drop is normal and that ranking should recover in the next 60-90 days? 
Or should I be concerned something has gone wrong?

We moved our domain is http://www.nyc-officespace-leader.com on April 4th. It was migrated to https://www.metro-manhattan.com

Google Search Console continues to show  about 420of URLs indexed for the old "NYC" domain. This number has not dropped on Search Console. Don't understand why Google has not de-indexed the old site. 
For the new "Metro" domain only 114 pages are being shown as valid. Our search volume has dropped from about 85 visits a day to 12 per day. 390 URLs appear as "crawled- currently not indexed". Please note that the migrated content is identical. Nothing at all changed. All re-directs were implemented properly.

Also, at the time of the migration we filed a disavow for about 200 spammy links. This disavow file was entered for the old domain and the new one as well.

Any ideas as to how to trouble shoot this would be much appreciated!!! This has not been very good for business.

Hi Ed:

That is  very interesting observation. I think you are absolutely correct regarding the number of visits vis a vis the number of pages.

But my situation is that the search volume has dropped to 10 visits a day from day after we have moved the site (no change in content or design) from the old domain to a new domain,

We are trying to figure out what has caused the drop in volume.

But we are also trying to figure out if we should start to improve the content structure before our domain authority recovers. It was previously 22, now it has dropped to 8. The domain migration was on April 4th. The question above pertained to timing for extensive SEO changes and then launch of a new design. All in context with the drop in traffic from the domain migration.

So what do you think advisable regarding SEO changes in light of problems relating to the domain switch and in light of the launch of the new design in a few months?
Thanks, Alan

We migrated our domain on April 4th. Our domain authority has dropped from 22 to 8. Traffic is down from 90 visits a day to 10.

Search console has indexed about 120 out of 600 pages. I have been told it may take several months to recovers some element of domain authority.

My SEO consultant has planned on implementing the following changes immediately:

1. Change in URL structure
2. Build internal links (my site has very few). 
3. Optimize URLs for specific keywords 
4. Keyword optimization of URLs using Yoast.
5. Modify Schema

Do we risk confusing Google further by making these changes until are domain authority and traffic has recovered?

Is it safe to proceed with some "softer" changes such building internal links and keyword optimizing text whicl avoiding more disruptive changes such as re-writing URLs?

Are we better off focusing on off site ranking factors such as link building and local SEO until domain authority recovers? How about only adding new content to the site such as blog posts and listings?

To complicate matters the site is old and dated and we are working on a new UX design. So perhaps it would be better to launch the new UX at the exact same time as the onsite SEO optimization occurs. This could be less work and less disruptive. At the same time I would very much like to enjoy benefits of optimizing SEO now.

Any thoughts?????

Also, my domain migration has killed traffic. It is very concerning!! Is a 90% drop in traffic normal in the first ten days!?

Thanks everyone!!!
Alan

Hi Andrew:
I expected to take a hit, but I don't understand why the old domain remains indexed. Also, the extent of the drop in traffic. Is it abnormal that the old domain pages have not yet been removed 9 days after the move. Indexation for them dropped for a few days and then climbed. Is this a red flag for a fundamental problem?

Exactly the same site.

Note that the only thing changes was the move to a new domain with an SSL certificate.

Hi Andrew:

The redirects from all pages on the old URL redirect perfectly to the new domain. Any other ideas?

Thanks, Alan

Hi Andrew:

Thanks for your response. Yes, something went terribly wrong!! Response to your questions:

-Comprehensive redirects were done to the domain. Please see attached Search Console form for the permanent redirect. 
-The new domain is fully crawled.
-2 or 3 404s were detected. They are in the process of being fixed.
-As of April 10th, the average position of the old domain (NYC) was 28.2. As of April 10th average position of the new domain is 35.1.

Real problem is the drop in clicks. New domain only got 5 or 6 yesterday. Normally, in March we would receive 80-90 visitors. Average position of the old domain in March was 26.8.

-I have attached several images showing the problem. One, labelled "Inconsistencies" shows some strange results. Indexation for the old domain dropped for a few days after the permanent redirect (301) but then climbed again. Seems very abnormal.

Another anomally: entering "site: www.metro-manhattan.com" does not bring up the URL in search results.

Any ideas or suggestions???????????????????

jCNP9 pdVav Q832M pnWr9

One week ago we migrated our old domain www.nyc-officespace-leader.com to https://www.metro-manhattan.com/.

Our organic search traffic from Google has dropped about 90%. Is this normal? If so, how long should it take to recover?

We filed a submitted a domain change request on Webmaster tools one week ago. We are noticing that many of the www.nyc-officespace-leader.com pages are still indexed which seems strange after a week.

To complicate things, we filed a disavow file on April 9th for spammy links that pointed the NYC site. We filed the identical disavow of those links to the new Metro domain to ensure low quality links don't point to the new domain.

Prior to making the domain change request, we migrated 30-40 non critical pages from NYC to Metro domains. Webmaster Tools indicated that the traffic was normal on the migrated pages. We then migrated remaining pages and filed the domain change request on April 4th. It is after April 4th that traffic and ranking declined.

I would like to mention that there was no change in content; identical content was migrated from Metro to NYC

This does not seem normal. Research prior to the migration indicated that if proper steps were taken it should proceed with limited disruption in traffic and ranking.

Any ideas on how to remedy this situation?

Thanks, Alan

We have completed a a domain migration.

I am ready to archive the existing campaign but would like to migrate the settings (keywords, etcetera) to the new campaign for the new domain. All settings to remain the same except for the domain name.

Can this be done in a simple manner. I am not technical so I hope it is really easy.

Thanks,
Alan

What is the likelyhood of our domain having a Google penalty? 28 spam score is a real source for concern unless it is completely inaccurate. Score of 1 is no cause for concern. Wonder which one is accurate?

We are migrating our domain tomorrow and how we proceed will be greatly influenced by this. Thoughts?

Interesting.

The 28 spam score is appearing under Links V2 (beta) in MOZ. Please see attached. Do you think this could be inaccurate?

Thanks, 
Alan

Ne02X

In the last week domain authority for our site (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) has increased from 21 to 31. We have been working on local SEO and making other improvements in the last month.

I have noticed that our spam score is now 28. I believe it was much lower in the past. Should we be concerned about incurring a Google penaltyY How likely is this with a spam score of 28? What actions should we take?

Also, we will be migrating the site to a new domain early this week. Can we use the domain migration as an opportunity to remove links from pammy domains? Will the removal of link from spammy domains increase or decrease our domain authority?

Thanks,

Alan

We subscribe to MOZ local. We are listed on all major directories except for Acxiom.

Will MOZ Local eventually distribute our information to Acxiom? We have subscribed for about a month.

Is there a faster way to get listed on Axciom?

Thanks,

Alan

This makes a lot of sense. So I will not make any assumptions about my visitors and will test so as to obtain objective feedback.

We are redesigning our web site real estate (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com). A key component of the site is the property search form. Currently visitors completes 5 fields and properties that meet the criteria are displayed to the visitor.

I have noticed that my leading competitors (www.42floors.com, www.squarefoot.com) use multi step forms that ask single questions of the visitors. In effect they are reducing complexity by asking a single question per form. However the visitor must complete additional forms. Before results are served, both competing sites require the visitor to release contact info. 42floors has a clever inducement for the visitor to release their info: "Their are 127 listings that haven't been posted yet, but are visible to members." Once the visitor releases info they get to view the listings.

While this is somewhat coercive, I suspect it is effective in obtaining customer date. While I understand it may result in some visitors bouncing off the site, the form completions are extremely valuable. Currently we provide listings without requiring registration but obtain very little data about visitors. In New York City, there are so many commercial real estate sites that visitors have a tendency to bounce from one to another without leaving info or calling.

Multi step forms would allow me to add questions that are highly pertinent. Like when do they need possession, how long a lease term. By being asked very specific, relevant questions I wonder if that would not in fact increase the likely hood of the visitor to release info

Any advice?? I am attaching several of the forms in question.

In the event that we proceed with a multi part form, their are certain services like Leadformly that integrate with Wordpress. I see the eliminate the need for a Capcha and have other advantages. Is it beneficial to use such a package?

iQUNh 19ugT he23uak

Hi Nikki:

By not using "www" my objective would be to save 3 spaces (valuable real estate) to improve visibility of longer URL. Any significant upside to this? I don't see this as common so I am not certain if there is.

Any thoughts? Thank! Alan

We plan on migrating our site to a new shorter domain name. I like the idea of removing "www" to gain an additional 3 letters in the URL display.

Is there any disadvantage of doing so from a technical or SEO perspective?

Thanks, 
Alan

Hi Brooks:

Thanks so much for the excellent answer, it really provides an idea about differing development costs  between a custom theme and a child theme.

I am on the fence as to whether a real estate theme would not be sufficient. I can absorb the added cost if necessary. Big factor is whether cleaner, more efficient code of a custom site is an important SEO factor. Do you have an opinion? We are just in an insanely a competitive niche so we need everything working in our favor. But from a user interface perspective some of the commercially available themes are pretty good.

Thanks, 
Alan

Assuming there is an SEO advantage to coding a Wordpress custom theme (wondering if that assumption is correct) versus modifying a child theme, is there a very significant cost difference between the two choices?

Competition in my niche (New York City commercial real estate is keen) and I am dealing with competitors such as www.wework.com, 42floors.com and squarefoot.com with optimized sites built with quality code.

In the event that we modify a child theme, I am leaning in any case towards have wireframes and illustrations provided to present to the developer. Should I expect a custom theme to be double the cost, triple assuming the design is provided?

I have read that code maintenance on a child theme is less costly as modifications get pushed to the parent theme. How substantial are maintenance costs (time to maintain) for a custom theme?

Thanks!!!
Alan

Ranking for  New York City commercial real estate is extremely competitive. We compete against: www.squarefoot.com, www.42floors.com, www.Loopnet.com, www.wework.com and a dozen other optimized sites.

Our site was designed in 2012. We plan on upgrading it. From an SEO perspective, can we compete by purchasing a Wordpress real estate theme and customizing it into a child theme? Our better ranking competitors are using custom themes where the code has been very streamlined to make the sites quick and easy to index by spiders. Would we gain a significant edge by custom coding? This is somewhat technical for a business owner and I am trying to get my head around it.

Our existing site is www.nyc-officespace-leader.com. Some of the themes we are considering are:

-http://main.wpestatetheme.org/homepage -http://houzez01.favethemes.com/ -http://realhomes.inspirythemes.biz/property/

From an SEO perspective is creating a child theme from the above a good approach? Or will a custom theme give us an advantage. If there is an advantage is that edge so marginal that it is not significant?

In terms of coding, is a custom site much more labor, 2x, 3x  the time to code? Also is the maintenance of a custom site much more involved? Also, as a related question, my developer since 2012 has created many custom plugins for Wordpress. Is this a no, no? Will avoiding custom plugins add to the development cost?

Even if we use a child theme from an existing real estate website, I would hope that the improved user interface will provide a boast in at least conversions if not SEO.

Thanks, Alan

The 3rd paragraph of your answer, which refers to "lighter code", are your referring to a custom theme or can a child them have light code as well?

Hi Redsweater:

Thanks for this informative and detailed response!!

In fact, I am not a WP developer, I am a client, and not too technical, unfortunately. From what you are saying it is absolutely clear that I start from scratch. That my choice is between a child theme and a custom theme. But I apologize but I don't quite understand the difference between the two.

How does child them differ form say a real estate theme that I purchase and customize? Something like this for example: http://main.wpestatetheme.org/homepage?

I understand that the child theme receives Wordpress updates and requires less maintenance with a the trade being that the code is less efficient?

But if I understand correctly, a child theme would be an improvement over our current 2013 site but a custom site would be the  best but most costly option. If I understand this correctly, how much more labor (cost) is the development of a child site (2x,3x)? Also, how much maintenance would it require every 18 months?

Also, my existing developer has customized several plugins. So this is a no, no and increases maintenance costs in the long run?

Thanks,
Alan

If I understand correctly, you are saying that a Wordpress Child theme is going to have too much extra code due to all the unused features. Implication being to enhance the performance I will need to create a custom theme? Sorry I am non-technical, do I have this right?

Currently I have a custom theme (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com). I am thinking a replacing this with a theme like https://themeforest.net/item/real-homes-wordpress-real-estate-theme/5373914
I like the features in this theme but don't want to shoot myself in the foot by purchasing low quality code that is guaranteed to rank poorly.

The sort of modifications that you suggest, can those be done to the Child theme or can they only be done with a customized theme?

The sort of changes you are suggesting, do they make a tangible difference for ranking?

Thanks, 
Alan