This post started out to be a quick case study on the effectiveness of getting your business listed in Local Search Engines – and quickly turned into what not to do if you decide to upgrade or remodel your Web site. The reason for the change was noting that a site that had 543 listing in Google the last time I checked had dropped to only 234.
The reason for the drop was that their “friends” are “helping them out” by remodeling their site. The first thing they did was remove all existing pages and replace the home page with “We are currently remodeling”.
Any professionals reading this already know where I’m going so you may want to check out the categories and sub-categories in the right sidebar as this blog is intended for reference and I update older posts regularly with new links and current information.
If you don’t already know why you should NEVER remove an existing site without knowing what you’re doing please read on. One of the reasons I don’t personally work with clients any more is that I feel so badly for them when they do something so unfortunate as this to themselves.
BEFORE you replace a single existing page the URL for that page should be redirected to the new equivalent page. At a minimum redirect all “missing” pages to your home page. Don’t just cause them to disappear. When you do this you lose all the incoming visitors and every search engine listing for those pages.
- Do you really want to eliminate all your existing incoming links in one fell swoop?
- Do not delete pages without redirecting them.
- Do not rename pages without redirecting them.
- Do not replace real content with “we’re remodeling”. How effective is THAT kind of non-content for retaining existing clients much less generating new business?
If you don’t know how to redirect pages find someone that does. Don’t let anyone touch your site until you know they know what they’re doing!
[NOTE: If you already have a site or blog with a free hosting company that doesn't provide for you to do redirects use creative 404 pages instead.]
And while we’re talking about redesigning and upgrading, if you’re serious about being online, existing sites should be created as WordPress blogs and made interactive. Unless you’re already famous, having a site that “lectures” visitors instead of one that allows them to interact with you is going to be a bust.
Figure out how to create a community and make your visitors feel welcome. Find out what they want and give it to them. The number one complaint – offline and on – is unresponsive customer service. It doesn’t work for corporations any longer – they’re being dragged into responding – and it won’t work for any small businesses – or even bloggers – either.
MORE WEB DESIGN TIPS:
PAINFUL REDESIGNS:
- Published on ProBlogger (guest post): Luck is a Curse: How NOT TO Relaunch and Rebrand Your Blog. There May Be Tears
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Twitter: @GrowMap
@wamucards When you’re leaving comments it isn’t necessary to leave the same link in the body of the comment because that URL will automatically be linked. Putting additional links in comments causes them to be trapped by Akismet where they may end up getting deleted. I do look through them carefully but some can be missed.
@Alex Really short comments like yours also end up getting trapped by Akismet. Whenever you leave comments in blogs try to make them longer and add something that makes them specific to the blog post. Comments like this one are very likely to be deleted because they don’t add anything to the conversation. Although it is always nice to hear thank you, remember that others will read your comments so try to make them relevant to the post.
WOW! The fact that you went to such a great length to response Alex’s comment certainly earns my respect. I’m not too sure if I’d ever do so but I take my hat off you.
Yan
YS’s last blog post..Where Are You? and So They Ask
Twitter: @GrowMap
@YS GrowMap is all about growing and sharing what really works with others. It is so easy to waste time and effort and never know why it isn’t working. Recently we’re seeing so many borderline comments – or quality comments that are clearly SPAM – that we just added a new post with commenting tips.
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Haha ^^ nice, is there a section to follow the RSS feed
Thanks great advice.
Twitter: @GrowMap
@veteran’s administration: Thank you for asking. There is an RSS subscribe icon in the right sidebar. If you prefer to subscribe via email we also offer that option.
@Radio Controlled Boats, Thank you. I hope you checked out some of the other posts. You can also search for any topic or scan the categories in the right sidebar to find other topics useful to anyone with a blog or Website.
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Don’t forget to redirect pages after you’ve moved your website otherwise the old traffic gonna be zero. I’ve missed before.
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Great tips, I’m often confused whether to redirect the old pages from a website(not blog) or give a link to the new page from the old one. Old pages are high value pages and by giving a link, the value is transferred to the new page.
thank you for your post.
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I think these are some great remodeling guidelines. thanks for the tips, i shall keep these in mind when i do mine in a few months.
Twitter: @GrowMap
@Susan Yes, every page must be redirected properly to retain existing traffic and listings.
@Matt If you want to keep the old pages using a link is great. I have often asked online store owners to use those existing high value pages by adding WHY that product is no longer available and suggesting one or more similar products.
Offering alternate choices cuts down on pay per click advertising spend from people looking for the older models and is very likely to generate a sale. If you just stop selling an item with no explanation they’ll just leave your site and look elsewhere.
That is particularly important if the item has been discontinued and they’re not likely to find it anywhere. They could have generated a sale and started a customer relationship.
@John Glad to be of assistance. I hope you’ll check out some of our other information. We frequently post on how to increase visitors and sometimes on Web site design and usability.
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Thanks for the tips, I shall keep these in mind when I do mine in a few months.
Twitter: @GrowMap
You’re very welcome. Unless there is a really good reason I would never delete existing pages. I would always forward them all to the most relevant equivalent or at least to the home page. Every site should also have a default forward that sends incorrect or missing URLs to a custom 404 page or the home page.
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Great tutorial… Thanks for listing out what not to do while remodeling the website..
Twitter: @GrowMap
You’re welcome. Oh THAT Edgar. Got it.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Why You Can NOT Rely Solely on Organic Search Listings for Traffic and Revenue
Excellent post, thanks
seems good.
Shame shame shame…
I feel for these guys. It’s so tough when you dont know what you doing… well I guess that how you learn!
This was pretty good advice, if not common sense to a lot of people. I recently made major changes to the look of my site, but instead of deleting pages or replacing content with “we’re remodeling” or something similar; I simply made all the changes offline, kept all my page names, title tags and such exactly the same, and made sure the internal linking structure was the same too. Then all I had to do was upload and overwrite =)
Twitter: @GrowMap
Hello Gillian,
It is good to see that you have more common sense than most. I was just updating my DoFollow Tools and Lists and found much of the content I had linked to had been deleted or moved.
It makes no sense to me that so many delete already indexed content that is still applicable to their site instead of updating the pages. Why turn away visitors on purpose?
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Yeah i learned that the hard way.. I had a computer related niche which was ranking on page 1 for all keywords.. I then edited the title of the page to better suite my keywords.. since then my page has dropped to page 51
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Twitter: @GrowMap
Hello Blu Ray,
Did you try restoring the original page? Although it does not always work many times it will. If that doesn’t work you might want to increase incoming links to your site using the post I’ve added as the CommentLuv featured post in this comment.
You can also use our Commenting Strategy that Increased Our Traffic 54.87% (actually far more than that) to gain DoFollow links and drive traffic to that specific page.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Instantly Acquire 76 High Quality Incoming Links =-.
great article, i always do remodeling on a test server and 301 redirects on urls if i have to change them. I agree, Many “friends” however are not conscious of proper seo.
Great Post.
Shame that I didn’t read this last month as I remodeled my site a lost some previous search links.
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immeasurably i don’t like spammies and internet cheaters.I am newbie so accordingly to dogged on every side the tremendous members of the forums.I all the strip of a unequivocal’s teeth wadi
hello to all.
Thanks you so much. This post is very help full for me a lot. Thanks for sharing nice post. Awesome post.
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