How to SEO my SITE?
We continue our Search Engine Optimization Basics series of posts this week with a question from a marketer that is dealing with issues related to moving a web site to another host and possibly updating the content management system and design.
Will changing our web site affect our search engine rankings?
As with many SEO related questions, the short answer is, “It depends”. The first thing to clarify is what “changing” means. Outside of changes to content, keyword usage and incoming links, common changes to a web site that affect search engine visibility include:
- Changing domain names
- Changing content management systems
- Changing design
- Changing web hosts
Changing Domain Names
Companies change domain names for many reasons including: improved usability or better domain name (del.icio.us to delicious.com), the result of a company acquisition, business roll up or simply changing the name of the company.
If search engines are indexing the current domain name and web pages, it matters a great deal how the implementation of a new domain name is handled. See this post, “The Cost of No SEO Migration Plan” for a good example of what not to do.
What should you do? If nothing but the domain name is changing, then a proper system of 301 redirects is in order along with identifying top link referring sources of traffic and asking them to change their links to use your new domain name.
What’s important is to make it easy for search engines to understand that you’ve made a permanent change from one domain to another and to retain as much “link equity” in that change as possible. There are other considerations with domain name changes that you can find in the resource links below.
Changing Content Management Systems and Design
Changing content management systems and web design are the most common things that affect search visibility amongst the list of issues listed above. I would highly recommend reading “Site Re-Design? Call Your SEO Expert First!” to get a good handle on the good and bad of factoring how an updated web site should consider search engines.
Most companies engage a web design agency or in-house design staff to create the new web site with an emphasis on front end usability for customers and ease of use/maintenance on the back end site management. What they often FAIL to consider is how changing URL syntax (ex: webpage.htm to webpage.php or webpage.aspx) will confuse search engines.
A map of old to new URLs needs to be implemented along with a system of permanent (301) redirects. As with a changing domain name, top referring link sources should be identified from web analytics and contacted if necessary, to change what URL they’re linking to.
