Hi There, I am a bit nervous about the prospect of converting a static HTML site to either a WordPress or Joomla site due to the fear of losing SERP position. Currently the site in question is enjoying a #2 and #10 spot for 2 search terms. Both on page 1. The site needs to be updated to allow for data base integration and also to finally go to a responsive format. Does anyone have any feedback on their experiences with this transition and the best way to maintain the same positioning? I have done this before but with mixed results. Of course the 301 redirects will naturally be done, but what other steps might one take? Thanks in advance!
Hey JJ, from what I know, as long as you set up the 301s correctly, you should be fine. It make take a short time before the search engines reevaluate your site, but it should be no problem. The key thing is to make the structure of the new site resemble the structure of the old site as much as possible. Just redirect the old pages to respective new pages and you should be fine. Another thing to pay attention to is how your pages are currently interlinked. I'd link the new pages the same way, using the same anchor texts. You should also see if there're any SEO-specific instructions created for separate pages, subfolders, etc. Look into the robots.txt file, if you have it, look for rel=canonical and other such attributes on the pages. After you're done, grab an on page optimization tool (there are many free and paid ones available online) and see if your pages are accessible, have no broken links, etc. Plus, update your xml sitemap and re-submit it to the search engines.
Great, thanks for the idea Kianu42! I remember doing this for someone about a year ago and they seemed to lose position on a few of their keyword phrases. Perhaps I didn't follow a check list like you suggested. Will definitley do this one different!
Yeah great idea for the 301 redirect but it's a lot of work, so you might wanna redirect all .html traffic to the new url just to save time. will that be ok? anyone? for example after deleting all your html pages add this plugin to your wordpress http://wordpress.org/plugins/auto-redirect-404/ I don't own the plugin so read about it, it will redirect 404 not found to 301
Personally I would chuck the idea out of the window and just stick your CMS in a folder and convert your html pages to responsive and match your design/look if there are not too many pages but hey that's just me...