Replacing Old wp site with New wp site

My questions all relate to my client's business website.

Some backstory:

It's a Mom and Pop biz in a top 100 metro area USA. They've been around over 25 years, have multiple locations in the state, a good reputation in the community, and do a lot of business through their website.

They have a website which has been up for over 10 years. It's been rebuilt a few times, had some decent onpage SEO and backlinking in the past, but not much the last year, so obviously it needs a major overhaul. Because they have few videos, and almost no social signals, comments, G+, etc.

I'm actually kinda surprised it ranks as well as it does. I think Google knows they're a legit biz.

The site's got about a hundred pages, and several hundred blog posts.

So...

I'm creating a new wordpress site for them (almost finished). I'm hosting it on LiquidWeb. The old site is on a slower cheap shared host.

I want to take down the old site and replace it with the new site.
I want to increase web traffic, targeted visitors, etc.
I want all the individual pages and posts to keep their rankings during the transition.

Obviously I don't want to screw it up. Should I be concerned about Google indexing both sites during transition? Technically both the new site and old site are both live on the internet now. But, domain is still pointed to old site.

Specific Questions:

1. I plan to just repoint the domain to the new liquid web server. What else should I need to do? For example, should I leave the old site on the old server for a while? Or just delete it or cancel the host account?

2. The old site uses all-in-one seo plugin. But I will probably use Yoast. Should I go ahead and install Yoast on the new site now? And start optimizing the posts now before I repoint the domain? Or should I wait until after I repoint the domain before I optimize the post with Yoast?

3. Most of the posts are written by an employee. I want to set up the biz owner with a G+ page and show that he is the author of the posts. Should I do this all at once? And before repointing the domain? Or do this dripped over time after the new site is live?

4. I have new pages and posts I want to add to the new site that were not on the old site. I want to post them as the biz owner with his G+ authorship getting the credit. Should I add these posts to the new site now, before it goes live? Or what until after repointing the domain to add the new posts and pages to the new site? Should I be concerned about Google indexing new posts on the new site which is at htp;//71.34.567(just example)? Will this mess things up when I repoint the domain so now the post url is our real ww.TheRealBizDomain.cm(again just example)?

Appreciate some advice.

Thanks,

Joe

 

I would be able to help with this when it comes time for the move.

To Answer your questions:

1) Point the domain to the new webserver, once this is done the old site won't matter anymore. But, Make sure you use as many pages of content from the old site as possible and keep the link structure in tact, this will ensure they won't lose their SEO rankings.

2) Yoast or all-in-one seo doesn't really matter, just make sure they are setup the same

3) When you point a domain to a new server, the old site won't even be viewable anymore

4) Doesn't really matter whatever you prefer

 

1. Yes point the domain to another NameServer
I suggest you can use "All In One Migration" plugin to export and import the website - this way you won't use any of your pages, links or plugins.

2. there is a wp plugin that will help you transfer the data from all-in-one-SEO to yoast, but i recommend sticking with "all in one"

3. It doesn't really matter when you do it as long as the migration is being done correct.

4. does't matter.

 

You are keeping the same domain right?

DO NOT switch domains if the site is already ranking well.
BE sure to keep the SAME URL structure of the previous wordpress site, changing this will kill the sites rankings.