Changing to a blog format question.

Discussion in 'Site & Server Administration' started by Webmason, Apr 9, 2009.

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  1. #1
    I believe this is where to post this, please forgive me if it is not the best choice! :confused:

    I am in the process of changing my established site to a wordpress format site. The wordpress site is ready to go, would it be best to just automatically redirect the old pages to their new home? Will I be risking my google rankings by doing this? Should I redirect the home page too? I currently enjoy some very high google and yahoo rankings with some decent keywords I really don't want to mess that up. If I leave the existing pages as they are but include a header redirect will google frown on that and punish me?

    My ears are wide open for any suggestions or alternate solutions. Thanks for any help here!

    Tom
     
    Webmason, Apr 9, 2009 IP
  2. Webmason

    Webmason Peon

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    #2
    Is this a case where a "301 redirect" would be my best option?
     
    Webmason, Apr 9, 2009 IP
  3. Camay123

    Camay123 Well-Known Member

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    #3
    a 301 redirect is suggested by google themselves. Make sure to have the proper htaccess code so that all inner pages redirect to the correct new pages.
     
    Camay123, Apr 9, 2009 IP
  4. Webmason

    Webmason Peon

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    #4
    Thank you very much Camay! I really appreciate the answer.
    "Make sure to have the proper htaccess code" do you know of a decent resource to help guide me so I don't screw this up? I'm pretty novice at this sort of thing.

    Tom
     
    Webmason, Apr 9, 2009 IP
  5. seoemporium

    seoemporium Well-Known Member

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    #5
    I used this service once to convert an existing site to wordpress:
    http://www.themespress.com/
    Very easy and cheap.

    Also, make a note of all of your existing urls and try to match them when recreating them in wordpress. If you can't do that do that 301 redirect thingy.

    Hope that helps.
     
    seoemporium, Apr 18, 2009 IP
  6. Webmason

    Webmason Peon

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    #6
    Thanks SEO,

    I have completed my change over and it went pretty well. I'm pretty sure I did it the hard way, but it looks like I'm not getting punished in the search engines (in fact, I think things have picked up a bit). I am using the 310 redirects and they work like a charm. Wordpress makes it pretty easy to move stuff around too.

    Thanks for your input and have a great weekend!

    Tom
     
    Webmason, Apr 18, 2009 IP