I've been asked to help a few local businesses redo their websites. Three quick questions for you pros... 1) Most are using the same templates that all of the people in their industry use. If I switch them over to a nice looking WP blog, Is there any way to retain the rankings they have so far, or will it be 100% starting from scratch? Or should I just work on the links etc for the old site? 2) Same for the domain name, some are really bad names, if I get them a new domain name, how can I keep any of the ranking power they have already with the old one, or is it again starting from scratch. 3) If these things will make it starting from scratch, how long do you think it would take to get a new site up to the top few listings? I've checked out the competition a lot, and the top few have just a couple dozen backlinks, and their SEO is a mess, so it seems easy to beat, but I don't want to make that assumption and give someone false hope that it'll be quick. With a kind of aggressive campaign, how long should that take to get the top few rankings? 60-90 days possibly? Hope this all makes sense, I have a lot of people that want me to do this, just trying to judge whether to enhance their old site, make a new one, and how long is reasonable (competition looks really weak)
1) Either use the exact same URL structure or 301 redirect the old pages to the new equivalents. 2) Google "301 Redirect" 3) Depends, but it seems you're on the right track. I'd set the expectations with your client at 3-6 months. If you come in early, they'll love you. Good luck.