Someone I know is in need of a small business website redesign and perhaps a little SEO boost. As a little bit of background information, the design is terrible. They get calls from 1997 and it wants its website back. The website is done with frames, so basically every single 'page' of the website has the same URL. The looks ain't so great either. The business is a kitchen cabinet/remodel small business in a small town. As far as the SERPs go, though, they're not doing all that badly for results that include their hometown or hometown/state keywords. I looked up about 14 keyword phrases in Yahoo and Google and they rank anywhere from 2nd to 22nd, usually on the 1st or second page. Most of the other results are from national websites like manta, yellowpages, etc, but there's a few direct competitors sprinkled in there. The site is listed in DMOZ, has a PR of 3, 8 1/2 years old domain, and about 500+ backlinks to the non-www version of the URL. It looks like the site gets all of its PR from DMOZ, Google directory, and another DMOZ copycat. Lots of PR0 backlinks from DMOZ copycats. I'd like to order up a fresh design with some basic SEO techniques, but I don't want them to plummet from the SERPs. At least, not for very long. My questions: 1. If they implement a redesign, and I get multiple pages set up with unique content and some basic seo, can I expect their SERP results to drop or plummet until Google and Yahoo 'digest' the site's new status? For how long? 2. Should I keep certain text that seems to help them rank for the keyword phrases I looked up (ie, the text I see displayed on the SERPs for each phrase)? 3. Is there anything I SHOULDN'T do in regards to the redesign/seo work? I think I know the basics. 4. Should I avoid further directory submissions? 5. Should I avoid throwing too many links their way, since the website probably hasn't had a whole lot of new links in years? Thanks for your guys' time, I know this was a long post.
You say for serps they are not doing badly but how is the traffic. You can rank #1 for a no traffic term.. it is not hard. If you redesign certain pages then use a 301 redirect and point it to the new pages. I would also avoid any further link building to the current set up until the new link structure is in place. As for once the site is ready, you have the advantage of an old site and that means you can pound the links to it. When i get old domains I find it very successful to force feed the links... it is the new domains that seem to have issues when this happens but even that is a little over rated as a bad thing.
I have no idea. I'm not running the site currently. I imagine the traffic is very low. It's a small business in a small town. I'm trying to get traffic stats from the current 'webmaster' via the business owner. OK. But they're literally only 2 pages to the site since it uses frames. It was built with MS frontpage in 1981. Ok, good to know. Thanks.
Should I be worried about the SERPs dropping immediately after the redesign? Keep in mind this site essentially has NO on-page SEO and not that great off-page.
My questions: 1. If they implement a redesign, and I get multiple pages set up with unique content and some basic seo, can I expect their SERP results to drop or plummet until Google and Yahoo 'digest' the site's new status? For how long? As long as you properly 301 everything, you shouldn't notice a decrease in rankings at all. 2. Should I keep certain text that seems to help them rank for the keyword phrases I looked up (ie, the text I see displayed on the SERPs for each phrase)? Tailor the text for visitors first, search engines second. You said small town, so I assume most of the terms receive very very little volume, if any. Sounds like some more keyword research needs to be done to find the best keywords (volume and relevancy) that fits within budget constraints. 3. Is there anything I SHOULDN'T do in regards to the redesign/seo work? I think I know the basics. I wouldn't make it flash, unless you do image / flash replacement. 4. Should I avoid further directory submissions? Eh, it's up to you. Works for some sites and not for some. Your time could probably be put to better use elsewhere. 5. Should I avoid throwing too many links their way, since the website probably hasn't had a whole lot of new links in years? Slowly build up links over the next few months (about 3) and you shouldn't have any troubles. If you're buying / renting only a few, then it really shouldn't matter. Is the company also engaging in paid search?
Paid search is a MUST if you are doing organic search. At the minimum do brand keywords. Should be $0.05 or less per click. Ohio? I love Ohio! Currently in Toledo!
It was about time to get rid of the iframes ... Anyway have you actually performed a site: check in google or other search engines for the website? I don't think it has only 2 pages (it should have also the pages that appear in the iframe, but the bad thing is there is no menu for them). Now, if you also have the other pages indexed, you could save some hassle and keep the same URL path for the inner pages (but you will get rid of the iframe, i am not sure if i explained myself). If the URL path is the same, you might help the inner pages a little with: a). Creating unique title for each inner page b). creating unique description for each inner page c). implement some more seo techniques (h1 tags, keywords in alt images, bold for keywords etc). IF the inner pages (the ones that appear in the iframe) are not indexed in the search engine, yes you might expect a small traffic drop from organic search, but if you will be building a better onpage seo for those pages the time will repay. And you can save the site from traffic drop by using 301 redirect to the new URL. The whole situation is not that clear, so I would say that i am not sure i was writing about what you wanted to read in any case, if you care drop me a PM I might take a look tomorrow and see whats the situation.
OK. I may give that a shot once all the other work is done. Born and raised in Ohio - I grew up near the Canton area. We've been up to Toledo for fishin'! @Trapped: I got it, you explained well. It does indeed have the inner pages indexed, and so I will be able to use most of the URLs at least. The tips you gave (unique title, description, H1, bold, etc) were the plans I had for the pages as part of the redesign. They have none of that right now. They also have very little text on the site (mostly 'brochure' type stuff and pictures), so there is a fair amount of work to get some good quality text down on the pages. As far as the SERPs go, I think I may have been approaching it from the wrong angle...they may be doing ok in the small town, but they are essentially invisible for the larger area they serve nearby. We're talking fairly visible in the SERPS for the small town they are located in (pop: 3000) and invisible in the larger area: 1 million plus population. I need to get them ranking in that area larger, if possible. Thanks for the information, guys.
Oh well, since the inner pages are actually indexed than you work gets much easier. You might also ask from them to give you access to the previous stats and see where the visitors would mostly end at. This could give you a better clue on how to raise their page impressions as well and not the SERP only.
don't stop directory submission try to submit with other important keyphrases then you will rank for better position in search engine's
Hello, try to submit with other important keywords as your anchor text then you will boost more traffic hope this helps you better as per my experience in seo field