Hi guys and gals, I have an almost 2 years old online shop I'd like to completely build from 0. The site is somewhat well ranked but Doing it all over again is a must because of some core mistakes I made in the beginning. Here are the questions I can't answer myself(and that's why I'm posting this here) I'll be glad to have as many opinions as possible ! It's just an online shop with nothing but products and is kidna specific - I sell car body parts. 1. Are SEO friendly URLS still worth it 2. If the answer to 1. is "Yes" - How should they be made, in english letters or in the language the site is intended for - Bulgarian, Cyrillic. 3. How to make the separate pages more attractive to the search engines - due to the nature of the products there's not much text that can be used, a headlamp for BMW is just that, you cant write more than the brand, year, model and the bulbs used. Even worse if it's a fender. 4. Where to put the keywords ? I've been out of the SEO scene for too long and don't know what's best. Title, description and eventually URL are ok, but what other tags and methods can be used 5. How long would the re-indexing take and should I do something to make it faster ? The domain is 19 months old and it has like 35000 indexed pages that I'll have to delete - the rewrite engine that was created is simply not good. 6. Is there a chance to get sandboxed by google for doing this ? I will compensate with adwords until I get good rankings again but the less the better. Thanks in advance to everyone who took the time to read and answer this
It's a normal feeling most webmasters usually like to change their website if it's not performing, so below are my answers to your questions: Q1. Are SEO friendly URLS still worth it Answer: Yes. It's worth if your present site is using long URL's with session ID's. Q2. If the answer to 1. is "Yes" - How should they be made, in english letters or in the language the site is intended for - Bulgarian, Cyrillic. Answer: it should be in site language. Q3. How to make the separate pages more attractive to the search engines - due to the nature of the products there's not much text that can be used, a headlamp for BMW is just that, you cant write more than the brand, year, model and the bulbs used. Even worse if it's a fender. Answer: I believe every product has a specification/ possible usages/ Guarantee/ RMA or you should add small description to it. You can choose appropriate titles, such as headlamp for BMW, headlamp for Skoda sedan, headlamp for VolksWAgon and so on. Think about your readers, more description will help them to understand your products well, So find a way out Q4. Where to put the keywords ? I've been out of the SEO scene for too long and don't know what's best. Title, description and eventually URL are ok, but what other tags and methods can be used Answer: other way you can use with image Alt tags, Anchor links, but avoid overdoing it. Q5. How long would the re-indexing take and should I do something to make it faster ? The domain is 19 months old and it has like 35000 indexed pages that I'll have to delete - the rewrite engine that was created is simply not good. Answer: It wont take much time, using 301 you can redirect each page to relevant new page?? (I didnt understand "the rewrite engine that was created is simply not good.") I think it takes care of all.... Q6. Is there a chance to get sandboxed by google for doing this ? I will compensate with adwords until I get good rankings again but the less the better. Answer: I dont think it will happen, but to be safe add your site to Google Webmaster tool. I recently migrating one of my site from old domain to new domain, and it's working fine. All ranking restored except PR, I hope it will come back in next update. Above answers are my personal opinion, I suggest consult other senior members/ your consultants before taking any decision as no one can predict how Google will behave.
Here is a post I made recently about web site redesign and SEO. It has a LOT of things in it you should consider if you're planning a big redesign project.