Fun and games -- not -- after website relaunch (Rails to Wordpress)
-
I'm after some advice. I've dropped 1 million pageviews in the last 30 days after a website relaunch a few weeks ago, and my revenue is a quarter of what it was, which is a massive worry. After 12 years of hard work and a much anticipated upgrade, it's been a nightmare.
There were so many problems with the changeover that should have been done, but I have been fixing the aftermath up like crazy since then and nothing seems to be improving.
I just want to know if there are any glaring issues I have missed that I can focus on. I have been working on ridiculous stuff like duplicate content from multiple imports (301 redirects and removing the dupes from google) and so much more. Feels like a bomb and I am stuck underneath it.
Website is BellyBelly.com.au.
Thanks in advance.
-
Yes, Wordpress SEO is the Yoast plugin: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/
-
Thanks again
Plugin details in admin:
| WordPress SEOFAQ | Premium Support | Settings | Deactivate | Edit |
The first true all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress, including on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more.
Version 2.0 | By Team Yoast | View details |
-
Thanks for the reply Richard.
I was worried about the redirects. I have that server issue where there are some URL chars in uppercase. So there is a redirect for that. There is also one to remove /articles/ which is what my site started with (a htaccess rule stopped it years ago), but it reappeared after the relaunch.
Something new from the redesign is the addition of the / at the end of URLs. I don't know why that happened. But I was very unhappy with my designer's job, hence why I have hired a new one to help clean it up.
CDN's shouldn't have changed with the move, but I had a suspicion something different had gone on.
Yes, links have been lost. I don't know why. With the conversion from rails to WP, three database syncs occurred, and I ended up with three copies of some articles. So I have been redirecting them as google is listing them all as 404's.
The site was much faster, but something has happened since launch that has slowed it down.
So much mess...
-
Everett,
Thanks for your reply! WP SEO is the Yoast plug-in, is it not?
Appreciate the list, will take a look.
Kelly
-
A lot of things happened here in combination. The new site launched. You say a disavow file was updated, was there a penalty or was this pre-emptive? You might have killed a lot of links that were helping you with this. Looks like you changed CDNs. The site was switched to secure, except for the forum, and a lot of the secure pages are displaying non-secure content? It looks like you added more ads to the site. You removed some urls in Google? You should really wait for the pages to switch naturally through the 301s to the new structure. What you may have done is deleted pages that would be showing right now while the new pages haven't been crawled and added yet. There are a ton of broken and redirected internal links after the new launch. Some old pages were never redirected and I would be willing to bet there were some links lost. Looking at a quick speed test on pingdom compared to the history, it looks like the site is taking twice as long to load now as it was before. There are some ridiculous redirect chains happening that need to be cleaned up. A lot of pages are redirected 2-5 times before reaching their current destinations.
One example:
http://bellybelly.com.au/articles/Breastfeeding/breastfeeding-a-confidence-game
http://bellybelly.com.au/articles/Breastfeeding/breastfeeding-a-confidence-game/
http://bellybelly.com.au/Breastfeeding/breastfeeding-a-confidence-game/
https://www.bellybelly.com.au/Breastfeeding/breastfeeding-a-confidence-game/
https://www.bellybelly.com.au/breastfeeding/breastfeeding-a-confidence-game/
I would start by just getting your site back in order. It looks like this was not a great launch and there is a ton of cleanup that needs to be done.
-
Hello Kelly,
If you feel like you need a professional SEO to come help you recover from a site migration / redesign then I'd say you're probably right. Moz keeps a recommended list of professionals here if you need help choosing one.
I agree with Chris that you should probably switch your SEO plug-in. I wouldn't use anything but Yoast for that, and it could solve a lot of your problems. Don't let that stop you from getting a professional audit though. You should make sure the contract also states that they will provide implementation if you're not comfortable implementing all of their recommendations yourself.
Good luck.
-
Oh, I know the feeling!
I'd say, try to make an audit for the site, then make a priority list and take it step-by-step.
Let me know, if you need help.
-
Thanks Keszi,
The site has already launched, so it's all firefighting mode at the moment, lol!
-
Hey Chris!
Thanks for the reply. Yes I have WP SEO Premium installed
After sleeping on it, I think I just need some professional SEO help here, I am at a loss. There are quite a few issues, I need to sort out a disavow file (amongst other things) and it seems too complicated and time consuming!
-
Hi Kelly,
I didn't see Yoast on your site and not sure if you are using another plugin to help manage SEO issues. Yoast is pretty well respected and the plugin can help manage some of the duplicate content issues in Word Press. (tags, categories)
https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/Also some good reads on the Yoast site on optimizing a Word Press site. HTML5 and Schema should also be considered. There are some Word Press Gurus around here and hopefully they will chime in.
Best!
-
Hi Kelly,
There are a few nice articles about this topic. I will point out a few, maybe these checklists will help you determine what could have gone wrong with the redesign:
- http://searchengineland.com/8-necessary-seo-steps-during-a-website-redesign-65470
- http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/seo-website-redesign-checklist/
- http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hub/53/file-13220778-pdf/docs/ebooks/10-step-checklist-website-redesign.pdf
- http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/how-to/2400414/checklist-launching-a-site-redesign
I hope it helps! Keszi
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Could i add my website in Google News
Hi , I am looking to add article news section of my website http://goo.gl/De5MKo in google news. We'll remove all content from this news section http://www.99acres.com/articles/real-estate-news and upload unique news, might be possible we use graph/chart and images from some other news site and other sources but the content will be unique and fresh. Any specific guidelines for URL structure for this news section? We are thinking about to create URL like xyz.com/news/ <title>. Is it okay and will not harm our site? Google News can consider my section as a news?</p></title>
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vivekrathore0 -
Strange rankings on new website
HI All My website is 10 years old, and has decent rankings. The domain is www.advanced-driving.co.uk I have recently had a major overhaul of the site, before it was very outdated, with lots of duplicated content. My main keywords are "advanced driving course" and "advanced driving courses" both of which I am on page 1. However, since I have been live with new site - (5 days) I am not ranking for some easy win keywords. I have submitted new content thought webmaster tools, and whilst some content is ranking, others are not. The content not ranking is fresh and unique ( have used copyscape on all new pages). For example my homepage is on page 1 for "advanced driving courses london" - around rank 6. So I hand made some content titled advanced driving courses london to provide more of an exact match, outlining our courses in London and the routes we take - http://www.advanced-driving.co.uk/defensive-advanced-driving-courses-london/ However, this page which is unique does not rank at all....I have done this with another website and it worked well, but google is not understanding this at all. Also I am now on page 1 for "advanced driving course" but not for "advanced driving courses" - well I am but the page for the plural keyword is a page not really related - surely Googles semantic search should realise course and courses are the same! I suspect that Google is still getting used to my new website? No errors or anything in Webmaster tools... Can anyone confirm this - or outline if I have done something awful..!! Thanks Rob
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | robert780 -
4 websites with same content?
I have 4 websites (1 Main, 3 duplicate) with same content. Now I want to change the content for duplicate websites and main website will remain the same content. Is there any problem with my thinking?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | marknorman0 -
How to deal with duplicates on an e-commerce website
Hi guys, So we have an e-commerce website and we have some products that are exactly the same but come in different colours. Lets say for example we have a Samsonite Chronolite and this bag comes in 55cm, 65cm and 75cm variations. The same bag also may come in 4 different colours. The bags are the same and therefore have the same information besides maybe the title tag varying due to the size and colour. But the descriptions are the same. How do I avoid Google thinking I am duplicating pages or have duplicated pages. Google things we have duplicated when the scenario is as I have explained. Any suggestions? Best regards,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | iBags2 -
Archiving a festival website - subdomain or directory?
Hi guys I look after a festival website whose program changes year in and year out. There are a handful of mainstay events in the festival which remain each year, but there are a bunch of other events which change each year around the mainstay programming.This often results in us redoing the website each year (a frustrating experience indeed!) We don't archive our past festivals online, but I'd like to start doing so for a number of reasons 1. These past festivals have historical value - they happened, and they contribute to telling the story of the festival over the years. They can also be used as useful windows into the upcoming festival. 2. The old events (while no longer running) often get many social shares, high quality links and in some instances still drive traffic. We try out best to 301 redirect these high value pages to the new festival website, but it's not always possible to find a similar alternative (so these redirects often go to the homepage) Anyway, I've noticed some festivals archive their content into a subdirectory - i.e. www.event.com/2012 However, I'm thinking it would actually be easier for my team to archive via a subdomain like 2012.event.com - and always use the www.event.com URL for the current year's event. I'm thinking universally redirecting the content would be easier, as would cloning the site / database etc. My question is - is one approach (i.e. directory vs. subdomain) better than the other? Do I need to be mindful of using a subdomain for archival purposes? Hope this all makes sense. Many thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | cos20300 -
Website, webshop and blog. Subfolders or subdomains?
Hello fellow mozzers, I've seen a lot of discussion and confusion about whether you should use subfolders or subdomains when you have a website, a blog and a webshop.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | WesleySmits
Of course with subfolders the PageRank will be more effective since it's all in one domain. On the other hand subdomains will be a better user experience since you can focus on just the webshop or just the blog. Was wondering how you guys/girls think what would be the best way to handle this.0 -
Moving Content To Another Website With No Redirect?
I've got a website that has lots of valuable content and tools but it's been hit too hard by both Panda and Penguin. I came to the conclusion that I'd be better off with a new website as this one is going to hell no matter how much time and money I put in it. Had I started a new website the first time it got hit by Penguin, I'd be profitable today. I'd like to move some of that content to this other domain but I don't want to do 301 redirects as I don't want to pass bad link juice. I know I'll lose all links and visitors to the original website but I don't care. My only concern is duplicate content. I was thinking of setting the pages to noindex on the original website and wait until they don't appear in Google's index. Then I'd move them over to the new domain to be indexed again. Do you see any problem with this? Should I rewrite everything instead? I hate spinning content...!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sbrault741 -
Purpose of a Blog in a website
How internal blog or external blog is helpful in SEO?why it is good to have a site with blog?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Alick3000