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
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
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
-
Can I define that one area of my website is a regualr news (no subscription) and the other part of the website is news that only subscribers can read?
Hi I have a client that have a news website, he asked me if he can define one area of his website to be a regular news that google can show on google news search results (no subscription) and the other part of the website is news that only subscribers can read? Thanks Roy
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | kadut1 -
My wordpress site generating bad links
Hello Everyone, I have wordpress site Which is from last 20 days generating links like For Example http://www.domainname.com/game/965/wiki/キャラクター図鑑_レアリティ(★★★)_【ID:675】ワッツ・ステップニー htttp://www.domainname.com/nkpghfu_13356_gvgjq_tfjhnkt_jsj_296_82566_673_567_245 This is screenshot of webmaster tools http://prnt.sc/ccwh0e can please any expert check & Tell How this Link i am getting, Also What are steps i need take for removing this Errors, As it is harming my sites Flow As well As Rankings. Thanx in Advance
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | innovativekrishna10 -
How to create AMP Pages for product website?
How to create AMP Pages for product website? I mean we can create it easily when we have wordpress through plugin, what about when we have millions of pages, It would be too tedious to create amp version of every page. So, is there any alternative way to create amp version?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | sachin.kaushik0 -
A new website issue
Hello everybody,
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | mtmaster
I have started a new website 22 days ago at the beginning of this month and i have long articles. I think this should make the site appear in search results for long tail keywords even if they are not very relevant but as you can see in the attached image from my webmaster tools the impression count has suddenly increased to 100 then significantly decreased again. Even when i cancel "filter" option. Is this normal for a 3 weeks old website? or there is something i have to check? thanks. cLMa04l.jpg0 -
What Wordpress Update Services Should You Be Using on Your Wordpress Blog?
I have been told that pingomatic.com is all that you need however yesterday I went to a conference and others were recommending to have a good list of pinging services to cover all your bases Here are 4 that have been recommended: pingomatic technorati blogsearch.google.com feedburner Any others that should be included on this list? My goal is not to spam these ping lists however want to make sure my content is getting indexed quickly
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | webestate0 -
WordPress site and Forum in Sub domain
I have a web site www.mydirectoyzzz.com (Eg site) instaled wordpress and directory theme on that. i wanna add forum to this web site phpbb or similar .so how can i use forum in main domain .wanna know how it works best for SEO www.mydirectoyzzz.com/forum or www.forum.mydirectoyzzz.com ? Adding forum to main site .is that harmful to main web site ? Looking for SEO Expert help.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | innofidelity0 -
What to do with WordPress generated pages?
I'm an SEOmoz Newbie and have a very specific question about the auto generated WordPress Pages. SEOmoz caught and labeled the auto generated WP pages as Crawl Warnings like: Long URL - 302 - Title Element to Long - Missing Meta Description Tag - Too Many On-Page Links So I have learned the lesson and have now made those pages "no follow" / "no idex." HOWEVER, WHAT DO I DO WITH THE ONES THAT HAVE ALREADY BEEN INDEXED? Do I... 1. Just leave them as is a hope they don't hurt me from an SEO perspective? 2. Redirect them all to a relevant page? I'm sure many people have had this issue. What do you think? Thanks Dominic
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | amorbis0 -
Moving wordpress to main website - errors galore
Hi there A while back I asked whether I should move my established blog on wordpress over to my main website http://www.gardenbeet.com. The overwhelming response was to move it. I still have not seen any benefit other than problems (2mths later). Maybe something is Not Quite Right? Here is a list of issues? Any insights would be welcome. I have installed Yeost SEO plugins 1. A blog category (garden art) ended up outranking my main website for the term Garden Art - so I did a 301 on the garden art category - main website has now regained its ranking in the top 3 position (was number 2 before the move). 2. I have removed the categories from the blog as a 301 on the Garden Art catgegory would not make sense to a user. I decided to use tags as a navigational tool instead. I figured that because I have over 500 tags I could not have had the tags out rank my main website for any key term. So far correct. But now i have wanings from SEO moz 500 missing meta tags,(for the tags) - do i really have to write over 500 meta? over 160 long urls and titles - when i commenced the blog I had no idea that Urls and headings were linked in wordpress ( my developer does not think i should rename the urls and use a 301 as I already have a tonne due to a site rebuild) - is it OK to leave the long urls and fix the title only? On wordpress I had bewteen 400-900 users on my blog a day (using wordpress analytics) - now only 200 (using GA) - Yes I now have increased links to my website but have seen no imrpovement on my SERPS - will i see an improvement in my rankings? my wordpress site use to have page rank of 3 -
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GardenBeet0