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Losing SEO Wordpress to HTML?

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  • 23-03-2011 12:22pm
    #1
    Eniac
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10 ✭


    I've redesigned a website for a friend which presently is a Wordpress site. The new site I've designed is entirely HTML/CSS/PHP.
    The current site shows up in Google using particular keywords so the SEO must be good using Wordpress. I'm afraid that if I upload my redesign, he'll lose this.
    Has anyone any experience of doing this?
    Or would I be better off converting HTML/CSS to Wordpress theme?
    If so, what's the best way to go about this to preserve correct structure over different pages.


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    #2
    cormee
    Registered Users Posts: 1,801 ✭✭✭cormee


    Eniac wrote: »
    I've redesigned a website for a friend which presently is a Wordpress site. The new site I've designed is entirely HTML/CSS/PHP.
    The current site shows up in Google using particular keywords so the SEO must be good using Wordpress. I'm afraid that if I upload my redesign, he'll lose this.
    Has anyone any experience of doing this?
    Or would I be better off converting HTML/CSS to Wordpress theme?
    If so, what's the best way to go about this to preserve correct structure over different pages.

    It's highly unlikely there would be no change in the site's rankings if you switched to your site. The effect could be positive or negative. I'm a big fan of WordPress' SEO so my money is on a negative effect!

    If you want to minimise the effect of the redesign try reskin the existing theme with your design (if the structure is the same), or if it's not the same structure reskin a template with a structure like yours.

    You'll probably see some changes with that last option but nothing drastic.


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    #3
    Freemancon
    Registered Users Posts: 41 ✭Freemancon


    Cormee is bang-on with his analysis. Check the current site structure...particularly text content h1 tags, h2 tags, etc. To get an idea of how Google views a page - look at the old structure minus CSS. Try and copy this format directly. If the new website is on the existing domain name, and you follow the same basic site structure...this includes the name of pages and their text content....then you should not see too dramatic of a change.

    Being cautious of your existing text content may limit your design. At the end of the day What is lost in SEO can be regained in other ways...growth of site content being just one.

    Even if you do see a negative change short term...moving to WP will provide much better long lasting flexibility to deal with SEO improvements.


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    #4
    PaulPinnacle
    Registered Users Posts: 447 ✭✭PaulPinnacle


    Freemancon wrote: »
    ...particularly text content h1 tags, h2 tags, etc.
    The change in site architecture and internal linking would have a far more dramatic impact (by an order of magnitude) than the content of heading tags retained/changed.


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    #5
    Freemancon
    Registered Users Posts: 41 ✭Freemancon


    Freemancon wrote: »
    Cormee is bang-on with his analysis. Check the current site structure...particularly text content h1 tags, h2 tags, etc. To get an idea of how Google views a page - look at the old structure minus CSS. Try and copy this format directly. If the new website is on the existing domain name, and you follow the same basic site structure...this includes the name of pages and their text content....then you should not see too dramatic of a change.

    Being cautious of your existing text content may limit your design. At the end of the day What is lost in SEO can be regained in other ways...growth of site content being just one.

    Even if you do see a negative change short term...moving to WP will provide much better long lasting flexibility to deal with SEO improvements.

    Sorry just read this your question again...got things a bit backwards (HTML to WP) But still the same principles apply.

    The only question is why would you move to a static build site from a CMS? Especially, when this provides the customer with very little flexibility?


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    #6
    Zascar
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Music Moderators Posts: 12,778 Mod ✭✭✭✭Zascar


    Wordpress is one of the best ways to get good seo out of the box (with a plugin or two). Google loves cms's like wordpress, and as above I can't see why you would want to go back to a html/css site - most people do the apposite. I'd say unless your code is really top class there is a good chance of your seo suffering. Would you not have just worked on a custom theme and layout for the wordpress site? It's fantastic platform. A friend of mine was redesigning his site a while back and the one piece of advice he got from a few people is "Just make sure it's built on Wordpress".


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    #7
    Mocha
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13 ✭Mocha


    totally agree with Zascar. Wordpress with SEO plugins or a theme such as thesis is very good for SEO.


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