lovethecoast - 7:19 am on Mar 27, 2005 (gmt 0)

Our company regularly takes over existing, old, sites. First thing we do is completely change the linking structure and site layout. First thing we notice is a significant increase in spidering within the first 2-3 weeks and pretty significant increases in traffic. Our next phase is to pump up the site with hundreds of pages of hand-written content (which we pay a pretty penny for) and put that up. Last phase is to plug in other content databases that are updated on a regular basis (which overnight can quadruple the number of pages on the site).

Net result: in years of doing this, not one single problem with the serps. We have only been penalized once (Florida update) and then it was only one site (and we're still trying to figure out *why* we were penalized -- there was no black hat anywhere on the site).

We're about to re-launch a very high profile site, one I'd bet 30-50% of adult Americans have seen at some point or another. With this, we're introducing a new navigation system, changing all url's, introducing new content and even re-writing existing content. As usual, and key to success, we'll be using 301's to redirect a few thousand existing pages of content to the new pages and as usual, expect zero problems.

I hear all these nightmare stories on this board and others -- and I'm always wondering if its the industry or what, because we just never have those issues.