Redesigning a high ranked site --

How to handle for Google w/o dropping in rank?

[ariff44]

I have a site that is highly ranked on about 50 keywords. However, my conversions just stink (way less than 1%) so I am redesigning my site to "version 2.0".

The redesign is awesome but I am very worried about switching the content and code around bc I fear Google may not be too happy.

I know I have to keep all the urls the same as well as the title. But I will be changing the keyword content text and the overall design code will be totally different.

What can I do to make sure I stay up top?

[mrguy]

Make sure on your redesign that you at least did the following:

1. Kept the pages name the same and used the same directory structure.

2. Kept all the title and metas the same for each page.

3. Basically used the same text on the page that was on the old pages.

I was able to do a major re-design of a site and not lose a beat in the SERPS by applying the above.

[ariff44]

mrguy -

how about location of the text on each page... for example... on my home page, the tables are different so the text will be in different locations (i.e. near or far from the top of the source code)

[buckworks]

Moving crucial text lower in the source code could be risky. Tweak whatever you can to present the "meat" of the page as early as possible to the spiders meandering through your source code.

[RussellC]

Just be careful and follow what mr. guy said. I had enjoyed good rankings, then a company decision to switch the focus of the business left me with a site redesign. Not only was it a redesign but also a total content makeover. The hits have definately gone down, but sales have been slowly coming back up in the last few months. It takes time, but it will eventually be ok. I think if you leave the title/descrip/content the same, you will be ok.

-Russell

[madmatt69]

Here's a question: I've been thinking of changing my site to PHP from using server side includes..That would end up changing all my extensions to .php instead of .shtml.

Would that really screw up my listings on Google? Like would it die off for a month until the next update?

[RussellC]

Since all of your file names will be different, you might need to put a 301 redirect to point the .shtml files to the .php files.

[ariff44]

what is a 301 redirect and how does Google feel about it?

[AhmedF]

if you have more control, you could make .shtml files be parsed by PHP compiler .. the only thing that would mess up would be the actual direct SSI calls.

[ariff44]

how does google feel about phpnuke?