Forum Moderators: phranque
A site that I've agreed to work with has multiple copies of their content indexed. Some is on sites that they do not own and some is on domains they do own that were improperly redirected to their site, causing them to get indexed as a whole 2nd site.
The content was not theirs to begin with... a colleague of the site's owner agreed to let them use the content from his site (which was indexed well before theirs was).
So in addition to needing all the content rewritten, we're also going to update their circa-1988 design and do some on-page SEO.
I plan to 404 the second indexed copy of their site and then use Google's emergency removal tool on it.
But what for the site that remains? I'm concerned that changing all the copy, the design, and making some SEO changes to the code would get them hit even harder by G than they already have been. Their site is still indexed, but 100% supplemental. All of the pages will have new filenames, so product123.php will become red-widget.html.
So do I start fresh with a new domain and the new design and content? Space the changes out over many months on the existing domain (which has inbound links)? Do it all at once and hope for the best, like removing a bandaid? Do I file a reinclusion request after making the changes?
Would really appreciate any experiences or advice you could share. I've done content rewrites, site redesigns, and seo work before... but never in a situation where every single page of the site needed to be completely changed.
What do you mean by rewriting the content? Just making minor changes probably won't do it, the content needs to be original.
I plan to 404 the second indexed copy of their site and then use Google's emergency removal tool on it.
You mean on the same domain? Like /index.html? Don't do that. 301 dup pages to their preferred version.
Do I file a reinclusion request after making the changes?
Sounds like it's just a duplicate content problem, not a penalty. Put up some original content on the homepage, see if it ranks for a unique phrase.
Thanks for the reply, allow me to elaborate and clarify...
The backlinks are average quality... no .gov's, but about 40 inbound links, at least half of which are from other sites in the same industry.
Right now, sitea.com and siteb.com are both owned by the same person. Both have the exact same content, design, etc. Both are indexed individually in full by the search engines. Both are suffering from the duplicate content, since they both copied the content from other sources. My intention is to salvage sitea.com, which has the inbound links, and simply stop pointing siteb.com to the web server. If siteb.com has a penalty, I don't really want to 301 it to sitea.com.
And yes, we'll be rewriting every word on the page. A copywriter is going to write each page over from scratch.
But I'm still wondering how to go about making these changes. I know large, sweeping changes like this can have serious consequences in the SERPs. Site is currently getting +/- 50 UV's/mo, so it's not like I'm going to KILL their stellar traffic, lol.
It prolongs the whole project, but all too often we do something, then another, and suddenly we're in trouble and we don't know what caused it. And don't forget to allow for Google flux: you're likely to be going up and down for awhile.
Don't mean to lecture, sorry. Its like reminding myself of some common sense issues I usually forget.
I'd leave the 'real' site alone, and get the 'bad' site thoroughly removed before anything else. Then I'd wait awhile and watch.
Good luck.
Net result from my suggestion:
- One site with the urgent issues dealt with (duplicate content)
- A second site with entirely new content and design
The first site is safest for retaining current ranking. Why risk so much? The second site is now a bonus on top of this. You're adding value not destroying it to replace it. Don't forget that siteb is an 'aged' domain and may have its own links already established which the new 'siteb' will be able to take advantage of.
When you risk a site in such an extreme way, it's surely better to have two throws of the dice rather than one.
I 301'ed siteb to sitea this morning. God bless cpanel, because I still don't have access to this company's registrar or web hosting accounts.
I think I'm going to publish the new content on sitea, use the emergency removal tool in webmaster central to drop the dup content urls(since we're changing all URLs anyway), maybe 301 them after I see they've been removed (in case of any deep inbound links), and then follow with a redesign once it's all been indexed.
I understand why some would say just start fresh with a new site. Believe me I've considered it. But I don't think I'd be able to convince the site's owner that this was necessary, and his existing web address is already on all of his printed materials. I may do an extra site on a keyword-rich domain, but I think the primary site is just going to remain sitea... pending a content rewrite and redesign.
Open to any further comments or suggestions, and again, thanks!
