Hi everyone.


I’m new to this forum and was hoping that I could get some advice/insight on how to properly upgrade a web site without negatively affecting the current Google rankings in order to improve our rankings and conversion rate?

Here is a little background. For some time our web site has ranked number 1 for several important keywords.

With in the last year or so we have begun to notice several changes with regards to Google SERP, Google algorithm, the increase and level of competition, our traffic and our conversion rate.

It’s no secret that Google has been busy making large and small changes the last couple of years. Many websites have been affected positively and negatively. We’ve seen a couple of our keyword rankings fall from number 1 to 2 or 3 and are scared that this trend may continue. I think our drop in rankings has as much to do with our competitors as it has to do with Google since they likely have been pushing for quite some time to beat us.

Obviously this all means loss of traffic for us. But even more disconcerting is that I have also noticed a drop in our conversion rate. I believe this is a direct result of more and better competition.

So after much analysis and debate I decided that the best thing we could do is to first tackle our web site by upgrading it to be more “professional” and competitive against other sites. The original design has much to be desired and when compared by visitors against other sites, they’ll likely choose the other sites.

Back to the question at hand …

The planned upgrade will be done in phases. First I want to change the “look” of the site while attempting to keep the majority of the site content and link structure intact. Next I would like to tweak the current content and structure to make it a little better. After this, I would like to add more sections and information to the site to make it larger and deeper in content. Finally I would like to solicit links. Is my planned approach flawed or can it be done better?

Any insight into this would be greatly appreciated. This is one of those situations where the little guy is trying to stand up against the much bigger competition!


Thanks,
Olimess

Sounds like you're on the right track so far. Make sure to keep your high-ranking URL's intact as you make site upgrades. These pages are already sitting pretty in the spiders and upgrading the site design and focusing on more SEO-friendly content will help you get your rankings back. If you absolutley MUST change your URL structure, be sure to set up some 301 redirects from the old URLs so you don't lose any traffic from SERP links and the spiders know where to find the new pages.

There's a new story on the SEW articles today focusing on some good tips for redesigns and SEO. Here's the link if you're interested: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3629217

metasynman,

Thanks for your post. I'll take a look at the article you suggested!

Thanks again.