olimess
04-22-2008, 12:02 PM
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
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