Moving a html site into Wordpress

[brandco]

I'm getting ready to move a site into Wordpress. The current or old site is built with static html pages.

My question is, how should I handle Google with these old pages. Should I 301 redirect from each old page to the new? Or is there a better way to handle it?

[PeterAlexLeigh]

If you can't get the perma-link structure of wordpress to match as many of the old pages as possible then, yes, I would personally 301 the old pages to the new ones.

You'll lose a certain amount of "link juice" by doing this, but it's better than losing it all!

[brandco]

Alex,

Thanks for the response!

-Brandon

[GeorgeAndrews]

What Alex has described is correct. Also, congrats on moving to a CMS; you're going to love the time-savings :).

[brandco]

Thanks George, I've been using Wordpress for awhile on new sites but this would be the first time that I'm moving an older site into a CMS (Wordpress). I also have another site that I will be moving soon.

That brings up anther question. Is it possible to add .html or .htm to pages in wordpress? Kind of faking it I guess.

[PeterAlexLeigh]

Are you using IIS? If so you might be able to do something with the Re-write Module.

Personally, I'd avoid it though. It'll just confuse things.

[brandco]

No using a Linux with Apache. I think you can do it with php but I'm not sure how it would work with wordpress. I think I'll just have to go through and 301 everything.

It would be nice if Google would come up with a protocol so redirects could be avoided.

[CMC-SD]

Yes, there is a Wordpress plugin that does this.

[StalkerB]

Yes.

In your permalink settings just add .html (or whatever) to the end of your permalink settings so %postname%.html and that will work... for posts.

To add it to pages you can either use this plugin - http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/html-on-pages/ - bearing in mind it's rarely updated, hack wp_rewrite in wp-includes/rewrite.php

add_action('init', 'change_page_permalink', -1); function change_page_permalink() { global $wp_rewrite; if ( strstr($wp_rewrite->get_page_permastruct(), '.html') != '.html' ) $wp_rewrite->page_structure = $wp_rewrite->page_structure . '.html'; }

bearing in mind you'll have to do this every time you update

or add it in your .htaccess

RewriteEngine On RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !.[a-zA-Z0-9]{2,3,4} RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !/$ RewriteRule ^(.*)$ $1.html

I'm not taking any responsibility for messing up that last one

[evolvingSEO]

Brandon

Just catching up here. You can do as suggested and use .html but I would highly recommend going with the new URL structure and using 301 redirects. Especially if it's a fairly small site (under 100 pages). I've rarely seen this affected rankings one bit.

-Dan

[jessential]

What do you recommend for moving a static html website into WordPress that has over 800 pages:

What is the better option for long-term SEO?

1. Stay in the Adobe BC CMS (where all schema meta data keeps being stripped out)

2. Move to WordPress and have 800+ 301 redirects that loose link juice

3. Move to WordPress and add .html extension to all pages and face risks of being off the WP structure? ( What would happen? html extension fails to update at some point? Search engines would see it as link manipulation? WordPress would crash more often? Something else that I am not thinking of?

[evolvingSEO]

Hi

I would definitely do #2 and move to wordpress normally. The link juice loss is minimal. Just make sure you don't end up with chains of redirects, which you can follow my post here on finding and eliminating them;

http://www.evolvingseo.com/2013/10/09/how-to-find-fix-redirect-chains/

[jessential]

Hi Dan,

Thank you for answering my query. I value learning from someone who has already successfully accomplished the task ahead of me.

Could you help me sort out what you are saying? It seems that you mean I should go with the 800 + page redirects. Then I would be adding over 400 blog post that do not need the .html extension. However, WP skips the "/real-estate-blog/" that come between the domain and the post name. (example: it is: http://www.homedestination.com/real-estate-blog/how-to-insulate-your-attic-for-a-warm-and-cozy-home  it becomes: http://www.homedestination.com/tips-on-how-to-insulate-your-attic-for-a-warm-and-cozy-home/

Now that would mean adding another 400+ 301 redirects. Or is there a way to eliminate the added "/" WP attaches at the end? And a way to custom add the real-estate-blog folder?

Four years ago I inherited the site. As a real estate site, all the content was duplicate from an agency affiliate site and thereby is still operating under 200+ 301 redirects that are still live and would cause loops.  The article you sent says I will have the following losses:

Issues caused by those 301 chains include;

• Slow PageSpeed – for users or web crawlers to pass through those 301s, for every one you have, that page takes longer to load or the crawler has to work harder.We all know that site speed is a small ranking factor. And speeding up your site can have numerous benefits. We also know that Google will drop your mobile ranking if your mobile site does not load quickly.
• Poor User Experience – what’s that statistic we hear all the time? Users will bounce if your page takes longer than 3 seconds to load? Improving UX through speeding up your site has been researched and talked about many times. It’s benefits are well documented.
• Lost Link Value? – I believe so. Many interpretations and questions surrounded this video by Matt Cutts ”What percentage of PR is lost through a 301 redirect?” – I even recently wrote my own interpretation of Matt’s video here on Google Plus. Bottom line? Chains of 301′s dilute PageRank. PageRank isn’t everything, but if you can preserve it … while at the same time improving SiteSpeed and UX … why NOT?
• Conversion Rates Can Suffer – check out this post on KissMetrics demonstrating how a slow site can even hurt your bottom line.

NOTE: In preparation for a better menu, I have some new 301 redirects added (without the move!) and immediately dropped over 70% page visits every day since.

Your help is directing to the best solution is much appreciated!

[jessential]

Hi Peter,

It sounds encouraging to know that there is a way to get the perma-link structure of WP to match the old pages. Do have a plug-in to recommend? A service provider? I sought to hire CMSHelpLive. Fortunately, after no service, communications, warrantee or the promised test URL during development, I was able to retrieve my funds through my cc fraud protection plan.

I am wondering just how someone else has actually accomplished it.

Or, what percentage of "link juice" to you think I might loose with apx.1,400 redirects?

I appreciate any lead you can  give me toward a workable path forward.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi There

What I would do is perhaps refine the process of how you're building the new site. In brief;

1. Build out the new wordpress site exactly how you want it. Don't sweat redirects etc.
2. When it's done being built, then match old pages to new pages to create redirects (do this by crawling the old site and the new site with screaming frog, you'll get your final list of old/new URLs, and just match them up).

This way, you're just focusing on making the new site as perfect as possible - and then do the redirects.

To answer specific questions;

Or is there a way to eliminate the added "/" WP attaches at the end?

There probably is, although I wouldn't sweat it too much. Whatever the new page is you end up, you're just going to redirect the old version to the new one.

And a way to custom add the real-estate-blog folder?

Yes - you can go to Setting->Permalinks and use "custom structure"

[jessential]

Hi Dan,

Thanks again for your response.

I can see that I need to do a better job of stating the end result desires.

I need to assure my client in advance that there is reasonable cause to believe that if they spend thousands of dollars on the migration, it benefits their situation and increases SEO and thereby conversions.

There is no call to "Build out the new wordpress site exactly how you(they) want it." They are not seeking a WP "design", The request is to move to gain SEO functions, to NOT have the schema metadata stripped out as it is now in BC , to gain "juice" while not loosing back-link value (with unwanted and additional "link juice loss" from redirects). There are back links to many of those pages and they need to be read by the search engines in a manner that does NOT loose any link juice.

NOTE: In preparation for a better menu, I have some new 301 redirects added (without the move!) and immediately dropped over 70% page visits every day since. The last thing my client want is to loose more link juice.

The entire goal is to avoid any additional losses of link juice with redirects - because we already  have huge losses with redirects. Therefore, we are seeking any viable, sustainable route to not have redirects. The entire migration is for SEO gains.

There is no draw t o simple gain a WP site or design.

Or is this simple not possible?

Or are the benefits of Yoast so powerful that we will have SEO gains that outweigh the losses of thousands of 301 redirects?

Does that help clarify? I guess if someone simply wanted to be in WP and was willing to pay for it, and THEN find out how it hurts or helps that would be another matter.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi There

It's definitely hard to say, without intimate knowledge of all aspects of the site - what the benefits will be by moving to WordPress. As a standard answer, I always see it as beneficial to move to WordPress. But the client should understand it's an investment, it's not like they're going to instantly rank better just by moving to WordPress. What it's going to do is put them in a better position (in a lot of ways) to rank better moving forward.

So in general, I'd always say "worth it" to make the move - but it's all in the specifics in the current site and how well things as executed.

It is entirely possible to have minimal link loss through redirects. You just have to;

1. Avoid chains
2. Make the redirects on a page by page level - and the topic needs to match (as Cyrus does a great job explaining here.)

You can fulfill both #1 and #2 no matter what platform you switch to, no matter how old the site is. You can always go back and undo redirect chains using the methods in the post I shared.

I'm not recommending a new design - I'm saying the process of how you go about implementing on the redirects can be a little more straightforward (and thus eliminating potential for chains and link losses). You first build the site in WordPress, without worrying about URL structure, .html slashes and so forth. Then you redirect old pages to the new pages however the URL structure ends up. You can go to past redirects and redirect them directly to the new wordpress URLs.

Hope that all makes sense - summary being - it is worthwhile to switch to WordPress - and any link juice loss is the fault of poor implementation, not the result of the switch itself per se

[jessential]

Hi Dan,

Thank you for the clarification!

o you think this percentage has changed sine summer 2013?

"When done properly, we know from testing and statements from Google that a 301 redirect passes somewhere around 85% of its original link equity."

If my tests and recent tidbits of 2014 news, I am guessing the percentage of link juice lost has widened.

Do you have tool or WP plugin to recommend to help migrate the content in .html web pages best? I am familiar with Screaming Frog for URL's and metadata. How can I possibly streamline the rest of the time to migrate the website?

Thanks for all your high value insights.

[evolvingSEO]

Hi

I don't think the percentage has changed at all. It can vary depending on specific circumstances, but as a default this should be largely consistent.

I don't have direct experience with tools to help migrate the content itself (most of my clients have developers do that). You might want to look at this: http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-move/

It depends what the existing site is built with - if it's on a current CMS I'd google "migrate from [cms name] to wordpress".

Someone with good database skills could probably do it that way.