Site revamp for neglected site - modifying site structure, URLs and content - is there an optimal approach?

[macrobbo]

A site I'm involved with, www.organicguide.com, was at one stage (long ago) performing reasonably well in the search engines. It was ranking highly for several keywords.

The site has been neglected for some considerable period of time.

A new group of people are interested in revamping the site, updating content, removing some of the existing content, and generally refreshing the site entirely.

In order to go forward with the site, significant changes need to be made. This will likely involve moving the entire site across to wordpress.

The directory software (edirectory.com) currently being used has not been designed with SEO in mind and as a result numerous similar pages of directory listings (all with similar titles and descriptions) are in google's results, albeit with very weak PA.

After reading many of the articles/blog posts here I realize that a significant revamp and some serious SEO work is needed. So, I've joined this community to learn from those more experienced.

Apart from doing 301 redirects for pages that we need to retain, is there any optimal way of removing/repairing the current URL structure as the site gets updated?

Also, is it better to make changes all at once or is an iterative approach preferred?

Many thanks in advance for any responses/advice offered.

Cheers

MacRobbo

[EGOL]

These kinds of questions are not easy - even if you work on the site every day, know the content, know the traffic and know the business objects and understand them completely.

I struggle with this type of question for a site that I have worked on several hours per day for the past 8 years and have written almost all of the content and determined the current URL structure.

If you don't understand what you have, how people use it, how you make money from it and what you want to make it into it would be very easy to bolt a chicken coop onto the West Wing of the White House.

Have  you drawn a map of what you have and what you want it to be?

Then ask, will it work for the visitor and the webmaster and the bottom line?

[macrobbo]

Thanks very much for your response EGOL. We've reviewed webmaster tools and analytics and have an idea of what works and what doesn't. Additionally, we're all fairly passionate about the subject matter, but not necessarily site building experts.

I think, as you very wisely point out, we need to spend time thinking about what we want to achieve given our resources. Almost like a roadmap/business plan for the site.

Once again, thanks for your input. Any additional thoughts/advice would be very welcome.

Cheers, MacRobbo