Having a new website build, what happens to my SEO work?

[YNWA]

Hi,

We are in the process of having a new website developed by a web agency. New domain, new business name etc...

What is the best process to transfer from old domain to the new one?

What happens to all my ranked URLs?

What can re-directs do to help me?

Will I loose all my link juice on highly ranked keyword domains? I ranked 1st for a brand now, wil lthis go?

Any advice, help or hints would be great.

Thanks

Will

[cprasad]

Hi Will,

First you must have a process to redirect all the current ulrs to new domain's urls, using 301 permanent redirection. It will pass about 95 % of link juice to your new urls.

And also set the new domain on Google Webmaster Tools and set the old domains settings as you have moved your site to new domain. Hope you know how you can do it.

But I have no idea about your new website. Because of the new contents on your new urls maybe different than the current contents on current urls and up to the on page optimization of the new pages can be affects to your ranking. It maybe higher or lower. Because this is not just url updating.

Regards

Prasad

[stukerr]

Hi Will,

I guess my first question would be is why are you moving to a new domain? If at all possible if you are ranking on your existing domain I would try and keep your site on there, even if you are moving to a completely new CMS and server there are ways to ensure your URL structure maps over so each URL can be replaced 1-for-1 with a new page on the new site - if this is what you are doing?

Stuart

[YNWA]

Thanks for your replies.

We need a new website first and foremost. Current one too old, not good enough etc...

Then we are changing our business name to fit in with new stores etc...

We want to move away from our current brand name, hence the new name. The current URL structure is poor, so a short, more SEO friendly one is being devised into the new site.

I think the 301 is best option, as we need to get away from our current site, current name and current website provider.

The company we are using are e-commerce experts so no doubt they have best solution but was just looking to see what options are out there.

Thanks

[stukerr]

Hi Will,

In that case it doesn't really sound like you can stick with the original domain, so as Prasad suggested I would go with the 301 and the Google WMT Change of Address.

To avoid getting too many WMT errors you might also want to spider your existing site with something like screaming frog to ensure you catch all the existing URLs and point them to the right place on the new site.

You could also potentially contact people who have linked to your existing domain and ask them to change the link to your new domain.

All the best,

Stuart

[YNWA]

Sounds good mate. Thanks.

[KeriMorgret]

Here's a great post about migrating a website that you might find useful.

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/web-site-migration-guide-tips-for-seos