Renaming web pages vs new web site

[cheaptubes]

I am struggling with renaming a lot of my web pages because I used short form acronyms vs long form keyword page names and now my pages aren't ranking where they should be and used to be.  I am weighing  a whole new web site or just a massive update with new page names.  I also have an old domain that 301's to the new url but the old one outranks the new one.  If you search google for cheap tubes the first domain you see is www.cheaptubesinc.com (the 301'd version) when the real url is www.cheaptubes.com.  I know I am getting a duplicate content penalty and when moz crawls my site they see 2X the page that I really have.  I tried fixing this with canonical tags but it only helped 5 pages according the moz crawls since doing them.  Since last July 4th my business has been declining and I know there was an SEO algorithm update last July 4th.   I think either method of renaming the web pages with better SEO for instance cheaptubes.com/single-wall-carbon-nanotubes.htm vs cheaptubes.com/swnts.htm  as it is currently.  In either case, it is still an HTML 2 website done on frontpage and the question I keep asking myself is if I should just scrap the whole site and start over with a more modern format.  Should I try to get a new site together with good SEO and publish it quickly vs rename and 301 a bunch of pages?  What about the old site? Do I need to track the old page names and 301 them to the new ones?  Any help is appreciates

Mike

[WilliamKammer]

Hello,

There is some good news and bad news here:

The bad news news? That old site, cheaptubesinc.com is not 301'd. Notice how to URL doesn't direct to the new one when you type it in. You have two identical sites going on due to a botched 301. In order to help with that,  more information on how you attempted the redirect is needed..

The good news? It is probably an relatively simple fix. Once you fix that 301, things may settle in.

Hope this helps.

[cheaptubes]

Thx William- The only way I could do it was to have the hosting co (network solutions) do it for me.  The only way I can make changes to the site is with frontpage which can't do php.  I called the hosting co and they did it for me.    I am unsure of how to do it given my situation.

[WilliamKammer]

It sounds like it's time to get aggressive with your hosting company. Tell them they botched it. Tell them it's effecting your business. Also ask them how they attempted it in the first place. If you don't know what they did, you can't fix it efficiently. Discovering what they did without their help could possibly take a lot of digging and technical knowledge, but it's possible.

[cheaptubes]

Thanks for your help William.  I got the old url cheaptubesinc.com 301'd to cheaptubes.com this week.  Of course network solutions left off the / after .com and before the page name so that only the home page would 301 and they could try to sell me more 301s, it cost $60 for 1 and I have 48 pages on my site.  I called and emailed them all week and they kept saying they had done it right and and they couldn't force google to change the links.  I then realized if I typed www.cheaptubesinc/graphene.htm that it didn't work because it 301'd to www.cheaptubes.comgraphene.htm.  They were argumentative with me even though I was polite with them (though I didn't want to be).  I finally got a tech on the phone who said he would add the slash and ask his boss for forgiveness.  However given the history of having the domain parked and pointed before and that not working over time & now this, I think my best bet is to transfer my domains to someone else.  I heard bluehost is good.  My concern is if they were that unethical in our dealings and the boss was argumentative in emails than they could go in an remove the slash at any time.

I also found a ton of code errors right at the top of my pages.  I now know it was from putting up temporary messages but not checking to make sure the code was clean.  The woman I bought my them from (6.5 years ago I paid her $60 and she still helps me for free, what  difference between her & NS) notice open H1's & P elements at the top of the pages.  I was still ranking well for acronyms but missing out on the long keywords since last july which caused my sales to drop off. I figure I lost at least 150K in sales because I neglected my website and didn't clean up the code on my pages a painful lesson I won't soon forget.  On tuesday, when I searched single walled carbon nanotubes I had to go 8 pages back in google to find my page.  By week's end I was #8 on page 1 and ahead of sigma aldrich a major materials supplier.

Thank you so much for your help William, it is sincerely appreciated

Mike

[WilliamKammer]

Thanks for posting the follow up. I'm really glad I could help.

I hear bluehost is okay. I've tried a lot of hosting companies over the years, and the majority have that arrogant attitude. Charging $60 per 301 is insane though. If you decide to move your site, I recommend having a professional do it, or it could go very wrong.

Happy to see your ranks recover

[cheaptubes]

thx William