How would a redesign, content update and URL change affect ranking?

[mattbs]

Hi guys,

I have a question that I suspect there is no simple true or false answer to, but perhaps someone has done the same thing as we're pondering wether or not to do?

We're taking over an existing site that ranks very well on all the important keywords and is obviously very well liked by Google. The site is today hosted on a sub-domain (xxx.domain.com). When taking over, we'll have to redesign the site and recreate most of the content on the site (unique). The site structure, URLs, incoming links etc. will remain exactly the same.

Since we are recreating the site, we also have the opportunity to move the site off the sub-domain and on to the main domain (domain.com/xxx - 85/100 Moz rank) and do a 301 Permanent Redirect on all old URLs. Our long-time experience is that content on the main domain, ranks way better than the sub-domain. The big question is wether or not Google will punish us for both changing the content and the location of the site at the same time?

Cheers!
Matt

[DmitriiK]

Hi there.

Well, here is a thing. If you look at what google considers when deciding whether or not page should be ranking, in a nutshell, it would be backlink profile, content and user data (read user experience).

So, when considering redesign and structure change for a website, those are the things you should be looking at. Therefore, estimate how much each of those parts of the website would change. Typically, redesign with UX in mind will help you dramatically, however, changing the content (if you're actually talking about changing it, not editing) can lead to really bad results. So, make sure that content is somewhat the same or at least is targeting the same keyphrases.

The same thing about moving from subdomain. Even though it's on the same domain name, typically, subdomains are treated like separate domains in terms of backlinks. So, even if you do 301-redirect, there WILL BE at least temporary consequences. Because one - whenever you use 301 redirect, not all of link equity is being passed and two - it takes some time for google to "realize" those 301 redirects and "rethink" the indexing.

Hope this helps.

[AHC_SEO]

Good post Dmitrii. This recent article on YouMoz covers off 301 redirects nicely...

https://moz.com/ugc/accidental-seo-tests-how-301-redirects-are-likely-impacting-your-brand.

Hope it helps

[DirkC]

Personal experience - redirecting from subdomain to main domain shouldn't have a big impact (maybe some temporary fluctuations).
Changing the design can have a huge impact. We did a relaunch recently where both url / ux where changed and we had a massive drop of traffic - even when all url's where properly redirected. We did notice however pageviews/visit go down & bounce rate increase which indicated that our visitors had issues with the new (responsive) design. It took us about 4/5 months to return to previous traffic levels - but we still haven't recovered some of our top positions for very competitive keywords.

Dirk

[mattbs]

Thanks for the answer - its more or less in line with what I've thought.

We're redesigning, cleaning and speeding up the site, so I think we're covered UX wise. The general structure of the site, the backlink profile or URLs are not changing. Since we do not own the current content on the site, we will have to rewrite the content. The content will be the same theme, same keywords and phrases, but not identical content.

What I believe we will do is to change this in two stages, first change the design and update content. Then wait and see what happens with the rankings over the next few months. If we're keeping the same ranking, we will then move from sub-domain to main domain.

Thanks again for the answer!

[RuthBurrReedy]

When I worked on the rebrand from SEOmoz.org to Moz.com, we faced exactly this situation. You can watch my Mozinar about it here https://moz.com/webinars/domain-migrations-lessons-from-the-moz-transition. In brief:

• You should expect to see a temporary dip in traffic and rankings, but it's totally reversible.
• Do as much link reclamation (reaching out to sites that link to you and asking them to update their links) as you can.
• Plan for a concerted link building effort to the new site to coincide with launch.
• Go page-to-page with redirects wherever possible.
• Use the Change Address function in Search Console.
• Make sure that pages that rank for core terms now redirect to pages that target those same terms.

I've also noticed that Google has been slower than usual at indexing new pages lately, sometimes taking upwards of a week, so keep that in mind as you check for your new site being indexed.

Good luck!