Understand how site redesign impacts SEO

[KaitlinNS]

Hi everyone,

I have, what I think, is kind of a specific question, but hoping you guys can help me figure out what to do.

I have a client that recently changed their entire website (I started working with them after it happened, so I can't comment on what the site was like as far as content was before).  I know they were using a service that I see a lot of in the service industry that aim to capitalize on local business (i.e. "leads nearby" or "nearby now") by creating pages for each targeted city and I believe collecting reviews for each city directly on the website.

When they redesigned their website, they dropped that service and now all those pages that were ranking in SERPs are coming back as 404s because they are not included in the new site (I apologize if this is getting confusing!)

The site that they moved to is a template site that they purchased the rights to from an already successful company in their same industry, so I do think the link structure probably changed, especially with all of the local pages that are no longer available on the site.  Note: I want to use discretion in using company names, but happy to share more info in a private message if you'd like to see the sites I am talking about as I have a feeling that this is getting confusing

Has anyone had experience with something like this?  I am concerned because even though I am targeting the keywords being used previously to direct content to the local pages to new existing pages, traffic to the website has dropped by nearly 60% and I know my clients are going to want answers-- and right now, I only have guesses.

I am really looking forward to and so greatly appreciate any advice you might be able to share, I'm at a bit of a loss right now.

[montana.marsden]

Quick question: Did the domain name or url's change with this redesign?

When you say:

"When they redesigned their website, they dropped that service and now all those pages that were ranking in SERPs are coming back as 404s because they are not included in the new site"

Does that refer to just content (what's on the page) or did they kill certain pages that existed before hand?

[KaitlinNS]

The domain name stayed the same, I believe.  And the pages that existed beforehand were killed-- not just content.  They come back as 404 errors.

[GoogleDowner]

A couple options come to mind: either create those pages and build them similar to when they had the plugin (assuming it was a plugin) or 301 those 404 links to the new pages. When doing the 301s I suggest you create a spreadsheet that outlines all of the 404 to 301 mappings and show that to the client so that they are aware of the issue(s), which can help explain why their traffic is taking a hit. I hope that helps!

[montana.marsden]

Those pages will need to be recreated and then have a 301 redirect placed on them directing all existing authority to be passed onto the newly created city targeted pages.

I suggest pulling the data before the redesign that shows how much traffic was being sent to those pages that were killed and showing this to your client. Doing this should help them see that whoever suggested killing those pages in the redesign shouldn't be making decisions.

Once you've 301'd the old pages, that are showing 404's, to the new city targeted pages go into Webmaster Tools and submit them to be indexed/crawled right away.

[KaitlinNS]

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