The 3rd paragraph of your answer, which refers to "lighter code", are your referring to a custom theme or can a child them have light code as well?

Hi Redsweater:

Thanks for this informative and detailed response!!

In fact, I am not a WP developer, I am a client, and not too technical, unfortunately. From what you are saying it is absolutely clear that I start from scratch. That my choice is between a child theme and a custom theme. But I apologize but I don't quite understand the difference between the two.

How does child them differ form say a real estate theme that I purchase and customize? Something like this for example: http://main.wpestatetheme.org/homepage?

I understand that the child theme receives Wordpress updates and requires less maintenance with a the trade being that the code is less efficient?

But if I understand correctly, a child theme would be an improvement over our current 2013 site but a custom site would be the  best but most costly option. If I understand this correctly, how much more labor (cost) is the development of a child site (2x,3x)? Also, how much maintenance would it require every 18 months?

Also, my existing developer has customized several plugins. So this is a no, no and increases maintenance costs in the long run?

Thanks,
Alan

If I understand correctly, you are saying that a Wordpress Child theme is going to have too much extra code due to all the unused features. Implication being to enhance the performance I will need to create a custom theme? Sorry I am non-technical, do I have this right?

Currently I have a custom theme (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com). I am thinking a replacing this with a theme like https://themeforest.net/item/real-homes-wordpress-real-estate-theme/5373914
I like the features in this theme but don't want to shoot myself in the foot by purchasing low quality code that is guaranteed to rank poorly.

The sort of modifications that you suggest, can those be done to the Child theme or can they only be done with a customized theme?

The sort of changes you are suggesting, do they make a tangible difference for ranking?

Thanks, 
Alan

Our website was designed in 2013 using a custom theme. Some of the plugins are built from scratch.

Ranking in our industry is hyper competitive. We are seeking a better interface and also to improve ranking.

I have read that custom themes use lighter code and can rank better. Does this apply to a custom theme from 2013? Will we have an SEO advantage using a custom theme? If so, will that advantage be significant?

We are using a discontinued plugin called "Firestorm" to display real estate listings. That plugin has been customized. Can we use that plugin on a new "custom" theme? How about on a "child" theme? In terms of the cost of future maintenance, will a "custom" theme require much more intervention (manual installation of updates) moving forward?

Which of the following options is best:

1. Adapt our existing custom theme
2. Create a new custom theme
3. Create a child theme

Thanks, 
Alan

We are in the process of redesigning our real estate website.

Our designer/developer is very quick and confident on Wordpress. He suggests designing directly on Wordpress and bypassing  wireframes and a mock ups. He is very confident in his Wordpress abilities.

Is it a mistake to take this approach? He has also asked that we select a real estate theme at this point. I would think that the theme would be selected after the wireframes and mock ups get done.

But there are certainly different approaches. Are there  best practices for  redesigning a webiste; any suggestions? Are there significant risks/disadvantages to bypassing wireframes/mock ups?

Thanks, 
Alan Rosinsky

Thanks, Martijn. Where can I post a question to the Wordpress community??

The idea being that I can atleast obtain an approximate idea of how long a task should take. I am in a position where I am vulnerable to being told a task takes 5 hours when it actually takes 10 minutes.

Thanks!!
Alan

Fortunately, I do have full control of the server and backups.

But I should have never agreed to allowing the modification of plugins. At the time I did not understand the implications.

Would it help a new coder if the previous developer  provided a detailed description of the modified plugins? What if I agreed to pay the old developer to act a consultant to a new developer?

My developer believes he is in the drivers seat and is charging me 3-5x what is reasonable and fair.  Result is that I can't afford to make any meaningful improvements to the site.

Are there any Wordpress forums where amateurs can ask questions about programming.

My intent it to better understand the complexity of certain tasks and what would be a reasonable amount of time to complete them so my developer does not rip me off by billing me ten hours for a task that takes them ten minutes.

Thanks, 
Alan

Since 2013 a Wordpress developer has coded my real estate website.

Their hourly rate is $24 but the programmers take too long to perform tasks and the service has become prohibitively expensive. Examples of unreasonable time estimates below:

|

|

1. Change theme settings so posts/pages do not display a date. -> 7 hrs
2.Google search results are displaying the breadcrumb on the top of each page rather than the URL. Please correct so this does not display. -> 3 hrs
3. Install SSL certificate to www.metro-manhattan.com domain -> 8 hrs

|

|

The above does not include 5-6 hours for testing.

I am considering changing vendors. Potential programmers have asked how the site was developed and to what extent is it is customized. Ends up several plugins were built from scratch.

My question is whether a new developer is going to be able to pick up a custom coded site. That without understanding how the site was built, any change will break the site. My concern is that current developer has made themselves indispensable, and created a situation where there is no alternative to using them and they can therefore charge any price they want.Any thoughts?

Also below are questions I asked my developer about how the site was built and their answers:

| 1. Was everything coded using a child theme?
No, is a custom theme.

2. Did you use any ready made theme or just plugins
We used the theme and and we've used plugins. Third party plugins and plugins builded from scratch

3. Can Wordpress and every one of the plugin be updated? 
Wordpress can be updated, core files was never modified. If after an update something start to work wrong is due to some radical wordpress change or similar

Can't be updated:

• FireStorm Professional Real Estate Plugin

Created at xxx:

• Form Submissions Report
• Miscellaneous Hooks and Filters
• NYC Check memory usage
• NYC SEO listings
• NYC Slider
• Sitemap Updater

4. Were any of the plugins customized and if so, which ones?
Yes, this plugin "FireStorm Professional Real Estate Plugin" |

Hi Again:

Will option #1 (keeping existing microdata) remove the duplicate h1 tag? Your suggestion listed below:

"So, wherever the

tag with the company name lives that is rendered and shown to the user, ad the "LocalBusiness" itemscope to the parent tag that surrounds it and its content. Basically you'd merge your Schema.org code with the user-facing content"

Hi David:

Schema was added to the site discretely provide location data to Google.

You suggested 2 potential solutions:

1. Use Microdata...

2. Use JSON+LD..

Will these solutions remove the duplicate H1 tag?

We are concerned that the low rank of our URLs (80% are 1) are caused by duplicate H1s on each page.

Are these options relatively simple for an experienced developer? Is one option superior to the other?

Thanks for your patience in explaining these options, my programming understanding is limited. 
Alan

Greetings:

It was pointed out to me that the h1 tags on my website (www.nyc-officespace-leader.com) all had exactly the same text and that duplication may be contributing to the very low page authority for most URLs.

The duplicate h1 appears in line 54-54 (see below) of the home page: www.nyc-officespace-leader.com:

itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/LocalBusiness" style="position:absolute;top:-9999em;">

<span<br>itemprop="name">Metro Manhattan Office Space</span<br>

<img< p="">But the above refers to schema" so is this really duplicate H1 or is there an exception if the H1 is within a schema?

Also, I was told that the company street address and city and state were set up incorrectly as part of an alt tag. However these items also appear as schema in lines 49-68 shown below:

Dangerous for me to perform surgery on the code without being certain about these key items!! Could ask my developer, however they may be uncomfortable considering that they set this up in the 1st place. So the view of neutral professionals would be highly welcome!

itemprop="address" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/PostalAddress">
<span<br>itemprop="streetAddress">347 5th Ave #1008
<span<br>itemprop="addressLocality">New York
<span<br>itemprop="addressRegion">NY
<span<br>itemprop="postalCode">10016<div<br>itemprop="brand" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization">
---------------------------------------------------------------------------</div<br></span<br></span<br></span<br></span<br></img<>

Do you think the entire process should take 3-5 hours or more like 5-10 hours?

Also, we use Amazon CDN to host our images. So maybe this adds a few more steps.

I am willing to invest more for a good job, but 8 hours for SSL install and 24 hours for domain migration sounds excessive.

Hi Paul:

Thanks for this most detailed response!! The Wordpress plugins (what is the name of this plugin) that do the basic Wordpress migration in about an hour. You say that they will change all of the URL references to the new domain name, and updating them to reflect the HTTPS as well.

By this do you mean that they will create redirects or actually change them to the new domain? If I understand correctly (sorry I am a novice) it is imperative that I actually change the addresses rather than implement a redirect.

From what you are saying, a lot of the work is updating things like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Facebook etcetera. But it seems like even a novice like me could do that,

So do you think the following sounds about right:

Basic domain migration using Wordpress plugin: 4 hours
Update of third party tools: 3 hours
Redirecting website forms: 30 minutes
Install of SSL Certificate: 1 hour
Miscellaneous: 1 hour
Total: Less than 9-10 hours.

One thing I did not mention. We use Amazon CDN to host about 1,000 images. I don't know how this affects site migration but I would think it complicates it somewhat.

Important thing is good quality control for this critical task. Don't want to under pay and have problems. On the other hand I don't want to pay a multiple of what is should cost.

Also, should I install SSL after the migration has occurred or at about the same time?

InMotion Hosting hosts our domain.

At the moment, we use domain "A". Domain "B" redirect to domain "A" . Domain "B"" better represent our brand and we want to redirect domain "A" to "B". Our website is designed in Wordpress. It contains about 750 pages.

At the moment we do not have an SSL certificate. I would like to add the SSL certificate at the same time we migrate the domain. The data we collect on the site  are company name, phone number, email address etcetera. No transactions. I was told that the Auto SSL free certificate is fine and that there is no need to pay for a certificate. Is this correct?

My developer has told me that installing an SSL certificate would take about 8 hours. And that migrating the domain would take 24 hours, plus or minus 5 hours. My developer is very professional, and usually does a great job but this seems costly considering a $24/hour labor rate. It also seems like an inordinate amount of time.

Several well rated (100% approval) Upwork developers are willing to perform this job for less than $200. Huge differential!!

Also, Inmotion Hosting is willing to migrate the site  and install the certificates for free.  But pay nothing and the quality is usually questionable. Any thoughts??

Also, I have a lot to lose in terms of SEO  if something goes wrong. Are there any specifications that I should insist on to make sure the migration proceed smoothly? What do I need to modify on Google Analytics once the migration is done. Any steps I should take to ensure the maintenance of page rank?

Thanks!!!!
Alan

Hi Roman:

Sorry but 2 more questions:

Not sure what you mean by the below:
"I strongly suggest to optimize your PLP pages they are like the categories in your website, so they are very close to your home page and should be at the top of your content structure."

Also, regarding:

Lack of “Speaking” URLs

Is it more acceptable to rewrite the URLs of listing pages with very little page authority. I assume the redirect will make no difference if a listing has a page authority of 1-5.

If the new listing page is improves, the authority should improve.

We have about 350 pages. Do you think a good approach might be to start off trying to improve 30-40 pages to see if we are on the right track?

Thanks,
Alan

Hi Roman:

Thanks for this most detailed, terrific response!!

A few questions:

1. What does "PLP" stand for? (I'm an amateur, sorry)
2. What is search console?
3. How do I decided where to create the internal links between the pages?

REGARDING:
Optimal format Primary Keyword - Secondary Keyword | Brand Name 8-foot Green Widgets - Widgets & Tools | Widget World The above is a good example. Your suggestion to remove brand name is interesting. It provides a lot more space (characters). Good idea as long as removing brand from title is not detrimental.

But using the above "widgets" nexample what would we substitute "Brand Name" with?

What happens of some of the keywords get redundant? Like the neighborhood may be an important keyword
New York Office Space Rental / Chelsea Loft Space/ XXXXXX

We might have about 75 loft spaces, wouldn't this redundancy be bad?

Also, many, many searches use:
Manhattan office space
NYC Office space
New York City office space

And many permutations. The competition for these terms in Manhattan in insane!!! Google Adwords has many of these terms listed for $35+.

Do you think it best to have geographic keywords in schemas, title tags, descriptions or URLs?

Many of our URLS are poorly written. Do you think it best to re-write them or will the redirect reduce ranking?

Thanks again, 
Alan

My industry is commercial real estate in New York City. Our site has 300 real estate listings. The format we have been using for Title Tags are below.

This probably disastrous from an SEO perspective. Using number is a total waste space. A few questions:
-Should we set listing not no index if they are not content rich?
-If we do choose to index them, should we avoid titles listing Square Footage and dollar amounts?
-Since local SEO is critical, should the titles always list New York, NY or Manhattan, NY?
-I have red that titles should contain some form of branding. But our company name is Metro Manhattan Office Space. That would take up way too much space. Even "Metro Manhattan" is long. DO we need to use the title tag for branding or can we just focus on a brief description of page content incorporating one important phrase?

Our site is: w w w . m e t r o - m a n h a t t a n . c o m

<colgroup><col width="405"></colgroup>
| Turnkey Flatiron Tech Space | 2,850 SF $10,687/month |

<colgroup><col width="405"></colgroup>
| Gallery, Office Rental | Midtown, W. 57 St | 4441SF $24055/month |

<colgroup><col width="405"></colgroup>
| Open Plan Loft |Flatiron, Chelsea | 2414SF $12,874/month |

<colgroup><col width="405"></colgroup>
| Tribeca Corner Loft | Varick Street | 2267SF $11,712/month |

<colgroup><col width="405"></colgroup>
| 275 Madison, LAW, P7, 3,252SF, $65 - Manhattan, New York |

When I enter "Site: URL" to check what a search how Google displays  search result, a date appears at the very front. This takes away several characters, really valuable real estate.

How can I stop Google from displaying these dates?

There are certain Wordpress plugins like "WP Date Remover" however the seem to only apply to blog posts. Dates are appearing on results on all my Wordpress pages. Is there an internal setting in Wordpress that will allow me to remove dates for these non blogpost pages?

We are a commercial real estate brokerage firm in Manhattan. Our site (w w w . m e t r o - m a n h a t t a n . com) is text heavy and somewhat uninviting. Ranking is fair. Conversions awful. Our niche is very competitive.

We plan on reducing the amount of text and making the site more visual. Among the planned changes:

-Reduce amount of text in home page and text heavy pages. More emphasis on product (listings)
-Much larger photos for listings
-Lighter cleaner design with more open white areas
-Use of more visible fonts
-Better forms

New design will be like: http://www.dernieretage-paris.com/

Theme and graphics based on Manhattan. More visuals. Better photos. Less text.

But are we shooting ourselves in the foot by reducing text? Is there a risk that Google will reduce our ranking?

Can we compensate for reduced text that is visible to visitors by completing meta tags more fully?

Any thoughts???

Thanks,
Alan