Keep Google Search When I Migrate to WordPress

  • Resolved NICEGUY2014

    (@niceguy2014)


    11 years, 11 months ago

    Hello and thank you for taking the time to read this post.

    I have a 4 year old website which has a pretty good ranking in google. The website was done in godaddy website builder and it’s now time to move to WordPress.

    *NiceGuy2014.COM or .NET is just an example NOT the real website.

    Goal: I want to keep my current google searches if possible. Meaning if I search “nice guys in vegas” and the link goes to http://www.NiceGuy2014.Com (godaddy) that after the migration to WordPress that the searchability will still be there and go to my new http://www.NiceGuy2014.com (WordPress)

    Here is what I plan to do or currently doing.

    Godaddy Website: Niceguy2014.COM
    Staging WordPress Website: Niceguy2014.NET

    I’m basically making sure all the web PAGES are identical with the exception of the .COM and .NET of course.

    Here are the steps I will do after all PAGES are identical.
    1. Make a clone of .NET wordpress site.
    2. Wipe Out .COM site.
    3. Install wordpress on .COM site
    4. Restore clone .NET to .COM site

    *Note: Done clone and restore several times so this is a non-issue in my case.

    Will my current searches go to my new wordpress site http://www.NiceGuy2014.com?

    Any help, suggestions, tip, etc will be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks again everyone!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    11 years, 11 months ago

    You’ve got the right idea, but you should just do this instead of your steps 3 and 4: http://codex.wordpress.org/Moving_WordPress

    I’ll be honest, you will probably fluctuate in Google for a while, as you are changing from one structure to another. It’s like moving from an apartment to a house, but asking everyone to still refer to it as “the apartment,” it’s just not going to happen.

    With that said though, you’re making the right choice switching to WordPress from a super-basic site builder like that. You’ll have a better-looking site, you can do more to it, it’s just better-off in the long-term regardless of any hit you might take.

    Once you have finished the move, try this plugin: http://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/

    Note, however, that there are plenty of other plugins too http://wordpress.org/plugins/tags/seo and this really great guide: http://codex.wordpress.org/Search_Engine_Optimization_for_WordPress

    Thread Starter NICEGUY2014

    (@niceguy2014)

    11 years, 11 months ago

    I just hit my first obstacle.

    The godaddy site builder pages ends with “.html” and the wordpress does not. I try to change the WP permalink for the page to end with “.html” but it always translate it to “-html”. So the total match thing will not work unless anybody has any good workaround.

    Thanks!

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    11 years, 11 months ago

    Right, that’s part of the hit you’ll take, the structure will be rather different, but it won’t take Google long to re-index everything.

    Thread Starter NICEGUY2014

    (@niceguy2014)

    11 years, 10 months ago

    MacManX,
    Thanks for all your help. I’ll try those plugins. My new site is up and running but my ranking on google is down for now as expected. Will run some marketing campaign and hopefully have it up and in rankings again in no time.

    Moderator James Huff

    (@macmanx)

    11 years, 10 months ago

    You’re welcome!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

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