Changing website's layout - what are the risks?

ThaiDreamer

ThaiDreamer

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Hello BHW,

My mum has been running her own online business for 7 years now and her layout is super outdated. The CMS is Wordpress but the layout was prepared by some developer back in 2013 and it's terribly slow, the user experience is bad and it's not mobile-friendly at all.

Because lots of her buyer traffic is mobile, the BR is terrible and she is losing lots of conversions. I also think that she could be doing a lot better in SERPs.

I've been thinking about moving the layout to Astra WP theme which is working really well for my site, is fast to load and, most importantly, displays well on mobile devices.

My question is - are there any SEO risks posed by changing the layout? What would be the safest way to do it? There are just 20 pages on this site.

I would really appreciate your help and guidance.

Thank you!
 
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I think i'd be fine.

Well, it would be even better to update it and make it mobile optimized
 
Just make sure the content and all the link is the same. than it's good.
 
Changing the layout should not give you any problems pertaining to SEO, so long as making the change does not mess with your content and website link structure. If all the pages, URLs and internal links remain the same, Google will not mind the new theme, if anything you should benefit from increased speed and lower bounce rates (given that the new theme will improve visitor experience). So go for it, it should be fine.
 
I am for the full update, you will surely gain positions by improving the user experience.
But still make a backup of the database and the entire directory of the site, you never know if you want to backtrack.
 
Just don't change the URL structure and you would be good to go.
 
Mostly, it will not affect. Make sure the site url and content remains the same. Make it user friendly and maintain site speed.
 
There is definitely a chance that you will lose a few spots in the SERPs after making a major change. Been there, done that. But, it's temporary and will probably come back stronger when it's mobile optimized and just better in general.

I would change the layout but keep the text/content + URL structure. Also get some high quality links (niche edits/GP) after the change is done just for the sake of it.

You might only have to change theme pretty much.
 
ThaiDreamer said:
Hello BHW,

My mum has been running her own online business for 7 years now and her layout is super outdated. The CMS is Wordpress but the layout was prepared by some developer back in 2013 and it's terribly slow, the user experience is bad and it's not mobile-friendly at all.

Because lots of her buyer traffic is mobile, the BR is terrible and she is losing lots of conversions. I also think that she could be doing a lot better in SERPs.

I've been thinking about moving the layout to Astra WP theme which is working really well for my site, is fast to load and, most importantly, displays well on mobile devices.

My question is - are there any SEO risks posed by changing the layout? What would be the safest way to do it? There are just 20 pages on this site.

I would really appreciate your help and guidance.

Thank you!
Click to expand...

If the current theme is awful, not mobile friendly and lacks several seo flags, you can bet that changing theme to a more updated one will result in a higher exposition to your blog on serps. Though, you have to check the new theme, you don't want to just download a theme and upload it just because.
 
Guys, thanks for all the feedback.

I will go ahead with it this weekend.
 
Let us know how it goes. I think it should reduce the bounce rate and boost conversions.
 
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