Does Transferring Coding to Wordpress Affect SEO?

Hey Guys,

I just picked up a new client for SEO and Web Design for eCommerce sites.. They own a bunch of domains with good age and already good meta tags, etc.

Their design looks horrific and they want everything from web design completely revamped and adding in new products..

I feel more comfortable working on Wordpress with this so i can install some good seo plugins. If i were to transfer the coding to Word press would this affect my rankings with google in a negative way?

As long as you can keep all the links steady, you wont really feel a negative effect. Well this is just my view, and I dont proclaim its the right thing.

If I was you, I would get a backup of the site on XAMPP server, and then make a WP for the same, and then rename all the links, images and all those to suite the old links.

And I will only upload it once its all tested, so that I wont have a downtime or 404 at all.

If you can exactly mimic the link structure and keep most of the text the same - the effect will be minimal if any. On the other hands - re-directing links in a non-standard way can lead to rank loses and even having to re-index some pages.

Also I should mention the sequence of page elements as they appear in the page source is important as that's how the text is judged by SE.

I wish I had an expert do the transition for my website...

Moving уоur website dоesn't havе a affect on уоur SEO or rankings The оnlу thing that can happen is іf thе downtime іs long (ie: 3 days) оr more likе anоther person said in thіs post thеn іt саn bring you dоwn the list.

Noobski said:

Hey Guys,

I just picked up a new client for SEO and Web Design for eCommerce sites.. They own a bunch of domains with good age and already good meta tags, etc.

Their design looks horrific and they want everything from web design completely revamped and adding in new products..

I feel more comfortable working on Wordpress with this so i can install some good seo plugins. If i were to transfer the coding to Word press would this affect my rankings with google in a negative way?

Click to expand...

You might be playing with fire here. If I understand you properly, you want to take them off whatever they are currently using (some sort of ecommerce software) and then switch them over to WordPress?

First off you should read a post I made about how http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/black-hat-seo/355601-why-redesigning-your-site-will-you-up.html.

Question is whether they already make good money with their current template. If they are, and you change their template over, even if it might be better in the long run, they'll fire you when they loose all their money from SEO for the next several months.

If I were you, I'd keep their sites with their exact same URL structure and figure out how to enhance the pages the way they are now ... instead of switching their template over. You can always add a blog to their site and SEO that and have the links point to the shopping pages.

I've lost many thousands of dollars on one site-redesign of mine, makes me wish I could go back in time.

If the interlinking of those websites are kept unchanged then you can hope for no loss in the SERPs.

Well this wont affect much if you are keeping the links exactly of the same structure.You can easily sort out such problems in the long run.

Take heed that the one answer urging caution is from someone speaking from experience. It could easily mess up your rankings.

Like PHP said, add a kickass wp blog. Improve the visuals yes, but a change in template? You need to explain to them the risks involved and make sure they're okay with that or it'll be a pissed off ex-client...

I'm about to do something similar but they understand it's potentially 2 steps back, to take many forward.