Old Website Build Effecting SEO
-
So this is a bit of a strange one.
My latest website was built on a different domain, then transferred over (as opposed to being built on a subdomain). I was told that the domain which my site was built on wasn't indexed by Google, but looking at the Google Search Console I can see that the old domain name is showing up as the most linked to domain name of my current site - meaning it was indexed. The domain (and all of its pages) does have a 301 redirect to the new website home page (as opposed to their individual pages), but could this be causing me a problem with SEO?
Additionally, my website has a sister (UK and US websites), both link to each other on the footer (which appears on every page). Could this be pulling my SEO efforts down if it is a do-follow link?
-
Ah, got it. Re this question:
"I was worried that because Google indexed thespacebazaar.com (and subsequently all of its content) before it was transferred over to thespacecollective.com, would Google think thespacebazaar.com was the original author of the content and see thespacecollective.com as copying."
People change domains all of the time. They rebuild their site structures, too. Since you have the old domain rolling over to the new one, AFAIK the Google search engine bots will figure out your site has moved and you have a new structure. AFAIK, you're good.
As for the SEO work, I'm sorry you have had those experiences. To some extent, SEO is both art and science. There is snake oil out there, but there are also a lot of knowledgeable people. Feel free to ping me if you put another question here on the forum. I have over 20 years experience in IT, and I am a doctoral candidate. I'd be done if I hadn't started my own company! My academic background means I am happy to teach and do a certain amount of service work when I have a moment. (Moderators, please let me know if I am not allowed to say that; I'm still new to the forum. I'm happy to edit this response.) -- Jewel
-
Thanks again for replying, Jewel!
My site structure changed, yes, but I redirected all of the previously structured pages to the newly structured pages, like for like, ie:
(old structure) - thespacecollective.com/product/t-shirts
(new structure) - thespacecollective.com/t-shirts
This isn't the issue.
My issue is that the newly structured website wasn't built on a subdomain of thespacecollective.com, it was built on a completely different domain; thespacebazaar.com (and the latter website was, for some unknown reason, indexed by Google). My question was regarding thespacebazaar.com general redirect to thespacecollective.com.
I was worried that because Google indexed thespacebazaar.com (and subsequently all of its content) before it was transferred over to thespacecollective.com, would Google think thespacebazaar.com was the original author of the content and see thespacecollective.com as copying.
Also, thank you for looking at both websites and taking the time to see the differences.
The two sites are very similar (this was by design), and share around 50% of the same products. I am currently writing different descriptions and product titles for both sites so there are no content copying issues. So I don't think there would be any issues there (but again, thanks for checking).
As for performing an SEO audit...
I'm currently teaching myself SEO because everybody I have hired in the past has been terrible (and super expensive for the amount of work they have done). Essentially I am reading a lot, comparing my website to what I have read, and then making changes where necessary (sometimes asking for advise first). But I'll take a look at GTMetrix and SEOQuake, thank you!
I'll also take a look at your website, thank you!
-
Spacecollective,
You are welcome.
If I understand correctly, then, when the entire site structure changed, that left no way to redirect pages to similar or the same pages, because there aren't any? So that is why you have the generic redirect?
I think for usability, it is better safe then sorry to do 301 redirects. I agree, you made the right choice. I don't see this as a problem that will drag down your SEO. Google search engines do not penalize for 404s, so they should also not penalize for a generic 301 redirect, although it is not a good idea to do generic. The 404 issue with redirects is more one of a usability issue, than an SEO one. You don't want someone to hit a dead end on your site.
I looked at your two sites, and although they do have similar products, they each have a different address, and a different enough interface, that to my eye, they do not seem to be complete duplicates. So I think you are OK with that link to each other.
Have you performed a full SEO audit of your system to see what issues there are?
I took the liberty of of looking at both of your sites and running some quick tests.
There are things you can tweak on both of them. Try going to: GTMetrix.com and running your URL through. If you haven't already, add SEOQuake to your Chrome or Firefox browsers, go to the URLs for your sites, and you can see some of the errors you can fix that will help your SEO on the SEOQuake interface.
For example, your keywords describe your items, but they may not necessarily be how your users search to find those items. Also, look at: https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com -- your load speeds could be improved by optimizing your images.
To summarize, I think your SEO issues are not related to your 301 redirects and your link to your sister site. I see a variety of things that you can tweak and fix, and that should improve your SEO.
If you haven't done a full eval, I have a checklist on my business site that you are welcome to download (no email address required) and step through. I won't put the link here, as I don't want to be perceived as trying to sell my services or build backlinks to my site -- I'm trying to help you. But if you want to look at it, then search on my name or company, and you'll find it in the navigation bar under SERVICES. Also, I'm happy to answer any other questions related to your question in this thread.
-- Jewel
-
Thanks for the response, but here is where things get sketchy.
The domain the website was built on had no previous google rank (thespacebazaar.com), it was simply a building and website testing platform - yes, I understand that this type of thing is usually done on a sub-domain, but that wasn't the case here - but upon importing the new website design, the site structure completely changed and it was here where 301 redirects were put in place (going from the old thespacecollective.com to the new thespacecollective.com site).
I 301 redirected all of thespacebazaar.com links to thespacecollective.com, but since they had no SEO value I didn't know whether or not that was even necessary. If that makes more sense?
As for language, I only have the one language installed and there is no duplicate site for other languages.
-
The pages with the first domain name should be linked directly to the matching page of the new domain name, not to the generic home page. Having one generic page to which you are directing all old pages will affect your SEO, as far as I know. I do think the search engines prefer old url ==> new matching url, even though it is a pain in the rear to do when you have a large site.
I think the sister link ought to be OK, but are you using the href lang tag on both sites? Is one site the canonical site, or are they separate and equal?
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Best SEO practice for multiple languages in website
HI, We would like to include multiple languages for our global website. What's the best practice to gain from UI and SEO too. Can we have auto language choosing website as per browsing location? Or dedicated pages for important languages like www.website.com/de for German. If we go for latter, how about when users browsing beside language page as they will be usually in English
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | vtmoz0 -
How to de-index old URLs after redesigning the website?
Thank you for reading. After redesigning my website (5 months ago) in my crawl reports (Moz, Search Console) I still get tons of 404 pages which all seems to be the URLs from my previous website (same root domain). It would be nonsense to 301 redirect them as there are to many URLs. (or would it be nonsense?) What is the best way to deal with this issue?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Chemometec0 -
Website not ranking
Firstly, apologies for the long winded question. I'm 'newish' to SEO We have a website built on Magento , www.excelclothing.com We have been online for 5 years and had reasonable success. Having used a few SEO companies in the past we found ourselves under a 'partial manual penalty' early last year. By July we were out of penalty. We have been gradually working our way through getting rid of 'spammy' links. Currently the website ranks for a handful of non competitive keywords looking at the domain on SEM RUSH. This has dropped drastically over the last 2 years. Our organic traffic over the last 2-3 years has seen no 'falling off a cliff' and has maintained a similar pattern. I've been told so many lies by SEO companies trying to get into my wallet I'm not sure who to believe. We have started to add content onto all our Category pages to make more unique although most of our Meta Descriptions are a 'boiler plate' template. I'm wondering.... Am I still suffering from Penquin ? Am I trapped by Panda and if so how can I know that? Do I need more links removed? How can I start to rank for more keywords I have a competitor online with the same DA, PA and virtually same number of links but they rank for 3500 keywords in the top 20. Would welcome any feedback. Many Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wgilliland1 -
Website Redirection Issue
Hi All, Like to know is there any better way to do 301 redirection. My Client whose website name is Online Plants created with OpenCart. Over the period of time he added nearly 10,000's of products and now he is cleaning them ( by grouping similar attribute under one products) which is right way to do. For example , Product A with different size ( X,XL,XXL ) previously had 3 product entry ( A - X, A - XL, A - XXL ) , now he is moving all of them under one. So while moving he is deleting the other two entry. Now whats the best way to inform google . Putting a manual 301 redirection for each and every product is impossible as there are more products. Whats the best way to go ahead on this.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Verve-Innovation1 -
Redesigned Website
Hi, I have redesigned my website in html whereas it was in .asp earlier. I have resubmitted my google sitemap but it still showing me old site pages in search except home page. My question is how i can immediately change my web presence. How i can get the benefit of my .asp page ranks? In addition my website still alive with .asp. What should be the strategy, should i remove this websites or have to redirect all pages to new. If i make 301 redirection then will it cause any issue in SEO, ranking etc ? Thx
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 1akal0 -
Server cache and SEO
I have a question about server cache and seo. For example. www.chanel.com.cn , the server is in US, and uses China Cache to improve local Chinese users access speed, so what do you think this way will work for search engines spiders too? when a spider is crawlling the website, does the content it crawl on US server or China cache? what's best practice for those kind of SEO on server side? thanks Boson
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | topchinaseo0 -
SEO for Log in Sites
Hello, I just lunched a website where you have to sign up and to log in in order to use it. So I have the home, also a blog but then the rest of the pages are let's say it "hidden".How would you do the seo for it? I have been cheking facebook, foursquare and some others and they use different approaches. Facebook uses the same description in every single page for example. My site is similar to foursquare users have profile, stats, history, ranking. Well, what is your advice?? Thanks a lot
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | antorome0 -
SEO question
Hi i changed my page titles for a competitive keyword last week and noticed it has dropped 9 search engine ranking positions. Was ranking 37 and now it 46. Would you guys leave it and see if it starts creeping back up or change again? the page title i used was across my pages for example was Primary keyword | secondary keyword | Heading on page thanks for you help
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | wazza19850