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Making Huge Changes To A High Ranking Page

by packerfan
6 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Disclaimer: This turned out to be way longer than expected. Sorry, and thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

I have a site that started as an MFA site back when I knew way less than I do now.

The homepage of the site ranks #4 for a pretty tough keyword.
homepage/another keyword - ranks #2 for a pretty tough keyword
homepage/another keyword - ranks #3 for a pretty tough keyword

The site has another 50 or so pages/posts.

There is a ton of randomness to the architecture. Like I said, I didn't know much.

Fast forward to today. I'm going to redesign the site and change how it monetized.

A little about how the site is structured.

The current homepage is a 2,000ish word article.

I have tons of random navigation that makes no sense. (Literally have a list of every post and post in the WP side bar)

</background information>

What I Want To Do:

I want to turn the homepage into more of a traditional homepage. Not a place where they come to read an article about the keyword.

Then I'm going to re categorize the posts, etc.
I'm planning on just leaving the other two high ranking pages alone. They are serving their purpose.

My Kinda Sorta Plan

Does anyone have any experience with this?

My plan right now is provide plenty of text on the homepage, but it won't in the form of an article. Here's an image of how I plan to provide the text, and navigation.

(i forgot to mention I'm a graphic design wizard. I can make a image like this in photoshop for you less than $500)



Anyway, I will probably have maybe 8-10 of these type boxes.

One might be for articles, one for training videos, etc...

However, I'm not going to be sticking 500 words of text in each one.

So some questions...

1. If I manage to get 500-1000 words of text in those category boxes (combined) that still make it obvious my page is about the Keyword, will that be enough to help maintain the ranking?

2. Since I'll be changing a lot of the URLs, should I do 301 redirects from the old to new?

3. Any other advice?

I know Pat Flynn did something similar to this with his security guard site, and his rankings did not suffer as a result. Unfortunately my keyword is a little more competitive so I'm not sure what's going to happen.
#high #huge #making #page #ranking
  • Profile picture of the author Talen
    I would definitely 301 all the changes to the urls...

    The homepage could be a tricky one though. I don't know if I would want to move what has you ranking well. Maybe you can use a theme where you can do what you want with boxes and then below that keep the original text. Sort of like a magazine style theme.
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    • Profile picture of the author packerfan
      Originally Posted by Talen View Post

      I would definitely 301 all the changes to the urls...

      The homepage could be a tricky one though. I don't know if I would want to move what has you ranking well. Maybe you can use a theme where you can do what you want with boxes and then below that keep the original text. Sort of like a magazine style theme.
      I thought about that, and I might, but it kills the credibility of the site IMO. I'm going to be selling relatively high priced training stuff on the site, and potentially offering consulting, etc.

      The article, while good, just doesn't belong on the page. But maybe I can figure out a way that makes sense.
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  • Profile picture of the author Megyn
    Banned
    Look you may start the Google dance again as it happened when I made changes to an established site I puchased off of Flippa, however, it comes back stronger if done right.
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  • Profile picture of the author serenin221
    This is an interesting renovation. Redesign a well established website will definitely change the SERP of the page especially when there’s a major URL links changes so I really wonder if changing the links is a good decision. However, like how Megyn said, if your changes is done correctly, maybe the changes will give you positive effects.
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    • Profile picture of the author packerfan
      Originally Posted by serenin221 View Post

      This is an interesting renovation. Redesign a well established website will definitely change the SERP of the page especially when there's a major URL links changes so I really wonder if changing the links is a good decision. However, like how Megyn said, if your changes is done correctly, maybe the changes will give you positive effects.
      Not changing the links isn't an option. The site is currently structured like an 11 year old did it. It's a total mess. I still don't know what I'm gonna do. If the darn home page wasn't ranking so high for the keyword I'd just do it. But this isn't in a niche like quilting, I'm up against a little competition at least.
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  • Profile picture of the author MiFortuna
    If you are using google analytics check how the traffic on your site flows. Make sure that whatever it is that people are clicking on remain on the homepage. You also need to study the links on the top fold of the page. These will be the most important links on your site. There are so many other factors though that no one is going to be able to answer you with 100% certainty.
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