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Rebuilding Ranked Site with .html Permalinks

by dons
3 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Hi,

I was asked today to rebuild a local business site that is ranking on page 2 for its main keyword term.

The site is entirely html and has this permalink structure on every page/post: www.yourdomain.yourpostname.html

The only thing that is ranking for the keyword is the url: www.yourdomain.com

I have two questions: 1 am I to assume that the www.yourdomain.com is a page with a .html extension that I can't see?

For Seo purposes should I add the .html to each post as it currently is via the wordpress permalink structure?

* please note, while I have ranked many business for local keywords using wordpress sites I am by no means a web designer and I have never re-created a website with .html after each page with rankings that matter.

Thanks for any and all feed back.
#html #permalinks #ranked #rebuilding #site
  • Profile picture of the author yukon
    Banned
    Originally Posted by dons View Post

    Hi,

    I was asked today to rebuild a local business site that is ranking on page 2 for its main keyword term.

    The site is entirely html and has this permalink structure on every page/post: www.yourdomain.yourpostname.html

    The only thing that is ranking for the keyword is the url: www.yourdomain.com

    I have two questions: 1 am I to assume that the www.yourdomain.com is a page with a .html extension that I can't see?

    For Seo purposes should I add the .html to each post as it currently is via the wordpress permalink structure?

    * please note, while I have ranked many business for local keywords using wordpress sites I am by no means a web designer and I have never re-created a website with .html after each page with rankings that matter.

    Thanks for any and all feed back.

    If it's an HTML site, each page will have a .html file extension, including the home page whether you see it in the browser or not, the file type still exist.

    Make sure you do an exact 301 redirect from each individual .html URL to the correct Wordpress URL.

    You don't need the old .html file extension on the new wordpress pages, just make sure the 301 redirects are correct, test each redirect/URL in another browser (incognito) to verify they work. Also, run Screaming Frog on the new Wordpress site when your finished to double check there's no broken links (404s).

    I would also submit an xml file to WMT (Webmaster Tools) to get Google back on the new pages/URLs so they can self correct the SERPs. Also, at least Fetch as Google inside WMT for the new Wordpress home page URL, robots.txt URL & again for the xml sitemap URL.

    Again, get those 301 redirects correct or you'll tank any currently ranked pages in Google SERPs.
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    • Profile picture of the author dons
      Originally Posted by yukon View Post

      If it's an HTML site, each page will have a .html file extension, including the home page whether you see it in the browser or not, the file type still exist.

      Make sure you do an exact 301 redirect from each individual .html URL to the correct Wordpress URL.

      You don't need the old .html file extension on the new wordpress pages, just make sure the 301 redirects are correct, test each redirect/URL in another browser (incognito) to verify they work. Also, run Screaming Frog on the new Wordpress site when your finished to double check there's no broken links (404s).

      I would also submit an xml file to WMT (Webmaster Tools) to get Google back on the new pages/URLs so they can self correct the SERPs. Also, at least Fetch as Google inside WMT for the new Wordpress home page URL, robots.txt URL & again for the xml sitemap URL.

      Again, get those 301 redirects correct or you'll tank any currently ranked pages in Google SERPs.

      Thanks for the reply Yukon.

      Can I trust this to a plugin? Or does it need to be done via the .htacess file?
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  • Profile picture of the author webdevpro
    If there are lots of pages .htaccess will be a better choice and for just a few pages you can use a nice redirection plugin.
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