Will I get my rankings back? Design guys REALLY messed up

Banned 8 years ago

Google ranked the old URLs so without doing a 301 redirect to each exact URL you won't rank any pages. The old/existing backlinks point to the old URLs (.php).

My advice is switch back to the old URLs (site backup) and hire someone else before these clowns screw up everything. This (don't mess with ranked URLs) is basic SEO they should have known (If they knew what they were doing).

Ranked positions on Google search can be recovered but you better do it ASAP. I've recovered sites that were offline for a week, took about 3 weeks for everything to settle back down into the old ranked positions.

Thanks

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garyisonline

8 years ago

It's not that the were ding-dongs, it's just they haven't completed the project. So it depends on how you want to go about it, and ~how~ many is many - when you're talking pages and rankings. But you (or somebody) can fix it pretty easily inside of the .htaccess file.

You can either make each post request rewrite back into the .php file extension so it matches the Googs. (Not my first choice)

Or do a Google search for site:yourdomain.com to get a list of all the pages Google has indexed. Then do a 301 redirect for each of the old-page.php to its corresponding /new-page/ . But I would do it lickety split. If you have a bunch you can do them in a spreadsheat. It's faster.

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yukon

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by garyisonline

It's not that the were ding-dongs, it's just they haven't completed the project.

Nonsense, they're idiots for butchering ranked page/s URLs. That's an SEO 101 fail.

Even If someone knows SEO and how to 301 redirect a URL it's still a crap shoot (50/50) chance the page will drop back into the old ranked SERP position.

Only a moron would sabotage a ranked webpage just to get rid of .php from the URL.

Party on...

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garyisonline

8 years ago

Have done 301 mapping routinely. It's standard SEO safe procedure. Sites migrate to new (better) platforms all the time. Never have lost a ranking, ever. But have improved them several times. Google's pretty smart, and solid rankings tend to stick.

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yukon

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by garyisonline

Have done 301 mapping routinely. It's standard SEO safe procedure. Sites migrate to new (better) platforms all the time. Never have lost a ranking, ever. But have improved them several times. Google's pretty smart, and solid rankings tend to stick.

Really?

Your first comment was backing up nitwits suggesting they just didn't have time to finish the job (nonsense).

Changing a URL for a ranked page just to get rid of a .php extension is stupid. You'll need a better reason than .php. My point earlier was to do a 301 If needed. This was clearly a case for bad decisions on OPs part for hiring half wits.

Besides the URL has nothing to do with page speed which was the original OP goal.

I hired my design guys to make changes to my site so that it would load quicker.

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Mike Anthony

8 years ago

Originally Posted by garyisonline

Have done 301 mapping routinely. It's standard SEO safe procedure. Sites migrate to new (better) platforms all the time. Never have lost a ranking, ever. But have improved them several times. Google's pretty smart, and solid rankings tend to stick.

He doesn't know what you are talking about but will never admit it. technology specific endings to pages is bad architecture in the 21st century and can be fixed/removed server side by configuration. Thats probably what the designer was doing. designers are hired to design not to be your SEO.

The idea that because you used a system that had php endings you can never change and must stay with that is preposterous. Companies change technology stacks all the time

Thanks

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paulgl

8 years ago

Originally Posted by garyisonline

It's not that the were ding-dongs, it's just they haven't completed the project.

Yeah. Sure. Keep believing that.

No real person doing a web "project" like that...would ever take it live until it was finished. The old site would have been left alone, then switched over effortlessly and seamlessly.

All sites do major updates. They don't do it in broken pieces. They debug it. They test it. A lot. And if something goes wrong when it does go live, in seconds the old one is in place as they rework is.

Paul

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If you were disappointed in your results today, lower your standards tomorrow.

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yukon Banned 8 years ago

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- Mike Anthony 8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by yukon
  
  Exactly, and nobody should be letting web designers like Mike Ahole do SEO on a site, especially with pages already ranked.
  
  I don't do web design eternally silly. I thought about reporting your name calling but think it better to just leave it as a great example of your vast immaturity.
  
  when you do SEO for anything but your own piddling site you might know something about how company designers work with SEOs but on that subject you are presently way out of your depth
  
  Oh... the website looks so pretty, it must be SEO. Fail.
  
  another pretty silly sentiment. A website's success is not all about SEO neither does anyone believe pretty makes for SEO. However a good designer can increase viewer retention, increase close rates and encourage repeat visits. Thats why many companies will find the best designer without reference to SEO and hire a SEO to work with them .. Again TOTALLY out of your depth.
  
  In this case the designers may ultimately end up helping the OP increase revenue with a good design.
  
  Thanks
  
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  yukon Banned 8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Mike Anthony
  
  I don't do web design eternally silly.
  
  Are you calling it SEO today?
  
  Here, you're looking for this sub-forum...
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Mike Anthony 8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by yukon
  
  Exactly, and nobody should be letting web designers like Mike Ahole do SEO on a site, especially with pages already ranked.
  
  Originally Posted by yukon
  
  Are you calling it SEO today?
  
  Here, you're looking for this sub-forum...
  
  I'm not even mildly surprised by your lack of reading comprehension. I stated I had worked with web designers not that I was one. Anyone else having a problem understanding the difference can hire a 6 year old that will explain it to them.
  
  but please Yukon continue making a fool of yourself. I enjoy it immensely
  
  Thanks
  
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Mike Anthony

8 years ago

Originally Posted by paulgl

Yeah. Sure. Keep believing that.

No real person doing a web "project" like that...would ever take it live until it was finished. The old site would have been left alone, then switched over effortlessly and seamlessly.

All sites do major updates. They don't do it in broken pieces. They debug it. They test it.

Very true which is why I said don't let them off the hook for that but making a mistake (which could have happened by taking on too much work and cutting corners)doesn't make a person a moron especially if they have a track record of 9 years doing good work. I didn't see gary excusing that but merely explaining what might have happened

Originally Posted by David C.

Thank you guys, yes, I feel bad calling them morons.... good point Mike. It was a mistake... still scared to remove the .php at the end right now.... .

Well since they put it back I would just leave it anyway (unless the urls besides the php extensions are dirty)as it suits your needs. I was just explaining where the designers heads were at. Any future site you do though should stay away from extensions like that. It gives you a lot more flexibility

Thanks

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Sunny Apps

8 years ago

@garyisonline is right...

It's better to crawl the old URL to new URL by 301 and start slight SEO for new URLs.

It takes time to get back your ranking but not much..

Thanks

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David C.

8 years ago

Yukon,

I'm in agreement with you on this one.

Leave the .php on the url exactly as it was when ranking, and don't play with it. Whatever benefit there would have been from removing .php has to be minimal.

I've known these guys 9 years plus, and they've always done good work on my site, but this was a completely moronic move, which I've severely chewed them out for... need to spell everything out slowly and methodically to developers / designers, if not they do some bonehead stuff sometimes.

Sadly, ALL of my damn indexed pages have gone off of Google. Yesterday they added the .php back to the urls... and urls are getting to where they need to go, rather than redirecting... so you believe there's hope? I'd say it's been about 3 or 4 days since all pages have been deindexed....

Thanks

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David C.

8 years ago

What benefits are there to removing the php? Any articles to refer me to regarding this?

Thanks
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Mike Anthony 8 years ago

Originally Posted by David C.

What benefits are there to removing the php? Any articles to refer me to regarding this?

that depends on the site. was this an old site that didn't have "clean urls"?

https://www.woorank.com/en/blog/guid...-and-usability

If so the designer was bringing you into the modern world as the "dirty urls are not good for SEO (however the extension of .php is not what "dirties" a url). Some point to added security particularly on an older site

PHP: Hiding PHP - Manual

but in general the trend is toward not using tech specific extensions. We are presently building a service in php and it has no such extension. What Gary was trying to explain and was going over Yukons head is that the error was in not setting up the site to "map" properly not just removing the php - in your OP you stated everything was redirecting to the home page. THAT is the bigger issue and he was indicating that perhaps they were just not done.

One thing is certain regardless - the designers were following the trend and future proofing your site in removing .php extensions as the programming world is moving away and mostly has moved away from tech specific extensions. If you grow and want to change platforms you will never ever have to worry about extensions because nothing is moving toward keeping them in the future.

So cut them some slack on that but not on not finishing the job - I know one thing if I have a designer I have used for 9 YEARS and they have been good - THATS GOLD - so I would not be calll them morons and be chewing them out to the point it destroys our relationship.

Having done SEO for quite a few companies I have had many situations where I worked with a designer as an SEO. The designers for those companies were not even expected to be SEOs. So if this was an oversight on their part deal with it of course but know they were following the trend design/architecture wise.

Doing so does NOT make them morons
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3wCorner

8 years ago

Takes time to get your traffic back. SEO wise, your url should have keywords in it and not end with .php . Use custom permalinks. You can do this by editing your .htaccess file.

Have your website responsive, they should edit only your css files and your classes and IDs on your php files.

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David C.

8 years ago

Thank you guys, yes, I feel bad calling them morons.... good point Mike. It was a mistake... still scared to remove the .php at the end right now.... site has taken a massive hit. If I had not gone off on them, thinking about it, I should have just let the non .php results rank, as they will probably take just as long now... but can't do this now.

Good info though guys, as usual.

Thanks

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hipeopo02

8 years ago

"damn this PHP extension!"

*rank drops*

that PHP extension is looking better and better now I bet

Also page load time isn't that big of a deal. Most web "design" is a crock of shit any way.

Here's what matters:

Content
Links

everything else is bullshit.

Thanks

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A crappy product or service by people that disappear from the forum for a long period of time to make it look like they were working on something so when they come back you will want to click on their crappy product or service link

CLICK HERE! LOL

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David C.

8 years ago

Okay gents, let's play nice lol.

Still going to have to go with Yukon and Paul on this, it was unexcusable... I had 566 pages indexed, down to 38... they screwed up big time.

But Mike, you're right, will not call them morons.

"damn this PHP extension!"

*rank drops*

that PHP extension is looking better and better now I bet

Also page load time isn't that big of a deal. Most web "design" is a crock of shit any way.

Here's what matters:

Content
Links

everything else is bullshit.

Have to agree with you on this.

Thanks for all the help guys... now I just have to sit here with my fingers crossed, hoping my star results come back....

Thanks
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Mike Anthony 8 years ago

Originally Posted by David C.

Okay gents, let's play nice lol.

Still going to have to go with Yukon and Paul on this, it was unexcusable...

And I will have to go with Gary and others including Paul on the testing part- the only thing inexcusable was redirecting everything to the home page. Totally different issue from removing the php extension.

and you will be fine. the content and links are the same so you will gain it back and maybe even improve if content elements were more optimized.
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- yukon Banned 8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Mike Anthony
  
  I'm not even mildly surprised
  
  ...do people still talk with you in general?
  
  Lolz, that was so funny (still funny).
  
  What made it so funny is the guy barely knows you, ha, ha and nailed it without even trying.
  
  Thanks
  
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  Mike Anthony 8 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by yukon
  
  What made it so funny is the guy barely knows you.
  
  Your record on not knowing anything is impressive and getting longer poor wannabe guru. "The guy" and i have had multiple disagreements for months and at any rate he is pretty much the universally accepted clown making up all kinds of stories about himself (and obviously a former permanently banned member)
  
  That he is your hero really says it all.....lol
  
  and nailed it without even trying.
  
  How so? He said "do people still talk to you" and you always do. So you are not a person?
  
  ROFL...I can live with that confession.
  
  Thanks
  
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  George Schwab 8 years ago
  
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smurugappan01

8 years ago

I have made some mistakes linking to other places on reddit for citations and apparently that's a no-no. My bad. So I have to rewrite this because it's somewhat relevant that I get it out. Let's keep this on point: why rating won't mean anything in S6 and why that's a bad thing for everyone.

Thanks

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yukon

Banned 8 years ago

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George Schwab 8 years ago

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David C.

8 years ago

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Mike Anthony

8 years ago

Originally Posted by David C.

I told them yesterday, with urgent subject line, and same bullshit... "we didn't do that", they even had the nerve to ask me if someone else was working on my site. Sick of this crap. They said they'll take a look at it on Monday... three more days of the wrong urls.

Yeah - they sound like they have an intern on it. Have no idea what the slash is about. That part is definitely moronic. Looks like your 9 year run with them is over.

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David C.

8 years ago

Update guys. After being completely de-indexed in google due to the issue mentioned above, I added back the .php, removed the slash (thanks to someone who wishes to remain nameless), and all of my rankings have returned! I'd say it was about a week or so after everything was returned to normal in the urls.

Even my top ranking blogs are back in place. I have written a few posts since then, and shared a few top posts on social media, but all in all, Google is one smart beast.

DO NOT change your urls without proper redirects in place first. Ever.

Thanks guys.

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yukon

Banned 8 years ago

Originally Posted by David C.

Update guys. After being completely de-indexed in google due to the issue mentioned above, I added back the .php, removed the slash (thanks to someone who wishes to remain nameless), and all of my rankings have returned! I'd say it was about a week or so after everything was returned to normal in the urls.

Even my top ranking blogs are back in place. I have written a few posts since then, and shared a few top posts on social media, but all in all, Google is one smart beast.

DO NOT change your urls without proper redirects in place first. Ever.

Thanks guys.

I tried to tell you at the start of the thread to switch back to the old URLs ASAP before the yahoos jumped into the thread blasting nonsense.

When Google ranks a webpage everything hinges on the exact URL they ranked (plain text, internal links, external links, etc...).

Redirects (301s) are possible but in your case didn't make sense just for the sake of removing a .php extension from ranked page/s URLs. That was totally unnecessary.

Most web designers do not have a clue how to rank pages. That isn't a rip on web designers, it's just not their business. Designers make things pretty. Pretty doesn't rank pages on Google SERPs.

Anyways, good to hear the pages recovered.

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Mike Anthony 8 years ago

Originally Posted by yukon

I tried to tell you at the start of the thread to switch back to the old URLs ASAP before the yahoos jumped into the thread blasting nonsense..

Yet another demonstration that you only know how to chat and post forum messages. One of your so called Yahoos was the one that actually fixed the site for the OP (thanks for the beer money David glad it all worked out for you. I was glad to help out on my day off).

The problem was the designers were attempting to use only the WP admin panel to change the extension rather than an actual redirect (at least thats all we saw). They might still be great designers but SUCK at understanding server side issues. So despite your name calling ( a habit with you) Gary's point still stands . It can be done in away that doesn't have those effects. These guys didn't even try to do it the right way.

Even a few of the redirect errors were not true redirect errors but a slouchy cache system that was not updating the new urls (or in some cases even new posts)

When Google ranks a webpage everything hinges on the exact URL they ranked ).

Meaningless nonsense. changing a urls extension may cause a temporary shuffle but the extension .php .html etc have NOTHING to do with ranking. You can change those and with the right server side setup get the same juice and rank. Do a little business SEO and come back to talk
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MikeFriedman

8 years ago

Glad to hear this worked out for you. It sounds like your initial description of the web design guys was spot on.

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Will I get my rankings back? Design guys REALLY messed up

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