Re: Best way to update a site while minimizing downtime
I've found that implementing a few changes at a time will significantly reduce the "shock" you referred to. Here's what I did on a couple of sites, one of which is an ecommerce site, the other, a busy payroll services site.
Given that you've got months before it's all complete, there's no better time than the present to get started. The longer it takes to complete, the less significant the impact will be.
Here's how you can complete your site redesign without getting dropped out of the SERPs:
*These recommendations are based on my personal experiences, so take that for what you feel it's worth. I'm not saying this is the only way or the best way to implement a site redesign, this is simply a basic guide outlining what I did and what worked for me.*
Changing the header and footer first, allows you to implement some major changes in terms of document layout without incurring a significant hit to your current positions in the SERPs.
Don't make any changes to the meta tags or page titles at this stage. Try to focus your efforts on implementing the basic "look and feel" update including your CSS stylesheet. You'll likely need to create a "crossover" version that incorporates elements of the old and new sites, but it won't be much of an issue as you move through to completing the overhaul.
With these changes have been implemented, submit a new sitemap and wait for the spiders to hit your site.
When that's had a week or so to propagate through the SE's, focus on changing the navigation system. Don't add or delete any pages and don't change the link text if you don't have to. Again, submit a new sitemap and wait a week or so for the spiders to visit and for these changes to propagate.
At this point, you'll have significantly changed your code structure without making any changes to the content, link text, page titles or headings. In my experience, I actually found it improved my rankings because the code was better structured, which helped improve "spiderability".
So, with the basic site design CSS stylesheet and new navigation system in place, you can start modifying some content. First, update the page content, page titles, page headings and links that will be least likely to impact your results in the SERPs.
Your "About Us", "Contact Us", "Privacy Policy", "Shipping Policy", "Warranty" and "Terms of Use" pages would be good candidates. If you've got a link directory page, you might want to go ahead and update that as well. Just try to restrict major redesigns to pages that receive little traffic and that don't carry much Page Rank. When you've completed these changes, submit a new sitemap and give the changes time to propagate.
At this point you might want to focus solely on completing your home page update, going as far as you can in terms of navigation changes, without modifying URLS to your existing content. At this point, you should probably update your Meta tags, description, keywords and page title. This is where you're most likely to see the most significant changes in the SERPs, so be mindful of that if you're planning to change the home page title.
There's no need at this point to resubmit a sitemap at this point because you it's a pretty safe bet that your homepage is going to get indexed. In addition, you won't have made any additional changes to any other pages during this particular phase.
Again, give that a week or two to propagate and keep an eye on your rankings in the SERPs and check your site stats or Webmaster tools for spidering errors, 404's and the like. After you're sure the site has been spidered and the pages have been indexed, go ahead and start modifying your product pages.
As best you can, try to leave the categories and subcategories hierarchy intact for now. Try to visualize the categories as parent folders, the sub categories as subfolders containing the products and sub products inside them. Make changes to the smallest pieces of the puzzle first and work your way up the chain.
At this point, complete the layouts to the final product pages, add/remove products and implement any required 301's as required. Create a new sitemap, submit it and wait a week or two for the changes to propagate.
With that done, go ahead and change your categories as required, add/remove URLS and implement any required 301's to your new pages. Create and submit a new sitemap and again, give the SE's some time for the changes to propagate.
At this point you'll have updated your site layout, meta tags, CSS file, javascripts, contact and policy pages, links page, home page, your product pages and categories. You'll have added and removed products, manufacturers, categories, subcategories, page titles, page headings and link text and Google will love the fact that you're constantly updating and improving the site.
With the 301's in place, you will retain page rank and uninterrupted traffic, plus your users won't have suffered much inconvenience at all.
As I said, this worked for me and helped minimize the impact that an overwhelming site overhaul can have on your rankings in the SERPs.
Good Luck.
Last edited by Dubbya : 04-10-2008 at 10:54 AM.
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