Converting Static to MM5 :: SEO, 404, 301?

[HGordon]

I've got a client who has purchased a static e-commerce site (about 200 pages) that's been around for more than 10 years and has top ten placement in Google on most relevant keyword phrases.

While she's pleased with her content, she wants a new look and an easier way to deal with her inventory, so we're considering MM5 which I've been using for about 4 years now.

My main SEO concern is preserving her rankings and not deliver a bunch of 404's while giving her all the enhancements she wants. Aside from the obvious sitemap submissions, is an .htaccess file with 301's the best method? Also, what is the best way to handle the duplicate content?

[Biffy]

Re: Converting Static to MM5 :: SEO, 404, 301?

First off, a website that well established should not have any drastic surgery done to it. You'll need to kinda "sneak" Miva in with minimum impact. Yeah, it's hard but the consequences of a total makeover would be bad, maybe very bad, possibly disastrous.

Do not re-submit that site with sitemaps. You'll regret it.

My advice is no, don't use 301 redirects. Add links to Miva into the existing pages. Do not add a sitemap and do not re-index the site. Leave as small a footprint as possible while implementing the upgrade.

After all, it's only the under-the-hood features the client really wants so keep your work under the hood, too.

[HGordon]

Plot Thickens

I've had a better look at their product pages and they've got a cgi cart installed called UShop

They did not mention this to me and it certainly complicates matters further as the product URL's are nice long messy things including the call to the cgi script. I looked into the cart script wondering if it had inventory capability, which it does not.

I was hoping that these product and category pages had poor placement but this is not the case. They are consistently at the top of the list.

Any thoughts on this latest snag? And yes, "possibly disastrous" lingers in the front of my mind.

[Biffy]

Re: Converting Static to MM5 :: SEO, 404, 301?

That would be a real problem, especially for a large store.

You're on Linux/Apache?

Okay, here's a wild idea. With only 200 pages it won't be too hard to do.

First, do a comprehensive backlink check, not the Google one, but a full list of all backlinks.

Run a complete Miva store parallel with the static site. Run both stores at the same time on the same domain.

Then one by one start 301 redirecting the backlinks. Go slow and keep an eye on Google every step of the way.

Once you get all the backlinks 301 redirected, then start deleting the CGI URLs one by one, very very slowly, giving Google ample time to index the new pages without getting a page-churn penalty.

In the end you'll have a pure Miva site with a lot of old backlinks being 301'd. Run a backlink report from time to time (monthly, quarterly) and delete any 301s that aren't used anymore. All new backlinks should be to the new Miva content. For some critical old backlinks request they replace it with a new URL.

It might take 6 months and longer to do this. The client won't like the delay but it's financially far better than losing their Google rankings on a fast upgrade. Just be glad it's not 35,000 products in 1200 categories!

I hope someone has a better idea than this.

[Pete McNamara]

Re: Converting Static to MM5 :: SEO, 404, 301?

With 200 pages you shouldn't have to go as far as that. What is important is to write individual 301s - i.e. from product12 old url to product12 new url i.e. not general rewrites i.e. from old style url to new style url. This will minimize the amount of time it takes for Google and other search engines to understand and follow your new linking structure. Individual rewrites would be a very big job if you had hundreds of categories and thousands of products, but you don't.

However, one issue you haven't addressed is the incoming links to the old pages. The vast majority will be links from other pages in your site so those won't be a problem but the balance will come from external sources.

Run that comprehensive backlink check as Biffy suggested, determine the external inbound links then you'll need to get those sites linking to your pages, to change their links to the new ones.