Today for the first time I realised how changing the structure of a well ranked site affects your rankings. Let me just say that before you decide to design a website, and before you decide to go live with your amazing new site that’s SEO’d from head to toe, think, think, think and think again! Make 1000% sure that the structure you’re using is the one you want to stick with.
My site ranked in the TOP 10 for most of it’s industry related terms. I changed the structure of 2 section sof the site in other words, I moved two pages from one directory to another. My site rankings on 1 week dropped from TOP 10 to TOP 50.
What I did wrong:
I did not think about my site structure when first designing my site. Why?? Well I didn’t think I’d actually be able to compete in the industry that I compete in. Silly, I doubted myself but you learn. LESSON 1. Always make sure you know what structure you want and you stick to it throughout your site!
I moved the existing files to another directory and deleted the old ones from their original locations. I also changed all the internal links to point to the new page location. IDIOT!!!!! By removing the old files I lost all my PR form those pages i.e. 8 months of work down the drain. PLUS all the PR that I was giving other pages on my site from those pages dropped in the SERPS too. LESSON 2. When moving a site make sure that you redirect the page using a 302 redirect to your new page. This will ensure that PR is transferred to your new pages and your site rankings are not affected.
External links, those darn things that you work so hard to get. I lost all the incoming links to my site by not checking if there were incoming links. Incoming links and especially deep linking links are an essential part of your SEO strategy. LESSON 3. Make sure that all you incoming links to the old page are either changed to your new pages or that you use the 302 redirect explained above so that you don’t loose it all.
Those were my mistakes, I’ve learnt from them and decided to share them with Y’ALL!
If you could pleas shed some light or give us a little more information on what you’ve experienced please do so.
Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Specialists: Ivolution SEO
South Africa’s HOTTEST SEO Competition
I had a blonde moment and I’m new to WordPress so give me a break 
I created a new page and can’t link to it at the moment.
There’s an SEO Competition running for all South African SEO talents wanting to show off their expertise.
Come on in and check it out!
Ivolution SEO: R5000 SEO Talent Scout Competition
Some have called it Google on Speed. Some are calling it the Google Sundance, but it’s been bugging me for around a month now. My pages are jumping at a rate of knots and my rankings are changing daily. Then I read an article on my favourite site, http://www.site-reference.com. Google Everflux: Just What We Needed, Google on Speed!
Finally, an understanding to what’s been happening. For those of you who have been monitoring your rankings closely I’m sure you’re already up to speed with the “NEW” Google Everflux update. Google Everflux although not a new term in the SEO arena dating back to 2002 according to Site Reference’s article (Way before my time) was also referred to as the Google Shuffle. The Google Shuffle was an update that would occur every 3 to 4 months where Google would re-asses your site and change your rankings accordingly i.e you’d see new pages linking to your site PR changes etc…
Here comes the change, the “NEW” Google Everflux runs pretty much every day. I’ve noticed my pages dropping and climbing between 5 and 10 places almost hourly at times. According to certain articles this daily refresh of content is to help Google deliver more relevant news results and page results to searchers thereby trying to create more dynamic and fluid results.
So the question is, does this mean, that content has become KING again? Or does it just mean that your linking strategies now need to be updated daily? Personally, a good linking strategy (Jim Boykins - How to build links in 30 days) and well written content (constantly changing & constantly up to date) will keep your site top!
Ivolution SEO - South Africa’s Search Engine Optimization Specialists
It’s what I love about BLOGGING. I’ve mentioned this before and it’s a strategy that I love using for new clients. Start a blog build some quick PR and then use the BLOG to boost your site. I know alot of people out there are going to SLAM me by saying there are already millions of bulls$#%t blogs out there so stop spamming the web with crap but that’s not what I’m talking about…
I’m talking about people that use BLOGS to promote their new sites or business sites. It’s a fact that getting BLOG PR when using a BLOGGER or WORDPRESS blog is just that much easier quicker and it’s FUN!
So how do you get quick BLOG PR?
Register and BLOGGER or WORDPRESS Blog. Write 3 to 4 good articles a week for about a month. Submit your blog to a couple of BLOG directories such as MYBLOGLOG, BLOGFLUX or BLOGEXPLOSION, if you’re targeting a specific country for example South Africa, use a site like AMATOMU.com.
Browse the directories for a couple of BLOGS that are small new start-ups and contact them asking for a BLOGROLL link exchange. Possibly not the best practice but hey, it works and if you’re looking for a quick index it’s a must.
Create yourself a Google Webmaster account, sign-up for sitemaps & analytics. Get the stats up and running, sitemaps will only work if you’re hosting the blog account on a hosting server.
Last but not least, get your BLOGS submitted to some social networking sites such as DIGG, MUTI (South African), Del.icio.us and various others…
Give it a month or two and you’ll be flying with a nice little BLOG with PR2 or 3.
If it doesn’t work, sorry at least you tries something new
Welcome back everyone. I do apologise for the state of this BLOG at the moment but my WordPress skills are something of a pathetic. I’ve been using BLOGGER for ages and I love it, but I was politely advised 
by ALL that WordPress for SEO is a must. So, I’m slow at getting this BLOG off but give me some time….
Anyways, I came across a lovely little tool for all you SEO freaks out there. It’s called LinkTiger. There are 2 versions to this product as all good SEO tools should have, a free one, yes, the magic word, FREE SEO TOOL and a paid one. The free version allows you to check one website weekly for broken links. The paid, well there’s not limit to the power of this link checker.
As you all know, broken links in SEO is a no go and in terms of success rates in search engine, well it makes sense that a site with broken links, is just not a site worth crawling for anyone. Plus broken links look crap and drive people away from your site. With LinkTiger you’ll no longer have that problem. It’s check internal links, external links and images. Anything that’s out of the ordinary it’ll spit out at you. What’s amazing about this little tool as well is that it allows you too see crawl rates and speeds. It’s a brilliant a priceless tool.
Check it out, even if you use the free version, it’s worth it!
Not sure if anyones noticed but there’s been a lot of movement on the Google rankings in the last 4 or 5 days. Anybond felt any ripples in Google land?
