Good everything everyone!
I’m about to change my website’s whole theme and design.
Will this hurt my SEO and rankings in any way? Is there a safe way to
Good everything everyone!
I’m about to change my website’s whole theme and design.
Will this hurt my SEO and rankings in any way? Is there a safe way to
depending on how old the site is and how many visitors you have you may want to consider a staging site - ask support to create one for you...
once you have changed it all on the staging site then you can 'move' it across to your main site....
personally i would keep a copy of the old style, if you visitor numbers drop rapidly then you can restore the old version....
but you will get a drop as it is a change for your visitors - for seo it really doesn't matter as the site is not for seo but mainly for visitors....you probably will see a drop, but hopefully it will recover....
I asked support and they already created a clone for my website. I changed everything there.
How should I proceed from now on? And how can I keep a copy of my old design?
if you ask sitesupport for a backup of your main site then this will be a copy of what is there at the moment....
then go into websites>>sitemanager and use the 'move ' feature on the site you want to move to your main site...
select the site you want the content moved to ....
you will get a warning that you are going to overwrite all of the content on your site....
so if you are happy with the new design then click ok and it will take upto 24 hours to move the content across...
Thank you!
I’m just curious- changing the theme and all settings manually won’t be faster to do? My website has around 5-20 daily visits so it’s not that big.
I mean without creating a new staging website and moving the content.
See more comments
Hey WA community!
I have a situation here. I have two articles on the same topic, the first I have set as canonical so there won't be any SEO issues. The second article
if you don;t know how to do a redirect here are some instructions for both a manual way and a plugin. To set up a redirect in WordPress in the simplest way, you can either use a plugin or edit the .htaccess file.
If you prefer using a plugin, log in to your WordPress dashboard, go to the Plugins section, and click Add New. Search for a plugin called Redirection. Once you find it, click Install Now, then Activate. After the plugin is activated, go to the Tools section in your dashboard and select Redirection. Follow the setup steps by clicking Start Setup and Finish Setup. Once you’re on the Add Redirect screen, enter the URL you want to redirect from in the Source URL field and the URL you want to redirect to in the Target URL field. Then click Add Redirect. Your redirect is now active.
If you’re comfortable working with files, you can edit the .htaccess file instead. Access the file using an FTP client or your hosting provider’s file manager. Locate the .htaccess file in the root of your WordPress installation. Open the file and add a line like this at the bottom: [removed] /old-page /new-page. Replace /old-page with the URL path of the old page and /new-page with the new page path. Save the file and test the old URL to make sure it redirects to the new one.
Using a plugin is the easiest method, especially if you’re not familiar with file editing. Let me know if you need further assistance.
Thank you, Catherine! Sorry for the late reply.
I will definitely do this. I have more removed articles that need to redirect. Honestly I didn’t know that.
Checked with GSC and found out I had 24 pages with 404 not found lol.
That’s why I never see anything from Google. Bing likes me tho.
How long it takes google to see that I have fixed the pages and start indexing them?
Hey Nikolay,
If you should decide to delete ONE of the two posts once you've merged them, please make sure to add a REDIRECT to the title of the post you will be deleting.
Google doesn't like broken links in their search results, so they punish sites who delete posts/pages and do NOT provide a redirect.
I learned THAT lesson the hard way a few years ago now.
Hope you find this helpful.
Thank you, Trish!
I didn’t know that.. I have more removed old articles I need to redirect asap.
Maybe that’s why Google hates me. When will they “lift” the penalty?
It took my site 6 months or more to recover from my bad.
BUT...
Google is now changing their algorithms more often... so, do fix a.s.a.p. so to gain that advantage.
I hope your site recovers faster than mine did. Though some of my issue was trying to find out what happened to cause my drop in rank.
That part took too long and trying to remember each of the URLs of posts that I deleted was totally impossible for me.
In GSC there are 24 pages that are marked as 404 not found. I guess I can redirect those links to the main page?
Sounds like you've done what I did years ago...
Google asks that you redirect to a similar or related topic rather than simply to your main (loading or home) page.
Where the content has simply been deleted, I would say "yes" to adding a redirect of an old post to your blog roll.
Yes, you can merge to steer away from promoting duplicate content. Please redirect as Dale suggested.
Happy Holidays!
Maxine :)
You can merge them without any issues if they're covering a similar topic, just be sure to redirect the 1 you take down to the new one.
See more comments
Is it okay to merge two articles?
Hey WA community!
I have a situation here. I have two articles on the same topic, the first I have set as canonical so there won't be any SEO issues. The second article
if you don;t know how to do a redirect here are some instructions for both a manual way and a plugin. To set up a redirect in WordPress in the simplest way, you can either use a plugin or edit the .htaccess file.
If you prefer using a plugin, log in to your WordPress dashboard, go to the Plugins section, and click Add New. Search for a plugin called Redirection. Once you find it, click Install Now, then Activate. After the plugin is activated, go to the Tools section in your dashboard and select Redirection. Follow the setup steps by clicking Start Setup and Finish Setup. Once you’re on the Add Redirect screen, enter the URL you want to redirect from in the Source URL field and the URL you want to redirect to in the Target URL field. Then click Add Redirect. Your redirect is now active.
If you’re comfortable working with files, you can edit the .htaccess file instead. Access the file using an FTP client or your hosting provider’s file manager. Locate the .htaccess file in the root of your WordPress installation. Open the file and add a line like this at the bottom: [removed] /old-page /new-page. Replace /old-page with the URL path of the old page and /new-page with the new page path. Save the file and test the old URL to make sure it redirects to the new one.
Using a plugin is the easiest method, especially if you’re not familiar with file editing. Let me know if you need further assistance.
Thank you, Catherine! Sorry for the late reply.
I will definitely do this. I have more removed articles that need to redirect. Honestly I didn’t know that.
Checked with GSC and found out I had 24 pages with 404 not found lol.
That’s why I never see anything from Google. Bing likes me tho.
How long it takes google to see that I have fixed the pages and start indexing them?
Hey Nikolay,
If you should decide to delete ONE of the two posts once you've merged them, please make sure to add a REDIRECT to the title of the post you will be deleting.
Google doesn't like broken links in their search results, so they punish sites who delete posts/pages and do NOT provide a redirect.
I learned THAT lesson the hard way a few years ago now.
Hope you find this helpful.
Thank you, Trish!
I didn’t know that.. I have more removed old articles I need to redirect asap.
Maybe that’s why Google hates me. When will they “lift” the penalty?
It took my site 6 months or more to recover from my bad.
BUT...
Google is now changing their algorithms more often... so, do fix a.s.a.p. so to gain that advantage.
I hope your site recovers faster than mine did. Though some of my issue was trying to find out what happened to cause my drop in rank.
That part took too long and trying to remember each of the URLs of posts that I deleted was totally impossible for me.
In GSC there are 24 pages that are marked as 404 not found. I guess I can redirect those links to the main page?
Sounds like you've done what I did years ago...
Google asks that you redirect to a similar or related topic rather than simply to your main (loading or home) page.
Where the content has simply been deleted, I would say "yes" to adding a redirect of an old post to your blog roll.
Yes, you can merge to steer away from promoting duplicate content. Please redirect as Dale suggested.
Happy Holidays!
Maxine :)
You can merge them without any issues if they're covering a similar topic, just be sure to redirect the 1 you take down to the new one.
See more comments
Hey everyone! I created a Facebook page and group for my website and I’m planning to start posting at least 2 posts a day everyday, starting January. I have two question
HI, just a fyi Jay has a new series.
including this one for Facebook Beyond Google: Facebook Traffic you can search in the magnify glass and the classes tab; there is a ton of information.
I have been scheduling out 7-day FB posts I watch in one of the classes ( as far as times, they have a little icon with suggestions) of the best times I have been using.
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Creating a facebook post schedule?
Hey everyone! I created a Facebook page and group for my website and I’m planning to start posting at least 2 posts a day everyday, starting January. I have two question
HI, just a fyi Jay has a new series.
including this one for Facebook Beyond Google: Facebook Traffic you can search in the magnify glass and the classes tab; there is a ton of information.
I have been scheduling out 7-day FB posts I watch in one of the classes ( as far as times, they have a little icon with suggestions) of the best times I have been using.
See more comments
Hi!
I’m working on rewriting some articles using ChatGPT, but chatty keeps trimming the content a lot even though I’ve specifically mentioned not to cut any
This is an interesting question because if you want to rewrite the content, GPT will rewrite the content (which could include trimming the original text). With that said, have you tried to prompt GPT before adding the text you want to be rewritten?
For example, a prompt I've used: "Without starting, I'm going to post something below for you to rewrite. I want you to keep as much of the original wording and sentence structure as possible. Make only minor adjustments to improve clarity, grammar, and flow. Do you understand?"
Then GPT will respond with something like Yes and give you a quick response of understanding.
Next, you can say something like, "Keeping the above in mind, please rewrite the following [insert text]."
There might be other things to try, but this is my first suggestion. If you want other ideas, you can also try something like: "Rewrite the below text with slight changes to improve grammar and readability. Keep all key points and phrases unchanged unless necessary for clarity."
Hope this helps!
How to make chatgpt to stop cutting from my content when rewriting?
Hi!
I’m working on rewriting some articles using ChatGPT, but chatty keeps trimming the content a lot even though I’ve specifically mentioned not to cut any
This is an interesting question because if you want to rewrite the content, GPT will rewrite the content (which could include trimming the original text). With that said, have you tried to prompt GPT before adding the text you want to be rewritten?
For example, a prompt I've used: "Without starting, I'm going to post something below for you to rewrite. I want you to keep as much of the original wording and sentence structure as possible. Make only minor adjustments to improve clarity, grammar, and flow. Do you understand?"
Then GPT will respond with something like Yes and give you a quick response of understanding.
Next, you can say something like, "Keeping the above in mind, please rewrite the following [insert text]."
There might be other things to try, but this is my first suggestion. If you want other ideas, you can also try something like: "Rewrite the below text with slight changes to improve grammar and readability. Keep all key points and phrases unchanged unless necessary for clarity."
Hope this helps!
depending on how old the site is and how many visitors you have you may want to consider a staging site - ask support to create one for you...
once you have changed it all on the staging site then you can 'move' it across to your main site....
personally i would keep a copy of the old style, if you visitor numbers drop rapidly then you can restore the old version....
but you will get a drop as it is a change for your visitors - for seo it really doesn't matter as the site is not for seo but mainly for visitors....you probably will see a drop, but hopefully it will recover....
I asked support and they already created a clone for my website. I changed everything there.
How should I proceed from now on? And how can I keep a copy of my old design?
if you ask sitesupport for a backup of your main site then this will be a copy of what is there at the moment....
then go into websites>>sitemanager and use the 'move ' feature on the site you want to move to your main site...
select the site you want the content moved to ....
you will get a warning that you are going to overwrite all of the content on your site....
so if you are happy with the new design then click ok and it will take upto 24 hours to move the content across...
Thank you!
I’m just curious- changing the theme and all settings manually won’t be faster to do? My website has around 5-20 daily visits so it’s not that big.
I mean without creating a new staging website and moving the content.
if you change the theme on your site that will be quicker...
So in my case with not that big website it won’t be a problem, right?
that won't be a problem...
as i said you may see a small dip
but it should recover....
Thank you, Phil!