Website Redesign & Impact on 7 Pack

[standenman]

I currently host my site on Hubspot, paying $266/month. The CMS is good, the tools are good, but underutilized by me as lead development is of limited value in my legal business (folks either or ready to hire me or no).

So I would like to migrate from Hubspot but I hear horror stories about losing SEO juice in the process. From what I can see the majority of these disasters center on failing to do a 301 redirect to any new urls. Obviously I am not going to make that mistake, but I m still a bit worried.

As I look at my google placement the best thing I have going is good placement in the7 pack. One you get past the PPC ads and the 7 pack I am not sure how important good organic placement is. I ammost concerned about the impact of migration on the 7 pack. Any views/advice would as always, be most appreciated.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Stan,

Any site re-design can cause a drop in organic ranking. (But could be only temporary.)

A drop in organic usually means a drop in the pack as well since they are somewhat connected.

In addition to the way re-directs are handled, other things could come into play. Overall design/content, page load speeds and all kinds of stuff.

If you get a GOOD dedicated host, not a cheap host and a good designer, I can't imagine you'd be ahead financially over the 266 a month you are currently paying.

So if you are ranking and don't want to risk potentially rock the boat, I'd just stick with Hubspot.

 

[armstead]

I currently host my site on Hubspot, paying $266/month. The CMS is good, the tools are good, but underutilized by me as lead development is of limited value in my legal business (folks either or ready to hire me or no).

Are you only looking at migrating off of Hubspot just because you are not utilizing the tools?

Every website redesign I have seen or been apart of there almost always a drop in rankings initially. It's just part of the game. But if you have a plan you mitigate the length.

Moz actually had an article not to long ago that talked about this very thing. A Step-by-Step Guide to Updating Your Website Without Destroying Your SEO - Moz

It's fairly in-depth but definitely worth a read.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Great reply and link armstead! Really appreciate you helping out!

 

[Broland]

Yea, wow hubbspot is pricey for what you get. I would definitely move. A lot of people are scared to make on-site changes and move hosting but if you know what you are doing, you should only be making improvements and rankings overall as a whole should increase (slight temporary fluctuations to be expected). If you don't know what you are doing, take time to learn or hire someone who does know.

I've detailed a few times on various forums how to properly do a site move and 301 redirects etc. My username on most forums is Broland so you can maybe dig that stuff up via Google searches or something - plenty of answers out there, but yea I recommend the move.

 

[Rich Owings]

Anytime you change the CMS, site structure, etc., you risk a drop in rankings.

I like to make the move but keep the site structure and content as much intact as possible. Once rankings settle down you can start changing some of that stuff.

Also, keep in mind that 301 redirects can be a pain if the URL structure has changed at all.

 

[Laustin1878]

Are 301 redirect required with this situation? If you are moving hosts and redesigning the site, the pages don't necessarily need to change, therefore, eliminating the need for 301's.

If you are changing URL's, then obviously 301's are required. The best way to sustain value is page to page 301's vs sitewide 301's. For larger sites, this is probably a pain.

If you have a good inbound link profile, things shouldn't take too long to settle down and re-establish the rankings. The moz article that was posted earlier is what I would have recommended to read as well to plan properly.

Rankings are great but are people buying the product or seeking more information about the service? Are visitors converting? If conversions aren't there, then I don't see changing over as much of a loss to you. You need to weigh out the pro's and con's it seems.