Website seo dropping ranking. Move to WordPress?

Solus

Solus

Solus

Associate
Joined
5 Oct 2006
Posts
891
Location
Cardiff
My site was designed by myself back in 2010 using html and css, I was number 1 for main search phrases such as pc repair Cardiff and laptop repair Cardiff.

Since I've noticed a lot of my competitors have redesigned their sites completely and now scoring above me.

Previously the site wasn't mobile friendly and I did a bit of a hack job and it now redirects to a mobile friendly version of the site if it detects the screen size is tablet or mobile phone.

I'm concerned getting a new site up will possibly drop me off the first page for major search rankings. I know the site is now out of date and it would be a lot easier for me to manage in WordPress, just so concerned about seo getting worse as a result.
 
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It would be better to do mobile-friendly the "proper" way. Instead of a redirect, you should be using a responsive site design that can display your website content nicely on either desktop or a mobile.

You either have to code a responsive website from scratch, use a framework like Bootstrap, or use Wordpress with a responsive theme.

Follow SEO best practice when building a website.

Any time you update a website you risk SEO rankings loss. If you don't want any risk, then register a second domain, and start an entirely new site. Once the new site has rankings, then update the old site too, and you have two "good" new sites. OK there is more maintenance, but it might be worth it in terms of SEO coverage.
 
If you switched to WordPress and used the same content, it's unlikely that you'd drop from the rankings. You might get a short hit if Google thinks something drastic has changed, but essentially, it will be your old content in a new wrapper, and the new wrapper (WordPress) will be known and trusted, and as long as your pages are structured well, you'll probably see an improvement quite quickly.

WordPress will also give you the option to have one site for many devices as radderfire suggests.

Radderfire suggests a second site, but I'm not s sure that will work. If your content is largely the same, Google may continue to rank your existing site as an 'original and best', particularly if it has links and other plus-points.

My gambit here would be to put your WP site in a subfolder, then use an index.php to point to it (there's a WordPress way of doing this so the folder is hidden to website visitors), that way you can always switch back to your old site if you have to, but if one properly, you won't need to.
 
I'll take a better look when I'm in the office tomorrow providing I have time. But definitely don't go down the duplicate site route.

Google has changed a lot since it was designed so you're likely seeing the affects of that.

E; Just taken a look, I am on my mobile but it's not great. I'll post back with a greater explanation when I get a chance after sleep :P

I'd try to improve it aesthetically as currently it looks very 1990, and not trustworthy, customers want trustworthy sites and anyone who enters your website and backs out has been proved to not help rankings.
 
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If you were to go for two sites, content would need to be unique on each site, but perhaps more effort than it's worth. Probably best to just update site to modern standards and you may have to deal with some short term loss of position. More quality content on a site always helps.
 
Hyburnate said:
I'd try to improve it aesthetically as currently it looks very 1990, and not trustworthy, customers want trustworthy sites and anyone who enters your website and backs out has been proved to not help rankings.
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Exactly this, the site looks old & a bit dodgy :o
Solus said:
Website seo dropping ranking. Move to WordPress?

My site was designed by myself back in 2010 using html and css
The site is: http://www.adeptpcrepair.co.uk
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www.adeptpcrepair.co.uk said:
Generated with Artisteer version 2.2.0.17981
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If you have no experience, pay someone to make a good responsive HTML site.
Wordpress isn't magic & unless you are posting a blog or actively updating the site seems a waste of resource. (Also wordpress would need to be maintained/updated etc)
radderfire said:
You either have to code a responsive website from scratch, use a framework like Bootstrap

Follow SEO best practice when building a website.
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^this is the best advice if you do want to spend time creating something yourself
 
Haven't had a great amount of time today so far, however - I see that you have a lot of reviews on a review site, I've personally never heard of this an I don't believe Google take these into account for Google Local Businesses (they do however look at Facebook, Yell etc). I would definitely try and push your customers to leave reviews on Google, you can see your competition are doing this and it makes them stand out.

Your actual naming of the pages is nice, I'm getting a 404 from most of your pages for a terms and conditions disclamer? Fix this. You've got H1 tags, however try to avoid repeating the same thing so much (you have 35 duplicates), it looks spammy. Not many H2s however, improve this.

Social media interaction, have you got much? If not, get it. Blog posts, get a blog going on YOUR OWN DOMAIN (no, no subdomains either /blog/ will do.)

If you want more advice or help feeling free to drop me a trust message - More than willing to help :)

Oh, and I'd definitely look into a redesign, Wordpress is great because it's easy to customise etc etc, but it's heavy - I personally recommend it however because it's easy to use from a backend perspective. Wordpress + Minification + CDN = Profit
 
Just noticed you are advertising website hosting & design :confused:

http://www.adeptpcrepair.co.uk/web_hosting_design_domains_cardiff.html

Adept offer web design for everyone's needs.

If you wish for a professional business website or a simple personal blog, we can do it all for you.

We will even set the website up to allow easy access to editing and updating your website without any complicated coding knowledge or programs. Simply open your internet browser, log in to the admin panel and update as you go using an easy to use user interface.

Websites start from £100 including web hosting and a .co.uk domain name for 2 years.

Please call for a quote on a website design.
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mortals said:
Just noticed you are advertising website hosting & design :confused:

http://www.adeptpcrepair.co.uk/web_hosting_design_domains_cardiff.html
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That was a long time ago, the html file is still online but not linked to by any part of the site. I know my strengths and that got the axe a long time ago.

Will things like that still affect my site? I'm concerned how you managed to find it even though it doesn't exist anywhere on my current site.

I did put a wordpress site up within a folder and ended up with the template not functioning with the static front page the template gives (those nice sliding images). I will do a reinstall and see if I can find a nice template to work with.

I did toy with a different site, but i'd much rather just focus on this. Another site would need a different domain name and branding, plus when I answer the phone I always say the business name - this would concern people if it didn't tie up with who they were looking at.

Wordpress concerns me slightly only due to learning curve, but as someone has said, I can keep it within a folder, then redirect to it. Would google penalize this practice though?
 
You're best either going wordpress or not. It's not difficult to learn however you could always look to outsource it

e; Also, you can find the web services page on your Privacy Policy and Payment pages
 
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I've reinstalled wordpress from scratch and still can't enable the front page in themes.

I can set a static page with my own content but all the features of the theme are missing. Probably being an idiot but I can't find an option anywhere other than to set my own static page instead of the theme's. Any pointers?
 
Solus said:
I've reinstalled wordpress from scratch and still can't enable the front page in themes.

I can set a static page with my own content but all the features of the theme are missing. Probably being an idiot but I can't find an option anywhere other than to set my own static page instead of the theme's. Any pointers?
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Hi Solus,

You will need to recreate the content (you could in theory copy and paste) into the wordpress CMS, you can't take an existing site and import it direct into wordpress as such.
 
Brilliant, I was expecting to see the features (image sliders) etc without adding the content. I've now added. Intent and everything is showing as it should. I shall continue to work on it and once I have a "beta" I shall ask for some input.

Thank you everyone!
 
Solus said:
Brilliant, I was expecting to see the features (image sliders) etc without adding the content. I've now added. Intent and everything is showing as it should. I shall continue to work on it and once I have a "beta" I shall ask for some input.

Thank you everyone!
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Great news :)

I will recommend you utilise Yoast SEO, sign up for Analytics and get that installed too (look at MonsterInsights), enable search console so you can fully understand where your traffic is coming from and any errors. Ensure you get rid of any themes and plugins you're not using and optimise everything. Take a look at W3 Total Cache and minify everything :p
 
go into the pages tab, look on the right-hand side for Page Attributes and see what options are under Template. Sometimes you have to set the actual page to use the theme template, other templates require you to Themes > customise to set things up.
 
Caged said:
Get Squarespace to manage the page for you, and get HTTPS working.
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OP would be better to go down the Wordpress route. That way he has FULL control and with the simplicity of Wordpress being able to drop many themes into it I don't see the advantages of squarespace. Especially if OP installs the plugins I mentioned previously :)
 
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