changing site w/o killing SEO

[Emma]

I am ready to move my blogomorphed site over to a new Wordpress template so I have more professional options like a Flash gallery embedded, sleeker design, etc, and don't want to kill my SEO.

My site isn't coming up in organic searches, but my Google Business Listing is doing sort of well (I come up #2 on real estate photographer if your IP is in Austin, and Dripping Springs Wedding photography, and on page 2 for other related searches). Does the GBL have anything to do with my actual web site that the listing is linked to? If not, then I don't have to worry about harming my SEO as the new site will have all the same content, the same links, same pages, same server even, but a new template where I'll have to copy/paste all my metatags and menus, etc.

What should I be aware of during the move?

Currently I have a Blogger Minima template tricked out, purchased domain, paid server at Pal Photo Art, Emma Powell Photography and Graphic Design and just want to keep this as seamless as possible. TIA

[alamoshutterbug]

You have nothing to worry about Emma. I ditched my blogger blog after a year of never getting indexed for stuff I wanted to index for. My wordpress blog is kicking butt and it's a new domain that is just 6 months old.

The only thing I would look out for is a little hicup in ranking then strap into your seat because the rocket's about to launch :)

Moving from blogger to WP is the best move you can make SEO wise. DO IT!!!

[alamoshutterbug]

About the Google business ranking: It is based on the content of the listing, not so much on the content of your site, so put lots of pics and videos and content into the listing and it will do well; having a proximate address and 512 phone number should help some too (a lot of photogs get PO boxes downtown for this reason). It cycles too, so don't expect to stay on the 7 spot forever.

[Emma]

cycles like gives us all turns? I thought we could optimize them somehow by having them very complete with good keywords. It went up when I filled it up. I have a videographer coming to do some video of me working soon edited with interview and stills, I'm really excited. I've worked with him for about 3 years on other projects, and now it's MY turn! Hopefully it'll add good content to my site and my GBL.
Anyway...
What's the difference between SEO on Blogger and Wordpress? Bluehost has some SEO services I haven't used yet, and that's where my site is hosted. I need to learn more about this because as sad as this sounds my work alone isn't going to skyrocket me, lol! I need to be a better business person. Hopefully by being decent in both areas it'll make up for my weaknesses in both!

[alamoshutterbug]

Yep, I was on the top 7 screen for "austin wedding photographer/y" and it lasted a few months; happened right after I did the listing content development. Just about everybody I was up there with got pulled out at the same time and new peeps put in the top spot. One or two may stick around for whatever reasons as is the case with the wedding term search. Get an old client to submit a review too if you haven't already.

I'm not certain, but I don't think blogger makes good use of H1 tags and many WP themes will use them for post titles (where you should use them). Some WP themes will also let you "nofollow/ noindex" your archives and categories so Google doesn't slap you for duplicate content. Image tagging is easier with WP imo. I use BlueHost too (note to others, no affiliation with BlueDomain; this place has very good service) but I haven't used any of their extra stuff.

I tweeked on SEO for a while, then just took a more zen approach and let it be. I found the right theme and website and just started to write good content. That is the big thing to work on; content is still King.

[Emma]

archives? I don't have any of those, but should I?

[alamoshutterbug]

LOL, actually you do. It's on your sidebar. Right under your categories.

So basically what happens is when Google crawls your site they will treat the content in your archives and in your categories as separate from the home page, even though it's the same content. Before long the ranking algorithm is calling foul and writing you off as a spam site because it sees 3 or 4 copies of most of your content.

[Emma]

the blog post history is considered double content? Hmmm...I don't care on this blog, but how do I no follow those on my new WP history widget?

[alamoshutterbug]

I don't know how to do it thru the widget. As far as I know this is either something your theme designer thought of for you or something you have to code manually with the editor. The Prophoto theme was designed with these as options. You may also find an SEO plugin that adjusts this part of the code for you. I don't currently use any SEO plugins because my theme's designer did just about everything already and I don't want to mess with something that is already working well for me.

Here is a shot of my UI where this is an option.

[Emma]

I just ditched the Archives widget as it's stupid on a blog like this that doesn't have to be followed in chronological order. Will that take care of the double-dipping no-follow issue?

[Emma]

so I got my site moved to WP, and is there anything I should do now? I manually submitted it to Google, Yahoo, and Bing, so of course all my old (bad) links are still indexed. Just wait until it's reindexed properly?

Thanks!

[Brains]

If you have old links that are positioned well, but now lead to a dead page, it would GREATLY benefit you to set up pages that return a "301 Moved Permanently" HTTP status. That way anyone who hits the page will get to where you want them to go, and any search spider will automatically update its index with the proper page.

I'm not exactly a Wordpress guru, so I only know how to do this on the "bare metal" so to speak, but it can be as simple as just dropping a file with the right name in the right directory, like this:

olddirectory/oldlink.php

<?php
header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" ); 
header( "Location: http://www.new-url.com" );

[Emma]

fortunately the old links still go to my site, not a complete 404 loss, but just says the page can't be found. We all know that usually gets a bounce rather than a click on a menu item.

Okay, so in the WP Editor area, which part do I want to put a code like that in? Blogger was just one big template, almost anywhere would do, but WP has a lot more choices (which is why I changed, but it doesn't make learning it easier!) I host the blog on our own server if that makes any difference in this regard.

I'll do some 301 and 404 googling too, or if you have any good links. Thanks!

[Emma]

okay, I installed a WP plugin called Simple 301 Redirect, and I have to (tediously) copy/paste in the old link in one box with the new link in another box, for every bad link, and it writes the code for me. There are about 100 old blog posts! I'm only doing the top hits based on my analytics. But all is well now, and my search engine is happy. Thanks for the push in the right direction.

I think this is the part where I credit my husband properly as my IT staff...HE downloaded the plugin and set me to the tedium :)

[Brains]

Glad you got it figured out!