Home Page Redesign Issues

[thejenn]

Full Text: http://www.searchengineguide.com/wha.../0915_jw1.html

Some Snippets:

"Other sites often link to home pages as a recommended resource. This tells the search engines that this site (and more specifically the home page of this site) is extremely worthwhile."

[incrediblehelp]

I couldnt agree with this. I find many new prospects come to me for help a couple of SE updates wondering what happened to their rankings. The first question I ask is "did you do a re-design recently?". If they say yes, then I say YIKES!

[jmjj215]

Do you mean you don't agree with re-designing at all? Or you don't agree w/ Jill's recommendation of linking to more pages from the home page (verses just the three)?

[incrediblehelp]

I am not disagreeing with either. I was just commenting on how redesign is handily poorly at most companies. Re-designing a website is perfectly fine as long as you address the SEO issues along with it. Most companies don't plan on using 301 redirects, maintaining similar content or pages (if they are raking), etc. Not addressing these items and more can hurt current traffic levels and such.

I do agree that internal linking is VERY important. Making sure text navigation is used and linking out in a "category-->product or service" style is best.

[copywriter]

I've never had a problem with redesigns as long as the copy doesn't change drastically.

[esearing]

IN a true news portal style site, the copy would change often. The news is the main content, the links remain relatively unchanged.

Many of todays sites use php to create repeatable navigation on all the pages. Does this help or hurt seo?

Blogs change content and links on their main page very often. Does this help or hurt seo?

[copywriter]

Well, that's not a "yes" or "no" answer. SEO isn't built on a single component. You have coding issues, copywriting issues, linking issues and others. When the three work together, you have a good balance.

However, if SEO rankings are built primarily on copywriting (for example) - meaning that your coding is a mess and you have only 3 links pointing to your site - then, yes, changing the copy will mess up your chance at high rankings.

Most often, successful news and blog sites get lots of links naturally because people are always pointing others to them. If you have a fantastic level of link popularity, you may not need to worry about the copy because the links will make up the difference.

It all depends on how you've structured your SEO strategy.