I have an e-commerce website that was originally set up 7 years ago. 14 months ago the site was completely redeveloped and the site hosted on a different server. We set up redirects from the old pages, performed on and off page SEO and have done some Social bookmarking and article writing. Still the website just isnt performing. Any tips welcome!!
This is a hot issue. Many have an eCommerce website designed and developed by several weeks or months after fail to get many or any sales depending. How much did your traffic fall by?
I terms of SEO you have to keep your URL’s the same for each page as it was on the old website, otherwise you risk getting penalized. Google sees the age of the page, and a more aged URL is better. I feel this is the main issue. You would also need to keep much of the page titles the same and follow gradual change rather than a sudden change. Sudden changes on websites are bad.
The different server will only play negatively if you went to a search engine optimization company and they hosted your site for you. If not, then the chances are the search engine optimization would not be affected by a new host.
It sounds to me that the main issue is the new website not keeping it’s URL structure. I would also send an email out to your customers that your design changed so at least you’re covered from a usability point of view. Any suggestions in the first 3 months should be used to reshape your new site to accommodate for customer suggestions and reviews.
If your e-commerce website is already running for 7 years, this must be a good indication that Google has already crawled your site several times already back then. The redeveloping must have affected its traffic. What you need to do is work on the title tags. You may modify it a little but it shouldn’t totally be replaced. Like what sega said, it must be done gradually as you are supposed to gradually direct Google to your new path.