Redesigning your web site? Good for you! Changing the web address? Bad idea!
With the web now so crucial to marketing a wedding business, many wedding professionals are investing in regular major updates and even complete redesigns of their web sites every couple of years. Since having a current, well-functioning, and professionally designed site is essential to maximizing the revenue potential of your wedding business -- and essential to the performance of all your other marketing efforts -- I couldn't be more supportive.
Unfortunately, though, many companies are simultaneously undermining these web redesign investments by launching new sites on new URLs instead of simply changing their existing site.
For example, a reception location called "The Tranquility Garden" might have an existing site at www.thetranquilitygarden.com and create a new one at www.tranquilitygarden.com or wwww.thetranquilitygarden.net, instead of simply changing the site that appears at that address they already have.
Why is this such a bad idea? Four big reasons:
(1) Getting indexed by search engines takes time. If your existing site has been online for a year or more, you've likely already indexed in Google, Yahoo!, etc. -- meaning that you can be found when someone searches for your company by name. The process of indexing can take six months to a year, sometimes even more -- so, if you launch your redesigned site at a new web address, your new site might not be found by brides for a year or more.
(2) Search engines penalize similar sites. If your new site contains similar verbiage to your old site and a similar name, the search engines may view it as a "duplicate" and penalize both of your sites in the rankings. Why? Because some "black hat" web companies developed a tactic of creating multiple similar sites and linking them together as a way to try to goose their web result rankings. Consequently, search engines now penalize any sites that seem very similar -- potentially even removed from search indexes altogether! (And remember, it doesn't matter if the images are different -- search engines can't "see" the pictures, they evaluate your site by the text.) Worse, this risk increases if you link your old site to your new in an effort to redirect people to the new site.
(3) Existing links lose their value. If you're a qualified wedding professional that other pros like to work with, chances are you've accumulated referral links from other companies. If you change your web site address, these links from other vendors won't direct brides to your current site. Same is true for associations that offer you a link as part of membership. Sure, you can contact these companies and ask them to change the link -- but, it can take months to contact everyone, and you have no control over whether the links ever get updated. And that means lost web site visits from brides who could have become clients.
(4) Print, bridal show, and other offline marketing efforts have distributed your old web address. If you've published print ads, attended a recent bridal show, or offered your cards or brochures to brides (via your own contacts with them or through other vendors' referrals), your "old" web address is in circulation. What's more, because brides typically hang on to wedding planning materials for a year or more -- and then often pass them on to other brides -- your old URL will be promoted almost indefinitely. Because investing in print advertising, bridal shows, and marketing collateral is so costly, this is probably the most expensive consequence of opting for a new web address instead of simply updating your existing site.
Are you changing your web address because you're afraid you'll lose the information contained in your old design? Not to worry -- you can do this even if you launch your new site on your current address. A web site is really just a collection of files -- each page is just a document, really. The files from your old site can be backed up, or downloaded to your own computer, so that you can get information from them whenever you like (or even revert to the old site if you want).
Or, are you concerned because you don't have access to the server your site is hosted on? This is sometimes an issue when you work with a new designer, but the hosting company should be able to help you out if you provide proper identification of your identity and ownership of the company. Alternatively, you can work with the registrar you used to register your domain originally to point your web address to the location of your new site -- so that brides automatically arrive at your new web site.
Unfortunately, though, many companies are simultaneously undermining these web redesign investments by launching new sites on new URLs instead of simply changing their existing site.
For example, a reception location called "The Tranquility Garden" might have an existing site at www.thetranquilitygarden.com and create a new one at www.tranquilitygarden.com or wwww.thetranquilitygarden.net, instead of simply changing the site that appears at that address they already have.
Why is this such a bad idea? Four big reasons:
(1) Getting indexed by search engines takes time. If your existing site has been online for a year or more, you've likely already indexed in Google, Yahoo!, etc. -- meaning that you can be found when someone searches for your company by name. The process of indexing can take six months to a year, sometimes even more -- so, if you launch your redesigned site at a new web address, your new site might not be found by brides for a year or more.
(2) Search engines penalize similar sites. If your new site contains similar verbiage to your old site and a similar name, the search engines may view it as a "duplicate" and penalize both of your sites in the rankings. Why? Because some "black hat" web companies developed a tactic of creating multiple similar sites and linking them together as a way to try to goose their web result rankings. Consequently, search engines now penalize any sites that seem very similar -- potentially even removed from search indexes altogether! (And remember, it doesn't matter if the images are different -- search engines can't "see" the pictures, they evaluate your site by the text.) Worse, this risk increases if you link your old site to your new in an effort to redirect people to the new site.
(3) Existing links lose their value. If you're a qualified wedding professional that other pros like to work with, chances are you've accumulated referral links from other companies. If you change your web site address, these links from other vendors won't direct brides to your current site. Same is true for associations that offer you a link as part of membership. Sure, you can contact these companies and ask them to change the link -- but, it can take months to contact everyone, and you have no control over whether the links ever get updated. And that means lost web site visits from brides who could have become clients.
(4) Print, bridal show, and other offline marketing efforts have distributed your old web address. If you've published print ads, attended a recent bridal show, or offered your cards or brochures to brides (via your own contacts with them or through other vendors' referrals), your "old" web address is in circulation. What's more, because brides typically hang on to wedding planning materials for a year or more -- and then often pass them on to other brides -- your old URL will be promoted almost indefinitely. Because investing in print advertising, bridal shows, and marketing collateral is so costly, this is probably the most expensive consequence of opting for a new web address instead of simply updating your existing site.
Are you changing your web address because you're afraid you'll lose the information contained in your old design? Not to worry -- you can do this even if you launch your new site on your current address. A web site is really just a collection of files -- each page is just a document, really. The files from your old site can be backed up, or downloaded to your own computer, so that you can get information from them whenever you like (or even revert to the old site if you want).
Or, are you concerned because you don't have access to the server your site is hosted on? This is sometimes an issue when you work with a new designer, but the hosting company should be able to help you out if you provide proper identification of your identity and ownership of the company. Alternatively, you can work with the registrar you used to register your domain originally to point your web address to the location of your new site -- so that brides automatically arrive at your new web site.
posted by Laurie at 7:15 AM
1 Comments:
All true! Timing is very important. I learned the hard way don't launch a redesigned site right before a big show. I did that and because it took time for search engines to pick it up again, my new search results description didn't show up. So I'm sure I lost some leads from brides whom after the show wanted to seach and compare other invitation designers.
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