Want To Change Static HomePage To Blogroll - Worried About Ranking Drop?

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mephestic
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Hey Warriors,

A bit about me; I got into SEO about 8-9 months ago as a hobby. I've learn't a lot and after a first failed attempt and realising my mistakes, built a second wordpress website and have it ranked well for its niche and keyword.

The issue is when I built it; I never thought it would be successful so I simply used the default Wordpress twenty-twelve wordpress theme and a static homepage.

The problem is now I wish to grow the website but this homepage and current theme is really dragging that down as it looks so basic.

On the static homepage there is many links to my other pages which also rank well and as my homepage is the page with the most juicy links I suspect that link-juice is getting fed to my other pages through all these links on it. I'm concerned that if I change to a blogroll, as the links are no longer there and its all snippet based on each post the rankings for the home-page as well as these other pages will drop.

Its a big conundrum! What am I to do! Does anyone have any experience in making such changes themselves? What has been the impact?

I am aware keeping the permalink structure and URL's the same is vital so these wont be changed.

I hope to change over to the genesis framework as I hear that is coded well and hopefully should help with the SERPS even a slight amount as the default theme is pretty garbage but just too scared to change it!

Advice from those who have done this would be grateful!

Meph
#blogroll #changing #drop #homepage #ranking #static #worried
  • Profile picture of the author SEO Power
    SEO Power
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    The blogroll page can also link to your internal pages via the sidebar. There are many sites using blogroll pages on their homepages and ranking well for their keywords.
    • Profile picture of the author MikeFriedman
      MikeFriedman
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      Originally Posted by SEO Power View Post

      The blogroll page can also link to your internal pages via the sidebar. There are many sites using blogroll pages on their homepages and ranking well for their keywords.
      Yeah, but the problem is those links will no longer be incontext links and they will be at the bottom of the page, right before the footer.

      OP, you are likely to see significant changes to your rankings with your proposed changes. If it makes sense for the long-term growth of your site, go for it and just take the hit in the short-term.

      With a blog-style site, you are likely going to see rankings fluctuate quite a bit. The more you post, the more you can expect your rankings to fluctuate because you will be regularly changing the content of your homepage.

      There might be other options though instead of moving from a static homepage.
  • Profile picture of the author jkgultimate
    jkgultimate
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    I personally did this and dropped my ranking, I would actually build a second site and start with that one and in another 9 months you will have two great sites!
  • Profile picture of the author danparks
    danparks
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    Changing to a new theme won't affect things negatively, so go ahead and find a nice theme you like and switch to that.

    Yes, switching to showing posts on the home page, in place of a static home page, will change results, probably for the worse. What about keeping the home page static, and keeping your current content in place there, but adding whatever new content you want above the existing content? That will just push your current content down a little on the home page, and then you can show off whatever newer, more interesting/relevant/important content you have in mind at the top of the home page. Might that work for you?
  • Profile picture of the author mephestic
    mephestic
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    Hey guys,

    Appreciate the response. The areas of concern you've highlighted is mainly what my issues are too. Changing the static page to blog-page may be better for the longterm but the worry is if its too big a hit to recover from as I have competitors trying to muscle in and hijack a small niche iv created that never really existed prior. Its probably due to me being the first in it thats helping me rank although my competitors are stronger overall.

    DanParks - Your suggestion wouldnt work unfortunately as the homepage is an intro page to the website/service it offers and I wanted to try condense this into the sidebar with a "about me" page really with the blogroll having the latest posts.

    It really is a big pain this...god. I may have to simply keep this website the way it is it seems as the risk is too big...balls!

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