Biggest CLUELESS mistakes you can make when overhauling your site

Morning all,

Ever have an insane urge to completely overhaul your domain?  I mean rip out the current guts, redesign entirely the site layout, use a different Content Manglement system like WordPress, Joomla, etc., and then launch it to the waiting world?

‘course you have!  Heck, I do that myself every now and then…my first site redesign was back in 1994 when I was figuring out how to make cute little image map thingees for boring old text links (hey, it was Netscape Navigator 1.0….back then, image maps were more cutting edge than a finely sharpened samurai sword!).

Anywhos, here’s the deal.   Chances are, your site is ALREADY  listed in Google.  Right?  ‘course right!  So ideally, those pages are (my, there’s moose hair in my keyboard.  Odd) ALREADY delivering to you traffic.  And of course, because you possess mental brilliance that’s greater than a fossilized toenail, you certainly don’t WANT to lose that traffic.

RIGHT????

Well!  If the above is true…here’s what you should do.

Option 1.)  Don’t remove the old pages. 

Instead, add a header to each that tells visitors, this site has been redesigned – please visit us HERE to see the new site!  Your visitors will see you’re still alive and viable, and not think to themselves….Jeepers!  No page!  Let’s go back to the search engine and find a different solution!

An easy way to do this is add an SSI call (server side include) that automatically reads in a snippet of text.  Learn more at

• Beginner’s Guide to SSI (server side includes)
• Server-Side Includes

Now, if you DO decide to remove your old pages, move next to:

Option 2.)  Add a 404 "Missing Page" redirect to your .htaccess

Ever visit a gorbleflecked page to see it’s not there?  But instead of seeing the boring old "file not found" message, you’re presented with an opportunity to visit the homepage, buy a product, see the sitemap, etc.?

This miracle of loveliness was accomplished by adding the following line to your .htaccess file in your main domain root:

• ErrorDocument 404 /404page.html

The above, of course, assumes your customized missing page is named "404page.html".

Need some help with 404s?  Check out:

• Custom 404 Management
• How to Set Up A Custom 404 File Not Found Page
• 404 Gallery Site
• Creative 404 Error Pages

Now…what if you want to stoke excitement and anticipation in your fans?  Don’t forget to:

Option 3.)  If you use a "New Site Coming Soon" splash image….

Please…make certain (pretty please!) you include your email address and phone number (and ideally a link to your products that are still available!).

Just because your site might be under construction shouldn’t mean customers cannot buy from you.

Wouldn’t you agree?

Site redesigns can be truly a benefit for you…just make certain you don’t short-change your visitors and current customers should they need your services during the interim.

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

ps – speaking about site design, have you seen:

Fatal error: Class ‘expKrc’ not found in /home/ling5/domains/barbaraling.com/public_html/php-bin/eBay_cls.php on line 138

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-- Barbara Ling