transferring site into Wordpress

[stuart1980]

Is it possible to take my site made in WD and put it into Wordpress? My SEO people are saying that it would have great benefits for visibility on Google. The thing is I don't understand code, which is why I chose WD in the first place. I dont even understand the process for installling wordpress... Any tips appreciated.

[mwenz]

Your SEO people are suggesting change in an attempt to earn whatever you are paying them. It's basically hogwash that one dev platform will outperform another dev platform as regards ranking/visibility on Google, Bing, or another search engine.

In a direct answer to the question about stuffing an Xara site into WordPress...no, you will not be successful. Xara is an absolutely positioned, static site (with a couple exceptions). WordPress is a dynamic, PHP driven site that eschews absolute positioning except for certain elements *if* the template designer makes them absolutely positioned for (hopefully) a really good reason.

Take care, Mike

[stuart1980]

The thing is we have lots of links and have lots of content with optimised keywords, but other sites are still performing much better. They say that it is a problem with WD in that Google much prefers the code written by Wordpress, and they say that they could update the website themselves without me having to do it as currently. They haven't asked for a fee or offered to put it into Wordpress themselves - they have asked me to do it, so I dont think they are trying to get more money for it.

Does anyone else think this is BS? Why would they say this if it wasn't true and they aren't making more money from it? They are an SEO company with a proven track record for some big clients.

[Big Frank]

It's BS. They can do virtually nothing with the site as it is, because it uses proprietary software, hence they have no client if you choose not to go the dynamic/php route, that's why.

[stuart1980]

OK, I see. So what you are saying is that a site designed in WD can only ever be worked on by someone familiar with WD, and I haven't found any SEO people who are.

I need this site to get higher in the rankings, and I don't have time to do it as I have to run the business. Surely therefore, for me to get higher in the rankings I would at some point need to put the site into a program that SEO people could work with like Wordpress? If I stay with WD, this means the site will never go anywhere, its had hits hovering around 20 a day for the past two years - I need someone to take over managing it.

[mwenz]

Well, yes and no to as regards the issue of doing nothing to the site as built in Xara or another wysiwyg dev platform.

Really, what they will do (or have done), including to a PHP-driven site, is to edit the html and add specific keywords, etc. The exception to this scenario is if they also do a lot of backlinking which can also penalize a site in Google's eyes.

Content, specific content on any given page, tied into the meta data (keywords, titles, etc) is what will give the site better visibility in the search engines. This is non-dev platform dependent.

If you are only getting 20 hits a day and want more--and without knowing the site, its services and or products--make each and every page relevant, tying keywords into each and every page's content. Use larger type sizes for headings, etc. Use the <h1> etc. tags on headings and so forth. You can do this in Xara, albeit it is different than within WordPress, etc.

And last but not least, read on Google's site about SEO.

Take care, Mike

[stuart1980]

The problem is we've done all that (bar the h1 tags), and still its not going anywhere. Dunno whether to get rid of the SEO company or not, but I know the stuff we have done should have made an impact as I have read all the books on this. Whilst they are building links and writing original articles with links back to us, the problem is the search terms for our business (cleaning) are highly competitive, we need an edge. Do you think that Wordpress would give us any edge at all? I notice that some of the top ranking companies have dynamic blog posts on their site, maybe the amount of dynamic keyword filled content that Wordpress could fit on a page would be beneficial?

[mwenz]

Cleaning companies are indeed a glutted market. But you can, with Google's aid in how it personalizes people's searches based upon region, rise a bit in placement. Generally, one would make sure to use your location both in the meta tags and on the relevant pages.

However, one of the other issues is this. You mention you have 20 hits a day (via Google searches I presume). How many of those are converted into bookings? How well is your retention rate on return customers? How well can you convert one-time cleans to scheduled bookings? Are you prominently displayed in the yellow pages?

I ask those things because my mother ran a relatively large local cleaning company for about 15 years. Never had a web site. Cold calls, leaflets, auto-faxes to companies, etc., were used. Even so, the largest segment of new customers all came from the yellow pages. The hardest part was getting those contacts to book. Once booked, the next hardest was to convert them into scheduled bookings. From talking with her, the split on business origins was about 65% yellow pages, 15% cold calling, 10% from referral and the remainder the other options.

Take care, Mike

[stuart1980]

We have a very high customer retention rate, and a very high rate of conversions from calls. However I am now wondering whether we would be better putting out money into other avenues like flyering, rather than flogging what seems to be a dead horse. The competition for cleaning keywords seems to be completely insurmountable.

[Rhodie]

It sounds to me like your SEO does not want to learn and work with WD and has experience with Wordpress only.

You might take a look at the following website which a forum that is totally dedicated to SEO info. http://www.warriorforum.com/