Risks in involved in switching to WP from static site

**mixke** · 16 March, 2009, 10:22 AM

For one site of mine, I'm thinking of switching to WP platform from static pages.

What can be the risks (rankings etc), if any, involved with this move?

I'll make sure content, heading tags, meta, title etc on WP pages will be same as of static pages.

**TopDogger** · 16 March, 2009, 12:27 PM

I've done this a few times and am in the process of converting another site right now.

The biggest issue that I see is making sure that the URLs are either all exactly the same, or can be re-written using a 301 redirect. If you cannot do this, then you will likely lose any current rank positions.

**mixke** · 16 March, 2009, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by TopDogger

I've done this a few times and am in the process of converting another site right now.

The biggest issue that I see is making sure that the URLs are either all exactly the same, or can be re-written using a 301 redirect. If you cannot do this, then you will likely lose any current rank positions.

I'll be able to replicate URLs, titles, meta etc completely. So I guess there will not be any issue, right?

**bhartzer** · 16 March, 2009, 14:19 PM

I've done this many times, and actually what I have done is kept all the old static pages with the same old URLs. Any new pages were done with WP.

I'll be able to replicate URLs, titles, meta etc completely. So I guess there will not be any issue, right?

If you can keep the same URLs then there really won't be any issues.

**DomainMagnate** · 16 March, 2009, 15:43 PM

Originally Posted by bhartzer

I've done this many times, and actually what I have done is kept all the old static pages with the same old URLs. Any new pages were done with WP.

If you can keep the same URLs then there really won't be any issues.

what's the point of switching then if you won't be able to edit the old pages from WP platform?

**Mr.Bill** · 16 March, 2009, 16:32 PM

I personally would keep the old ones in place until the site is completed then 301 each of the old pages to the new ones. This way yo have a smooth transaction from one to the other.

**Shawn** · 19 March, 2009, 00:24 AM

I have changed pages, folders, etc on well ranked pages - #1 - #10 on the big G and had Google find the new page in 1 or 2 days.

You can test it by doing one page that is ranked #1 for a long tail keyword first and see how Google treats it.