Comments on: Q and A: Can changing my CMS affect Rankings ? http://www.ask-kalena.com/q-and-a/q-and-a-can-changing-my-cms-affect-rankings/ Your Daily Search Engine Advice Column Fri, 21 Oct 2011 07:51:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: Andy http://www.ask-kalena.com/q-and-a/q-and-a-can-changing-my-cms-affect-rankings/comment-page-1/#comment-34161 Andy Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:37:05 +0000 http://www.ask-kalena.com/?p=1175#comment-34161 Nick, you are right that PDFs don't seem to appear in the search results as often as PHP and HTML files - but I doubt that is just because of the extension - or type of file that they are. There are a LOT more PHP and HTML files online then there are PDFs - but more importantly PDF files tend to get fewer links to them (and we all know that links are important for rankings - right). Typically a PDF doc on a site may get only a single link, whereas html based pages are more likely to get multiple links - similarly external links are more likely to go to a html page then to a PDF. A "10 page" PDF document can only have links to the start of the doc - whereas 10 pages of HTML may have separate links to all pages (and even with pages via anchors). There are certainly situations where PDFs are appropriate - however, because of the flexibility, crawlability and link benefits of HTML/PHP I would always recommend these as a 1st choice. Nick, you are right that PDFs don’t seem to appear in the search results as often as PHP and HTML files – but I doubt that is just because of the extension – or type of file that they are.

There are a LOT more PHP and HTML files online then there are PDFs – but more importantly PDF files tend to get fewer links to them (and we all know that links are important for rankings – right). Typically a PDF doc on a site may get only a single link, whereas html based pages are more likely to get multiple links – similarly external links are more likely to go to a html page then to a PDF.

A “10 page” PDF document can only have links to the start of the doc – whereas 10 pages of HTML may have separate links to all pages (and even with pages via anchors).

There are certainly situations where PDFs are appropriate – however, because of the flexibility, crawlability and link benefits of HTML/PHP I would always recommend these as a 1st choice.

]]> By: Nick http://www.ask-kalena.com/q-and-a/q-and-a-can-changing-my-cms-affect-rankings/comment-page-1/#comment-34147 Nick Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:08:44 +0000 http://www.ask-kalena.com/?p=1175#comment-34147 I have noticed that pdf pages don't rank as well as html pages. .php and .html there is no real difference in ranking ability on these extensions. I have noticed that pdf pages don’t rank as well as html pages.

.php and .html there is no real difference in ranking ability on these extensions.

]]> By: Webconsulting http://www.ask-kalena.com/q-and-a/q-and-a-can-changing-my-cms-affect-rankings/comment-page-1/#comment-33651 Webconsulting Sun, 23 Aug 2009 22:49:30 +0000 http://www.ask-kalena.com/?p=1175#comment-33651 Hi Thanos, A New Host Provider should make no difference as far as the 301 redirects go (although you should be careful not to change your provider too much or it may impact on rankings). You need to make sure that 301s are done ASAP after the CMS/URL changes(preferably at the same time). If you've not got too many pages, you could create the redirects manually - if you have lots it may be possible to dynamically generate them. It may also be worth your while looking into the "canonical tag". Hi Thanos,

A New Host Provider should make no difference as far as the 301 redirects go (although you should be careful not to change your provider too much or it may impact on rankings). You need to make sure that 301s are done ASAP after the CMS/URL changes(preferably at the same time). If you’ve not got too many pages, you could create the redirects manually – if you have lots it may be possible to dynamically generate them. It may also be worth your while looking into the “canonical tag”.

]]> By: thanos http://www.ask-kalena.com/q-and-a/q-and-a-can-changing-my-cms-affect-rankings/comment-page-1/#comment-33284 thanos Sat, 22 Aug 2009 07:28:32 +0000 http://www.ask-kalena.com/?p=1175#comment-33284 Oops... i forgot to say, the the new website, will be on a new hosting provider B Thanks Oops…
i forgot to say, the the new website, will be on a new hosting provider B
Thanks

]]> By: thanos http://www.ask-kalena.com/q-and-a/q-and-a-can-changing-my-cms-affect-rankings/comment-page-1/#comment-33283 thanos Sat, 22 Aug 2009 07:27:57 +0000 http://www.ask-kalena.com/?p=1175#comment-33283 Hi, I have the same question ,almost Old Site, Hosting Provider A, we make a new website with a new cms platform (the url will change). We do 301 redirect from the old site to the new website pages? Regards Thanos Hi,
I have the same question ,almost
Old Site, Hosting Provider A, we make a new website with a new cms platform (the url will change). We do 301 redirect from the old site to the new website pages?

Regards
Thanos

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