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Good news...my website is back...and stronger than before

By
Home Builder with The Flooring Girl

As many of you know, I recently made the switch to convert my site to https...a project on my "to do" list for over 3 years.  I was really excited about this as I was upgrading my hosting at the same time.

 

But, I was NOT expecting to see a major decline in my google rankings.  That took me by surprise.

 

Apparently, when you make the switch, because the URLs have all changed, you can lose traffice...TEMPORARILY.  I learned this after the fact, and it was quite shocking...and cost me a bunch of money as my ad and affiliate earnings declined.  NOT FUN.

 

They all kept saying don't worry, it's temporarily and it should return or most of it should in 1 to 2 months.  LOVELY.

 

I also had some other problems during the switch due to a problem w/ my old host.

 

So, I worked my butt of for 3 weeks to fix broken links, pictures, share on G+ and pinterest and do some backlinks.  After around 2 weeks, I could see the traffic starting to return.  And, at 3 weeks, I couldn't believe my eyes!

 

Before the switch, I was around 6,200 pageviews per day...and that declined to 3,800 after the switch.  Holy cow that's bad.  Now, though, I'm stronger than ever.  For the last 6 days, I have had between 8,500-9,600 per day.  Wow!  I couldn't believe it.

 

I should be able to make up the lost income in no time.  And, I'm more motivated to do the rest of the fixing that I still need to do.

 

Phew.

 

Oh, and if you want some tips on how to drive more traffic, check out this article with traffic building tips.

Comments(5)

William Feela
WHISPERING PINES REALTY - North Branch, MN
Realtor, Whispering Pines Realty 651-674-5999 No.

I start my overall real soon. Just need to finalize a couple of details

Jun 03, 2018 10:40 AM
Bruce Hicks
Best Homes Hawaii - Honolulu, HI
Your Best Hawaii Realtor!

Thanks for the "Mind beep" Debbie Gartner . I need to devote some time on my website, however; have not gained clients from the site.  A guy said he got 38 people to contact when he upgraded his site, then I checked with him later and found that he got ONE sale from all those contacts.

Jun 03, 2018 11:03 AM
Liz and Bill Spear
Transaction Alliance 513.520.5305 www.LizTour.com - Mason, OH
Transaction Alliance Cincinnati & Dayton suburbs

still on my to do list to add the https.  I wouldn't have expected the drop you saw, you'd think the Google bots would consider the two versions more or less equivlalent.

Jun 03, 2018 01:27 PM
Liz and Bill Spear

Okay, finally got it done tonight.  A bit more complicated than I expected, and need some follow up work from our MLS provider.  They said the images to IDX would be secure.  They're not (or don't seem to be).

Jun 03, 2018 06:02 PM
Debbie Gartner
The Flooring Girl - White Plains, NY
The Flooring Girl & Blog Stylist -Dynamo Marketers

Liz and Bill Spear I know, you would thnk that.  Several experts explained that they aren't that advanced yet.  But, in the end they get there.  So dumb and annoying and apparently very common.

 

Glad you got it done.  I've heard that there are problems w/ IDX and https.  Not sure where all the IDX places are at.  And, technically, you need https to be in compliance w/ GDPR.

Jun 03, 2018 06:55 PM
Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker
Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker - Sacramento, CA
Put 40 years of experience to work for you

Hey Debbie: I know this is not your field of expertise, but my IDX results in 404 errors when listings go pending or sell. I found some links I had to fix but most were IDX. I don't know if that is a big deal.

Like you, though, I also made the switch and increased the speed of my site. I didn't even realize that was something I could fix, LOL, since I did not set it up at my hosting company.

Jun 04, 2018 10:26 AM