How to revamp a big ol' site?

[BizCardGuru]

[angienewton]

[terrapin719]

If you keep the pages in their HTML format, you can change the look without losing anything at all, of course.

If you decide to go to WP format you can use 303 redirects on the pages so that the old pages lead to the new pages. In some cases, depending on how you set up the permalink structure in Wordpress, you can make the permalinks the same as they already are. It will just take a little patience.

The biggest advantage of switching to WP is maintenance becomes a lot easier. Future changes will be easier. Adding to the site is easier. It just simplifies things and adds additional functionality.

[BizCardGuru]

Thank you, that's helpful. I have two additional questions, though.

1) How do I find out what pages have active links BACK to them? I would hate to take down a page that I've forgotten about if it's getting me traffic. Or for that matter - what about broken links TO my site? Guess a custom 404 page would take care of those...

2) How would you describe this project on someplace like RentaCoder or Elance? I really don't know what criteria to set, nor am I sure I've accurately defined what I need done.

3) What would YOU do, Loretta? Change the template and add a blog, or convert the whole thing to WP?

Thanks!

Diana

[terrapin719]

[AlexNewell]

I think I would focus on the high traffic pages.

so the question is how good is your tracking?

If you have good tracking it will be giving you piles of information about who your visitors are and what they are looking for. You can see from that how well you are meeting their needs.

Heck why not survey your customers and offer a prize for any ideas that you take up?

If you are not tracking every page in the site I have one word of advice - STOP!

Changing a site - especially a big commercial site without having all the numbers in front of you is , pardon me, "madness"

I would put Google Analytics on every page and do nothing for a month.

Once you know what the best pages are - you will be able to see how to go forward. But it does depend on how your site is constructed.

[tknoppe]