Planning your Website

Today I am working on consolidating old websites into new ones as part of my new year's resolution. For 2017 I want to simplify my online presence by reducing the number of sites I manage.

So I am letting go of Pathos-seo.com in favor of DIYSiteSeo.com. This last domain is not as old as Pathos, but I think it's a better fit for where I want to go.

Pathos-seo.com was heavily focused on Joomla! SEO. Joomla! is not my most use CMS anymore since WordPress has progressed into the CMS area.

Pathos was registered in 2006. Now, 10 years later, I feel it's good to let go and take only the best parts with me to this new site.

Moving to a new domain

Moving to a new domain is like moving to a new house. Only thing is that it is fully digital so it's not as heavy to lift.

Steps taken:

• Export all database content like posts, pages and links from one WordPress site via the Tools ->Export function,
• Download the wp-content folder with all plugins and images via FTP to my local drive,
• Import posts, pages, links, etc into the new site with the import plugin from WordPress,
• Upload content of wp-content via FTP to the new site,
• Change domain and site pointers in the new website from old to the new domain via a Search and Replace Plugin,
• Update media catalog via Media from FTP plugin,
• Check permalinks to work between old and new site,
• Setup domain redirects from the old to the new domain and run checks again.

Next steps after the domain move

After the steps mentioned above and the redirects work it's time to take the next steps.

Changing WordPress Theme

For me, that means changing to a new WordPress theme for which I choose a Genesis Framework Child Theme called Simple Pro Theme.

It's a very clean theme that will keep the focus on the content of articles I wrote and will be writing.

As part of that focus, you will also see a lot less advertising banners and more links instead, those can and will be affiliate links if suitable.

Cleaning Up House

I am also sifting through the old articles seeing if they have become obsolete or need updates in the content of image-wise.

This house cleaning will take me a couple of days.

It's like unpacking your moving boxes and looking where to place your items in your new house.

In real life, you would of course thrown away old stuff before you move, but in this digital world, you can work the other way around.

While I go through the old articles I also need to create new featured images for them. The new theme looks better with larger width images and those are also used as thumbnails for related posts.

So besides the move, I also need to do some site renovation cleaning and making sure I correct any SEO errors.

As another part of this move, I will make it even more mobile-friendly with this new theme and by setting up AMP pages.