Some of you may have noticed this blog was unavailable for a large part of yesterday, this is because we have moved the SEOptimise domain over to a new server. During this change we have also integrated the blog web design so that this is now consistent with the main site and it’s also now converted over to use WordPress from Blogger.

While converting the website from Blogger to WordPress sounded quite difficult at first, it was actually a reasonably simple process thanks to some great blog posts from people who have already experienced similar problems.

Here’s a quick guide to getting switched over from Blogger to WordPress:

1) Create your theme

Once installing WordPress I needed to create a theme using the SEOptimise web design. While there’s still a few style issues which need fixing, by following the instructions from Andrew Strojny I had a design which was basically what I was looking for.

2 ) Convert URL’s to Blogger format

The last thing I wanted was a large duplicate content issue, Justinsomnia’s plugin made sure this won’t be a problem with a simple fix to keep all URL permalinks in the old Blogger format.

3) Update FeedBurner RSS Feed

Simply switching FeedBurner over to use the new WordPress RSS feed.

Subdomain vs Subdirectories?

There was also the subdomain vs sub directory debate to consider, would it be worthwhile transferring the blog over to www.seoptimise.com/blog? Following Matt Cutts’ comments I’m less concerned about Google viewing the blog as a completely different website now, plus using a consistent web design and navigation system should hopefully highlight this as part of the main website. I’m confident 301 redirects would maintain the current search rankings for terms such as SEO blog but it doesn’t seem worth unnecessarily risking this. The other issue to consider was the loss of Technorati ranking, not a major ranking factor but when you see many SEO blog lists ordered by Technorati scores it’s always nice to be included and get a link back! :)

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Kevin Gibbons is Founder/Director of Strategy at SEOptimise. Kevin is well known within the search industry as a blogger for sites such as Search Engine Land, Econsultancy and Search Engine Watch. Kevin is also a frequent SEO speaker at a number of conferences including Search Marketing Expo (SMX), Search Engine Strategies (SES), a4uexpo, SAScon and BrightonSEO.