Thread: What would be the effect on SEO to convert a standard html site to WP?

Originally Posted by Gewing5

I have a client who is wants to redesign their site. It is currently an html/php site. The customer has gotten some outside advice that the site will be better if it was completely built in WordPress. I think it's a bad idea. The site is currently very well ranked for most of the target keyphrases.

Does anyone have experience flipping a site to WP and the resulting effect on SEO?
Are there any good articles you are aware of about SEO and WP? I've read some stuff about various SEO plug-ins for WP and am unimpressed.

Thanks in advance for any tips, advice or pertinent resources!

As long as you build a sitemap and 301 Redirect all URL on the Static Site to the New Wordpress URLS you will maintain any backlinks that were built on the static site. Most people choose wordpress because it allows multiple people to blog without any real knowledge of HTML/PHP. With the current static site, any blogging will involve creating new pages with coding.

Our finding is that the Wordpress plugins allow you to add new features to a website without spending a lot (if any) money with website developers. For example, we added a forum plugin and have tons of new traffic from the forum where others are creating relevant content for us. This has exploded our growth in the search engines.

WordPress scares a lot of developers because of it's perceived "vulnerability" issues. This is a ridiculous notion. You can make a WP site as secure as any other.

WordPress can be flexed and extended to be anything you want it to be. You just need to find a developer who understands how to utilize "the loop".