| 1 |
On Wednesday 30 Sep 2015 01:28:51 Alan McKinnon wrote: |
| 2 |
> On 29/09/2015 22:00, Tanstaafl wrote: |
| 3 |
> > Hi all, |
| 4 |
> > |
| 5 |
> > I am not a web (or SEO) guy, but I manage our DNS and have for a long |
| 6 |
> > time. |
| 7 |
> > |
| 8 |
> > The boss has contracted with a web development company to do a full |
| 9 |
> > redesign of our website. |
| 10 |
> > |
| 11 |
> > Our website has hundreds of thousands of pages, and years of SEO behind |
| 12 |
> > it. The guys who was her until recently was adamant that we must be very |
| 13 |
> > carefl with the redesign so as not to totally break SEO, and possibly |
| 14 |
> > getting blacklisted by Google. |
| 15 |
> > |
| 16 |
> > The web developers are insisting that they need full access to our DNS |
| 17 |
> > (hosted by DNSMadeEasy), and the only reason I can think of for this is |
| 18 |
> > they plan on setting up HTTP redirects (DNSMadeEasy equivalent of a 301 |
| 19 |
> > redirect) for these pages - but hundreds of thousands of them? |
| 20 |
> |
| 21 |
> I've been thinking about this some more. |
| 22 |
> |
| 23 |
> We all assumed "full access" means "so we can change stuff". Maybe it |
| 24 |
> really means they want to see what's in "dig axfr" (a zone transfer) |
| 25 |
> which they normally can't see. There are TXT records in DNS that they |
| 26 |
> might be interested in. |
| 27 |
> |
| 28 |
> It would be wise to clarify with the devs exactly what it is they are |
| 29 |
> looking for. |
| 30 |
> |
| 31 |
> And overall, in your shoes I would be firm, adamant and above all polite |
| 32 |
> and say that infrastructure changes go through you and you alone, and |
| 33 |
> must be vetted by you with full transparency. |
| 34 |
> |
| 35 |
> > Wouldn't this be better done at the web server level? Or am I just |
| 36 |
> > ignorant? |
| 37 |
> > |
| 38 |
> > Would love to hear experiences (good and bad), and a recommendation for |
| 39 |
> > what I should do. |
| 40 |
> > |
| 41 |
> > thanks |
| 42 |
|
| 43 |
I couldn't agree more with all the warnings that have been posted. However, |
| 44 |
it may simply be that they want to build a new website and they want to |
| 45 |
redirect your DNS from your currently hosted server to theirs. Are they |
| 46 |
offering SaaS, or will you be hosting the new website on prem? In any case, |
| 47 |
they could just ask you to do this, if you agree. Given that "possession is |
| 48 |
nine-tenths of the law" I would not let them anywhere near your DNS records - |
| 49 |
period. |
| 50 |
|
| 51 |
With regards to being blacklisted by Google, you have to be careful indeed. |
| 52 |
Google will blacklist bad code and malicious code. If your code is clean, you |
| 53 |
don't fill your metadata with repetitive cr*ap and your topic is not faced |
| 54 |
with a competition of millions selling exactly the same undifferentiated |
| 55 |
product, then you should be OK in organic listing rankings. Having mirrored |
| 56 |
websites on different DNS' will also blacklist you, although DNS or http |
| 57 |
redirects are of course legit. |
| 58 |
|
| 59 |
A lot of so called SEO companies are not actually streamlining the content and |
| 60 |
metadata, but exploiting paid-for Google Ads and in a non-transparent way to |
| 61 |
milk the customer, on top of the Google charges. Most of these companies set |
| 62 |
up Google Ads once and rarely if ever come back to to tune it. I couldn't |
| 63 |
care to list the number of websites we switched off Google Ads and saw no |
| 64 |
discernible different in the rankings. |
| 65 |
|
| 66 |
BTW, although SEO is not rocket science its not something you would leave to |
| 67 |
your marketing people alone, or for that matter to your coding people alone. |
| 68 |
You need both. |
| 69 |
-- |
| 70 |
Regards, |
| 71 |
Mick |
Archives