Workers Comp Website – 10 Lessons Learned Since Last Week’s Switch
J&L moved its workers comp website provider last week. Many problems came up that need to be shared so that our article and newsletter readers will not have or be prepared for the same type of problems.
Our last workers comp website became slower and slower as we added graphics and SEO information into the articles. We took the plunge last week. Next up are the 10 problems to prepare for during the switch. The switch looked so easy. It was not as easy as advertised.
Switching a workers comp website (or any other type) –
The lessons learned were:
- Having an IT background does not matter – I have an intensive background, but not in new programming languages or website structures. I tried to import the website manually and boom and use importer software (see picture) that is what our website looked like.
- Pay for someone to do the switch at the new provider – an extension of my #1. After spending a whole Saturday freaking out as my IT background did not save the day. It was the best $30 J&L spent.
- It takes a week for the website to completely switch over – save your old website and emails for awhile. I switched back three times to my old website provider over the last three years as the grass was not greener in the new pasture. Most hosting services let you try out their website for 30 days. I switched back last time after 28 days.
- Delete (be careful) your old website on the old provider after you are sure the new provider worked for you and your company. Google HATES duplicate content – they will consider your new content as a copyright violation. Yes, they will do that very quickly. A website can be unranked very quickly by Google.
- Do it over a weekend as you will probably lose a few emails. I bcc:’ed all my outgoing emails back to another company email address to make sure the outgoing mail server was working.
- Find a good provider – not the cheapest – check the ratings
- Be extremely patient – a huge key to success, the Cutcompcosts website switch.
- Speed is now key in the Google ranking – UX is the new term for getting ranked. Google now measures how the website functioned for your visitors. Phone UX will become the new setting checked more by Google.
- Understand the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The second one is more of a
Wikimedia Commons – Victorgrigas freelance type of hosting service and web provider. The first one- WordPress.com websites can be very hard to move to another provider.
- Do not forget the visitors and users of your workers comp website. If you keep them in mind, your website will show it. Google now pushes user experience as the #1 consideration (makes sense).
- Bonus – The web is the new home of many shysters. One of the most recommended website providers in some articles is the one we just moved away from due to slowness and bad customer service. Check out this in-depth review of providers by type. Remember that cheap is not best.
- Bonus-Do not forget about phone and tablet access. Almost 1/3 of our visitors come from a phone. Your nice big website may need to be repurposed for the phone.
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