It is not too uncommon to see app developers, before the app is launched, to launch a blog on the home page of the app’s domain name. This is done to gain traction on the domain name before the official app is actually live. But will moving the blog off the home page and replacing that with the app details on launch impact the site’s overall SEO and ranking in Google?

The answer is yes.

John Mueller of Google was asked this on Reddit where the question was:

Will changing the home page from the blog page to an app landing page damage SEO?

For some context, I still building the site; it has not launched. Right now the site is just a blog, which is acting as an MVP for an app I’m designing. Eventually, the home page will act as landing page for the actual app.

Will having the home page just be the blog for now, but change it to the landing page in the future, damage the SEO?

John Mueller’s response:

Sure it’ll change “SEO” (whatever you consider that to be), but if the app is what you want people to do, then focus on that.

But does that mean you shouldn’t try to build out the domain name of an app or product before it officially launches? I wouldn’t say it means that. It means that the rankings and SEO will change if you swap out the pages. It might make sense more to build a coming soon type of home page, with a blog on the inner structure. You can show blog posts on the lower portion of that home page and maybe even lower those blog posts down on the page when the official app page launches. But building up the domain name with content relevant to the overall app is not a bad strategy – it is probably recommended.

But yet, making drastic changes to the content of the home page will impact how that home page ranks in Google Search.

Forum discussion at Reddit.