Redesigning your website can be an exciting project that revitalizes your brand’s online presence, enhances the user experience, and draws in new visitors. However, a website redesign without careful planning can harm your existing SEO rankings, leading to lost traffic, lower visibility, and a negative impact on your business. At LAD Solutions, a leading SEO company in Los Angeles, we understand the challenges of maintaining proper SEO implementations during a redesign. Here’s a comprehensive guide to help you preserve your hard-earned SEO rankings during this crucial phase.
Start with a Full SEO Audit
Before diving into your redesign, conduct a thorough SEO audit of your current website. Identify high-performing pages, top-ranking keywords, and backlink profiles. This will give you an insight into what’s working and what needs improvement. Ensure documentation of each thing, including current URL structures, meta tags, and analytics data.
Tip: Use tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and other SEO auditing tools to gather data on your site’s current performance.
Plan Your URL Structure and Redirects
Changing URLs without implementing proper redirects is one of the many crucial mistakes during a website redesign that can cause organic traffic to drop. Changing URLs without 301 redirects can lead to broken links, 404 errors, and loss of SEO value. A 301 redirect informs search engines about a page’s permanent relocation, shifting the SEO authority from the previous page to the new one.
Tip: Create a 301-redirect map that lists all old URLs and their corresponding new URLs to ensure a seamless transition.
Preserve Content Structure and Optimize Where Needed
Your content is an important component of your SEO strategy. When redesigning your website, it’s essential to keep high-ranking content and page structures intact. Preserve the content that’s driving traffic, and only make improvements that enhance readability, engagement, and overall, SEO.
Tip: Avoid drastic changes to high-performing pages. If updates are necessary, optimize them with relevant keywords and enhanced formatting.
Maintain On-page SEO elements
On-page SEO elements such as meta titles, descriptions, header tags, and image alt texts are essential and should not be overlooked during the redesign of the website. Preserve or optimize these elements during the transition. Losing them can significantly impact your rankings and traffic.
Tip: Make a checklist of all on-page SEO elements for each page and ensure their implementation on the new redesigned site.
Test, Test, and Test Again
Before launching your redesigned website, it’s crucial to conduct extensive testing. Use SEO crawling tools to check for broken links, missing redirects, and other possible issues. Make sure all on-page SEO elements are in place, and confirm that the new design is responsive, mobile-friendly, and optimized for speed.
Tip: Use tools like Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, or SEMrush to crawl your new site and identify any SEO issues before going live.
Monitor Performance after Launch
Once your redesigned website is live, closely monitor its performance. Keep an eye on organic traffic, rankings, and conversion rates. If you notice any significant drops, quickly investigate and address the issues.
Tip: make sure Google Analytics and Google Search Console are already set up to track changes and monitor site health post-launch. Keep reviewing your data regularly to catch and fix any SEO dips in traffic or rankings.
Update Your XML Sitemap and Submit It to Search Engines.
An updated XML sitemap helps search engines understand your new site structure and index your pages correctly. After launching your redesigned site, update your XML sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Tip: Don’t forget to check for any crawl errors in the days following your sitemap submission to ensure everything is functioning correctly.
Overall, redesigning your website doesn’t have to come at the expense of your SEO. With careful planning, proper execution, and diligent monitoring, you can maintain—and even improve—your SEO rankings during a redesign.
The post Redesigning Your Website? Here’s How to Keep Your SEO Intact first appeared on LAD Solutions.