Redesign SEO: Smart Strategies on How to Safeguard Your Search Rankings

Website redesign is not optional. If you have a website, you will want to redesign it eventually. However, it is well-known among developers that SEO tends to suffer from redesign. The good news? It does not have to, at least not drastically. If you approach redesign SEO right, you can save your traffic and all the other good things a well-crafted SEO provides. So let’s take a look at the best practices in this field!

What Is Website Redesign SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a series of procedures that make your website rank higher in search engine results. It is a crucial element of your marketing since it ensures organic traffic. Search engines rank your website alongside many other ones based on the indexing and crawling that they perform. You can let an engine know that your website is worth ranking by using keywords and backlinks, creating content that is useful and well-optimized, and making user experience as smooth as possible. Regarding the latter, things like navigation and load speed matter.

When you redesign, you often move parts of your website — or the whole thing — around, and it is important to keep the key principles of SEO. Search engines are likely to be confused if you make too many changes, and a lot of links, including backlinks, might get broken. That is why you need to take care of redesign SEO, to ensure that your positions in rankings are preserved. 

What Exactly Can Go Wrong During a Redesign for SEO?

There are a few common issues that happen to your SEO during a website redesign.

• Sometimes, redesign does not involve SEO until the very end. Redesign is a technical project, right? You need to code — you do not have time for content. Well, wrong! You need to consider SEO from the very beginning. You should involve an SEO specialist (or be one yourself) and follow their advice on various aspects of SEO for your redesigned pages. In addition, it is useful to have an editorial leader signing off on major changes.
• Redirect mapping must be a part of the plan for your post-redesign SEO, and it often is not. What it means is connecting old links to new ones. This guarantees that all the old links lead to the same content as before, which helps preserve traffic and avoid broken links. It can also limit the number of 404 pages. 
• You often change metadata and headings during redesign. That affects the things search engines have been tracking about your pages, which naturally makes your website rank lower. Tags and headings should be preserved wherever possible.
• The changes can affect site performance or user experience. For example, pages might take much longer to load. That also leads to lower rankings, as well as other issues like a high bounce rate. If people do not want to use your website, it will be ranked lower by search engines.

Google only loves you when everyone else loves you first.

Wendy Piersall, author

How to Redesign SEO with the Website?

You know what can go wrong. But how to redesign SEO right? Here are a few recommendations.

• First of all, you need to have a baseline. That means an SEO audit before you try to change anything. You need to know how your pages are performing. It will help you decide what to preserve and (later) determine if your redesign SEO is successful.
• Google Search Console is your friend! It can help with tracking search traffic, alerts you to technical issues and indexing errors, and generally assists with SEO-important things.
• Mapping is paramount. Create a spreadsheet with your URLs, old and new, and ensure that redirect mapping is done well.
• Keep the metadata and headings — export them from the old website and apply to the new one. 
• Do not ignore mobile optimization! Many search engines, including Google, are known for using the mobile version of a website for ranking and indexing first. 
• The backlinks issue can be solved through redirecting or contacting the big players that linked to you for a manual update.
• Testing before relaunching is crucial. Once you launch, all the possible errors are going to reach the user. Test extensively; it will help you in the long run to spend extra time on that step.
• When testing, crawl the website in search of broken links and lost metadata. 
• Testing also involves checking page loading speed. The faster it is, the higher you rank in search engines.
• Also consider 404 pages. They should look good and redirect the user to a portion of your website that can help. They can even have a search engine box!
• Make a follow-up audit a few weeks after the relaunch. Compare it to what you have found during the baseline audit. Are your pages still performing well?

My SEO Got Worse After Redesign. Now What?

It is quite possible that a redesign will hurt your SEO. You launched your website, and you see traffic and keyword positions get worse. Fortunately, you can fix that, even though it can take a few weeks or even months!

• Track your performance indicators! That is how you will learn whether your SEO is recovering or getting worse. That is also why you need to monitor your SEO at all times, but especially before and after the redesign. Key metrics are traffic, conversion, bounce, and keyword positions, along with user engagement and page loading time. 
• As you gather the data, figure out the likely issues. Google Search Console can help with that. 
• Do not panic! Remember that a small dip in indicators might be fine and not even redesign-related. However, a major dip after the redesign is most likely connected to an issue you need to find and solve.

As long as you observe and monitor, you will be able to restore your SEO. 

In Conclusion

Your position in search engine rankings is delicate. To redesign SEO is very important to keep those positions. Use redirect mapping, take care of the metadata and headings, and to keep in mind mobile optimization. Also use insights from the pre-redesign audit and combine them with metrics of the new launch to see if you are successful in your SEO. Test extensively and remember that a small dip is fine! However, a large one requires investigating and figuring out what is not working.