How to redesign a website without compromising its SEO

If you are considering redesigning your website but have concerns about potential SEO rank loss, continue reading. This article is specifically tailored to address your concerns.

Are you familiar with the website Plenty of Fish?

The individual who constructed the website was utilizing it as a means to enhance their understanding of a new coding language. They were unaware of the unexpected success of the business, which now generates an annual income of $4 Million.

Here was his problem.

The individual is unsure of the reasons behind their website's success and is hesitant to make any changes due to this lack of understanding.

Having an existing website that ranks well in Google can sometimes feel like this.

You are uncertain of how you ended up in this situation, but you are apprehensive about making any changes to your outdated and unappealing website because it is currently receiving a significant amount of traffic due to its high Google ranking, and you fear that making any modifications could potentially jeopardize its valuable SEO rank.

The key to maintaining your SEO rank.

So, what to do?

If you find yourself in this situation, I want to assure you that I have personal experience with it. In fact, we just completed a complete site redesign within the last year. 

During our redesign, we were cautious about the potential impact on our SEO rank, but fortunately, we have not encountered any issues thus far.

We have assisted numerous clients in similar situations who required a redesign, while also prioritizing the preservation of their Google SEO rank.

This is the process we use to ensure our clients maintain their SEO ranking when updating their design.

Determine your current SEO ranking.

Before preserving your SEO ranking, it's important to determine your current rankings. There are a couple of ways to do this. One way is to check your Google Analytics and see which keywords are already bringing you traffic. Then, search those keywords on Google to see where you rank for them. Another option is to use a free software called Link Assistant, available at https://www.link-assistant.com/.

After identifying the keywords you currently rank for, it is recommended to transfer that data to a spreadsheet for documentation purposes. If it is determined that you are not currently ranking for any keywords, it may be necessary to start your SEO plan anew, as your previous efforts may not have been effective.

Please provide an overview of the current link structure and meta descriptions.

To establish the current link structure of your site, we transfer your existing sitemap to a spreadsheet. We input all the pages from your sitemap onto the spreadsheet and include the link for each page in a separate row. This is important for checking it against the new site structure.

Free Custom Mockup

You will receive the delivery of your new website within 7 days, with no cost or future obligation guaranteed.

Maintain the content as similar as possible in relation to search indexing.

This only applies to a specific page that is currently ranked highly on Google for a specific keyword. In these cases, it is recommended to keep the content unchanged. As the saying goes, "If it's not broken, don't fix it." If you are already on the top of page 1 of Google for a particular search term, it is advised to refrain from making any changes to your content as it may not improve your situation and could potentially worsen it.

Try to maintain the existing site architecture as much as possible.

When updating your sitemap, try to maintain the existing structure and linking. This is especially important if you have good rankings and want to avoid any negative impact. The main principle here is to not make unnecessary changes. You can make significant design updates while keeping the overall structure intact, ensuring you don't lose your position on Google.

Please set up redirects for all the modified URLs.

If any URLs on your pages were changed, it is important to set up redirects. This can be easily done on WordPress with the help of a plugin like the Redirection Plugin.

Ensure that all pages have properly maintained meta descriptions and tags.

When you search for something on Google, you see a list of blue titles with descriptions underneath. These descriptions are called meta descriptions. Webmasters can find the meta description for each page. If you don't have a meta description, Google will create one based on your page content. It's important to keep your meta description consistent. If your page ranks well and you have an existing meta description, make sure to keep it the same when moving your site.

To set up Google Analytics, you will need to configure it with Google Webmaster Tools.

It is important to add Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools before transferring the site over to prevent any loss of data and ensure proper indexing of the site during the process.

Prevent this frequently made error that negatively impacts SEO ranking.

If you have a WordPress website, read this paragraph carefully. During the development phase, a new website is typically created on a 'staging site'. This allows for proper display and gives the client a chance to make edits before the final launch. On a staging server, WordPress sites are usually set to 'discourage search engines from indexing this site'. To change this, go to the Settings > Reading section in the backend of your WordPress website and uncheck the box. It is crucial to do this when launching the new site to avoid losing all SEO traffic. There have been horror stories of beautiful websites that were launched without unchecking the checkbox and suffered significant loss in traffic. Protect yourself from this mistake.

Conclusion

To avoid losing SEO ranking during a site transfer, follow these steps closely. However, it is recommended to hire a professional for this task. Use this article as a checklist to ensure all steps are followed.

If you have a website with a strong SEO ranking and are in need of updates, our team can assist you. We have experience working with established websites that had high SEO rankings and successfully maintained them after launching their new website. Contact us today to learn more about our services and take advantage of our Free Mockup Offer.

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