As the eCommerce market changes, it may be necessary to change your website to stay competitive in your industry. For most websites, it is best to overhaul your entire site every few years rather than make small changes here and there. However, there is often hesitation about opting for the redesign because it could cause problems with all the hard work you have done on your SEO. At Unwired Web Solutions, our experts offer search engine optimization services for websites that have been redesigned. Just because you have a new website doesn’t mean you should lose your placement within search rankings.
Maintain the Website URL Structure
When redesigning a website, all existing website URLs should be kept as is. This is especially true for pages that are ranking organically. Retaining this structure means that the web design team can upgrade the design and content of the page, but the website address will stay the same.
If you have spent time building up links and rankings for the page, changing the URL could run the risk of losing the SEO value of that page. To avoid losing any SEO ranking, audit your existing sitemap before starting a redesign. This can avoid any problems when linking new pages together, making adjustments to the navigation, or changing page names.
Be Careful with 301 Redirects
Many people find that at some point in the redesign process of their website, they will need to delete a page or change its URL address. If this is done, a 301 redirect must be set up correctly. If these redirects are not in place, visitors and search engines will receive a 404 error, stating that the page cannot be found. This will not only deter potential customers but can also negatively impact your SEO rankings.
Improve Your Web Content
A site redesign is a perfect opportunity to improve your website content. Most businesses don’t update their website content outside of a web project, so this is a perfect time to edit descriptions of your products and services while considering specific cues for the search engines, such as relevant headings and keywords. This is also the perfect opportunity to revisit blog posts that are not performing well and update the content.
However, if you have pages that rank very well for a specific keyword, avoid drastically changing or deleting many critical headlines. The H1 and H2 tags on a web page are vital for SEO.
Closely Monitor Site
It is crucial to monitor a website for the first couple of months after the redesign. Even with the best quality control process, some website issues are very difficult to detect before launch.
Using Google’s search console can help to detect indexing errors, mobile functionality errors automatically, and crawl errors for your website. With Google being the most popular search engine globally, fixing errors related to their indexing is paramount.
After your new website has launched, run several speed tests and watch for slow load times, especially on the home page. With Google’s latest rollout, this is one function of a website that plays a significant role in SEO rankings.
A Long-Term Strategy
SEO is a long-term marketing strategy that is constantly changing. Search engines are consistently running updates and finding ways to improve indexing and their understanding of web content. When doing a redesign, the best way to keep your site ranking is to draw on the SEO progress you have already have in place.
Our experts at Unwired Web Solutions are happy to help with any search engine optimization services when doing a redesign. Don’t lose out on all the hard work you have already put into a website. Contact our team today to learn how we can keep your site on the top rankings.
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