When you want to make a new design for your website, it’s important to make sure your website doesn’t lose its place on search engines like Google.
This SEO checklist will help you keep and even improve your website’s ranking on search engines.
Why Website Redesign Matters:
A new website can be a great chance to make your site better for search engines, get more people to visit, and boost your online marketing. However, if you’re not careful, it can also make your website’s ranking on Google go down.
The Cautionary Tale:
Imagine a small charity website that helps people with multiple sclerosis (MS). They decided to make their website look better. After a long and complicated redesign that took a year, their new website launched. But, instead of getting more visitors, their organic (non-paid) traffic dropped by over 90%. It was a big problem.
They had to work hard to fix it and managed to recover most of their traffic, but it was tough. Later, they made a new site and thought about SEO (making your site better for search engines) from the beginning, and it worked out much better.
The Main SEO Checklist:
To make sure your website redesign goes well for SEO, follow these steps:
1. Understand What Works Now:
- Know which keywords and pages bring in visitors.
- Make sure to keep what’s working when you redesign.
2. Know the Common Problems:
- Understand what can change during a redesign.
- Some changes can harm your SEO, like moving or deleting content.
3. Plan for the Redesign:
- Set clear goals for your new website.
- Aim to keep your existing rankings and traffic or make them better.
The Redesign Checklist:
1. Keep the Old Site Hidden:
- Keep the old site somewhere safe and hidden from search engines.
- This helps if something goes wrong during the redesign.
2. Save Old Site Data:
- Save a copy of your old site.
- It helps to have the old data for reference.
3. Don’t Change Everything:
- Try to keep the same URLs (web addresses) and page names if possible.
- Only change things if it’s really necessary.
4. Set Up 301 Redirects:
- Redirect old URLs to new ones.
- This helps users and search engines find your new pages.
5. Keep Good Content:
- If you have content that works well, don’t change it too much.
- You can always improve it later.
6. Optimize Page Elements:
- Keep important things like page titles and descriptions the same if they work.
7. Update Backlinks:
- Update any links pointing to your site.
- This helps search engines find your new site faster.
8. Watch Internal Links:
- Be careful when changing links inside your site.
- Too many changes can hurt your rankings.
9. Update XML Sitemap:
- Make sure your sitemap (a list of all your pages) matches your new site.
- It helps search engines understand your new site.
10. Monitor Rankings and Traffic: – Keep an eye on how your website is doing after the redesign. – If you see problems, try to fix them.
11. Do a Technical Audit: – Use a tool to check for technical issues on your site.
12. Use Google Search Console: – This tool from Google helps you track your site’s performance.
Planning is the key to a successful website redesign. When you think about SEO from the start and follow this checklist, you can launch your new site with confidence and keep or improve your search engine rankings.