Website Redesign: How to Safely Do it Without Impacting Your Search Engine Rankings

website redesign

When you’re considering a website redesign, it’s important to keep SEO in mind. After all, a successful redesign requires not only an aesthetic refresh but also a strategic update to your site’s architecture and content. If done incorrectly, a website redesign can have a negative impact on your search engine rankings and organic traffic.

Fortunately, there are a few key steps you can take to ensure your redesign doesn’t hurt your SEO. In this post, we’ll share how to safely redesign your website without impacting your search engine rankings.

When planning a website redesign, the first step is to audit your current site. This will help you identify any areas that need improvement and make sure your new site is even better. Here are a few things to look for in your audit:

1. Site speed:

A slow website can negatively impact your rankings and frustrate users. Make sure your new site is faster than your old one.

2. Mobile-friendliness:

With more people using mobile devices to browse the web, it’s essential that your site is optimized for mobile. Google now uses mobile-first indexing, so your site’s mobile version is what’s used to determine your rankings.

3. Content:

Take inventory of your current content and assess whether it needs to be updated or expanded. Make sure your new site includes fresh, relevant content that will appeal to both users and search engines.

4. UX:

Improve the user experience on your site with a redesign. Make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for and take action.

5. Technical SEO:

Fix any technical SEO issues on your site, such as broken links, duplicate content, or missing titles and meta descriptions.

6. Link to your old site:

Use 301 redirects to send traffic from your old site to your new one. This will help preserve your search engine rankings and avoid any disruptions to your traffic.

7. Test your new site:

Before launching your redesign, test everything to make sure it’s working properly. This includes testing all links, forms, and other functionality.

8. Monitor your traffic:

After launching your redesign, keep an eye on your traffic and rankings to make sure there are no negative impacts.

9. Update your sitemap:

Submit your new sitemap to Google so they can crawl and index your new site.

10. Promote your new site:

Once your redesign is live, promote it through social media, email marketing, and other channels.

11. Let Google know:

If you’ve made significant changes to your site, you can submit a change of address form to Google. This will help them update your listings and avoid any disruptions to your traffic.

12. Don’t make too many changes at once:

If you’re making a lot of changes to your site, it’s best to roll them out gradually. This will help you avoid any negative impacts on your traffic and give you time to fix any problems that arise.

Once you’ve completed your audit, you can start planning your redesign. When designing your new site, keep the following SEO tips in mind:

Use responsive design:

Responsive design ensures that your site can be viewed properly on all devices, from desktop to mobile. Google recommends using responsive design, as it makes it easier for them to crawl and index your site.

Keep your URL structure the same:

If possible, keep your URL structure the same when you redesign your site. This will help preserve your existing rankings and avoid any disruptions to your traffic.

Use clean, well-organized code:

Clean and well-organized code makes it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site. Be sure to use proper formatting and include all the necessary tags.

Optimize your images:

Images play a big role in your site’s load time, so be sure to optimize them for faster loading. Include alt text for each image to improve your site’s accessibility and help search engines understand what your images are about.

Implement schema markup:

Schema markup is code that helps search engines understand the content on your site. It can be used to mark up everything from reviews to events to products. Adding schema markup to your site can help improve your click-through rate and organic traffic.

A website redesign can be a great opportunity to update your site’s design, architecture, and content. However, if not done correctly, it can have a negative impact on your search engine rankings and organic traffic. In this post, we’ve shared how to safely redesign your website without impacting your search engine rankings. Following these tips will help you create a new site that is both user-friendly and search engine friendly.