How to Not Damage SEO During a Website Redesign Process
Redesigning a website can significantly impact your SEO if not managed correctly. Many businesses experience a loss of rankings and traffic, loss of link equity, broken pages, sluggish page loading, poor mobile experience, broken internal links, and duplicate content during a redesign. Here's a comprehensive guide to help you navigate a website redesign without compromising your SEO.
Common SEO Issues During a Website Redesign
When redesigning a website, several common issues can arise, potentially harming your SEO efforts:
Loss of link equity: Valuable backlinks pointing to your site may be lost if URLs are changed or content is removed.
Loss of rankings and traffic: A major concern, as changes can disrupt established search engine rankings.
Sluggish page loading: New designs can introduce elements that slow down page load times, negatively impacting user experience and SEO.
Duplicate content: New content structures can inadvertently create duplicate content, confusing search engines and diluting SEO value.
Broken pages: Pages may be deleted or moved without proper redirects, leading to 404 errors.
Broken internal links: Internal links may no longer point to the correct pages, disrupting site navigation.
Poor mobile experience: A redesign may not always consider mobile users, leading to a subpar experience on smartphones and tablets.
Keep a Backup of the Old Site
A crucial but often overlooked step is to keep a backup of your old site. This allows you to restore the original site if anything goes wrong during the redesign process.
- Developer readiness: Ensure your developer is prepared to implement this fallback strategy. They should be able to redirect the domain to the folder containing the old site, making the changes effective almost immediately. Ensure they do not overwrite current databases.
- Self-backup: It's prudent to make a backup yourself. Check if your hosting provider offers a backup tool or use a plugin like Updraft if you’re using WordPress or a similar CMS.
Test Staging Site for Mobile Friendliness and Core Web Vitals
Before going live, test your staging site for Core Web Vitals (CWV) and mobile friendliness to ensure compliance with Google’s page experience guidelines.
- Impact on site performance: A redesign can affect site speed, stability, responsiveness, and mobile experience. Some issues, such as excessive animations or improper mobile scaling, are easily noticeable. Others, like unoptimized code, are not.
- Developer testing: Request your developer to run mobile friendliness and CWV tests on template pages as soon as they are ready. Tools like Google Lighthouse can be used on a password-protected site for this purpose.
Run a Site Audit Pre and Post-Launch
Conducting SEO audits before and after the launch can help identify and address issues caused by the redesign.
- Pre-launch audit: This helps uncover existing SEO issues that need to be resolved before the new site goes live.
- Post-launch audit: This ensures any new problems introduced by the redesign are promptly identified and addressed. Key issues to watch for include unwanted noindex pages, sites accessible via both HTTP and HTTPS, and broken pages.
Keep the Old URL Structure
Maintaining the old URL structure is crucial to avoid SEO pitfalls. Changes in URL structure can lead to broken redirects, broken backlinks, broken internal links, and orphan pages.
- Avoid structural changes: Unless absolutely necessary, avoid altering the URL structure. If changes are required, implement appropriate redirects and submit a new sitemap via Google Search Console to help Google update its index.
Retain Important Organic Pages
During a redesign, it's common to prune content or delete older pages. However, it’s essential to retain pages that already rank well.
Identify high-performing pages: Use tools like Ahrefs’ Site Explorer to identify top pages and those with valuable backlinks. Retaining these pages helps preserve traffic and link equity.
Minimize Modifications to High-Ranking Pages
When redesigning, be cautious with changes to top-ranking pages to avoid negatively impacting their SEO.
- Keywords and content depth: Ensure keywords in text, titles, and H1 tags remain relevant. Any changes to content should enhance user value and align with search intent.
- Internal links and schema markup: Be strategic with internal links and ensure schema markup accurately reflects the content. Avoid heavy graphics and animations that could slow down the page.
- Page speed: Pre-test the staging site for CWV and conduct a site audit immediately after launch to ensure optimal performance.
Final Thoughts
Redesigning a website presents an opportunity to improve its aesthetics and functionality, but it can also disrupt your hard-earned SEO gains. By following these guidelines, you can ensure a smooth transition that preserves your search rankings and traffic.
Remember, SEO is an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and adjustment. While changes are inevitable, understanding their impact and planning accordingly will help maintain and enhance your website's SEO performance.
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