Launching a new redesigned website is an exciting time. But the excitement can turn to horror if your new site loses search engine rankings.
Here are three key elements you need to take into account when you are redesigning your already optimised-website to help you keep those all-important search rankings:
1. URLs
Avoid changing URLs if you can. If you do change URLs, ensure you provide a seamless journey for search engines robots and your human visitors by using a 301 redirect from old URLs to the new URLs.
Do this for every new URL if possible. If not, at least do it for your most popular entry pages. It’s also a good idea to update links across the new site so they don’t rely on 301 redirects – a further hint to the search engines that those pages have moved.
2. Content
Know which pages provide your search traffic and ensure that any content is transferred to the corresponding pages on the new site. Content includes title tags, meta-descriptions, H1 tags, images and body text as well as anchor text for links and navigation menus.
Think hard before making changes to any content. Rankings are always likely to be affected by a new site so it might be worth waiting until the new site is live and indexed by the major search engines before making tweaks to your existing content. That way you can monitor changes in rankings more easily.
3. Flexibility
Once you’re happy with your new site, be ready to make changes once it’s gone live as you’re sure to spot further issues.
Ensure that web developers and whoever is responsible for the SEO are available in the first few hours after go-live to spot issues and make changes if required – so it’s probably best not to launch on a Friday afternoon.
Check all your redirects are working and rectify any issues as soon as you can – ideally you want your site ready for when the search engines come along and index it.
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