Re-doing your website? Make sure you have an SEO plan

Is it time that your company built a new website? Whether your business is flourishing or you just want to try a new design - it is critical to look at the build from an SEO perspective. A site relaunch is a big task and with so much going on it's important to not forget about your current site's SEO and its current links and rankings. Success will depend on the type of you relaunch are planning...

New skin?

If your redesign is only going to involve new visuals and branding, this shouldn't affect your current SEO. However, be aware that most redesigns involve amendments to information architecture, user experience and URLs - so make sure you monitor these updates so search engines can still read your site.

Brand new URL?

Changing URL is a tricky situation. You should ask yourself if it really is necessary - sometimes it is, but for the purpose of a brand refresh there should be no need to change your URL. If you are going ahead with a new domain name, you will experience a loss of traffic for a period of time; there are many reasons for this, one is user bias - users will usually click on familiar names or results related to keywords in their search.

Google also has difficulty trusting new domains, even if there are re-directs Google looks at the overall domain age and link equity when ranking, which will effect your SEO.

SEO expertise

We highly recommend that you have an SEO expert working with you throughout the entire site redesign, unaddressed SEO problems that already exist in your current site will most likely carry over to the new one. For our clients, we not only conduct a thorough audit, we also provide support for the entire redesign. From the content plan, functional requirements, wireframes and mock ups we can design the entire site and ensure SEO stability from development site to post-launch. 

_{image credit: contentmarketingsport.com}

Launch your launch

Give Google a greater chance of ranking your new site by starting a link-building campaign early on in the redesign process. Get the word out about your new site - use industry friends and social media to promote the re-launch, you can then ensure high rates of traffic after the go-live date.

Ranking won't happen immediately

If you're making a lot of changes to your pages and URLs - Google will need time to adapt and readjust your rankings to where they were before. However, keep an eye out for 404 errors. See how Google handles all of your 301s to make sure they are implemented correctly; Google Search Console can take a couple of days to get up to date with data. 

Final checklist before re-launch

• Do you have any duplicate content or missing titles? 
• Are all of your title tags 65 characters or less?  They need to appear in full not over-run. 
• Is your site mobile friendly? Have you checked it on multiple browsers?
• Are you using Google Analytics and web master tools to track progress? 

We know everything about launching a website and building its SEO, get in touch with us today to discuss your ideas.