How to Plan a Website Redesign Without Losing SEO Performance
Updated: 4 days ago
Around half (53% according to BrightEdge research) of website visitors originate from natural search results. By changing page URLs, text or internal linking when you redesign your site, you could suffer a loss in rankings within Google and therefore reduce the amount of visitors coming to your site. When designing through custom website design services, it’s important to have SEO targets in place before the initial design is approved. In this guide we show you how to retain your current rankings, prevent unnecessary loss in traffic and identify pages to improve.
Assess Your Current Website's SEO Performance
Measure: Organic Traffic, Rankings, and Conversions
Keep a summary of your site's performance as it is now so you can compare the old and new versions. If you consider a web design agency India, you should have:
Number of visitors your web pages get
Your rank on Google for key phrases
The speed of each page
Links from other sites to your pages
Identify High-Performing Pages & Priority URLs
By using free tools such as Google Search Console, you’ll be able to see which pages on your site are bringing the most traffic and leads/sales. If you’re working with a website design company in India, it’s a good idea to ensure your top-performing pages are considered an asset. Unless you have a good reason to do so, don’t go changing or deleting any of your popular pages.
Preserve Valuable Content and Existing SEO Signals
Preserve Page Content and Search Details
Redesigns often shorten the text or delete small details that help a page rank. On pages that perform well, keep:
The page titles and short descriptions shown in search results
The main headings and the written content
Links between your own pages
Descriptions attached to images
Project documents for web design services in India, as elsewhere, should list these items as required.
Map Old URLs and Add Correct Redirects
When updating your website, you will need to transfer current page links. You can do this by using (301) permanent redirects. The forwards should take users to the applicable place on your redesigned site. This indicates that not only will people be able to find the correct content, but it will also let the search engines know that it was updated. If there is no necessity to modify any link, then you can keep them as they are. Most custom website design services will offer 301 redirects, but be sure that they are included in your contract.
Situation | What to Do |
The page address has changed. | Link the old address to its replacement page. |
The page has been deleted. | Forward it to the most closely related page, not the homepage. |
Several pages were combined. | Redirect the old address to the new one. |
Test every redirect on a private test of the site before it goes live.
Validate Technical SEO Before and After Launch
Make Sure Google Can Find Your Pages
Do these tasks on the day of your launch:
Search the source of your main pages for the word “noindex”. Disable this. It tells the search engine not to show this web page.
Upload a sitemap. This is a formatted file consisting of all the pages you want to include.
Browse around the site to make sure there are no broken links.
Use the regular URL check feature to confirm your essential pages are specified.
If you're considering a web design agency India to build your website, you should go through the above points with them.
Monitor Traffic and Rankings Before Any Adjustments Are Made
Check your results against your saved snapshot.
Review them every week for the initial month and then do a regular monthly inspection. Small ups and downs are common after a redesign. If specific pages began to show a consistent drop in their rankings, this could indicate several problems, from lack of call to action to loss of relevant content and slow speed of pages. Address these problems quickly to whoever manages your site, for example, a website design company in India, so that they can be fixed early.
Conclusion
You can improve your business's online presence through an improved website without impacting your search engine rankings. Firstly, capture your current results. After that, identify your top-performing pages and save them. Then you will have to set up redirects so that people can easily find your past links. Be sure that Google can also locate your new pages. You can then look at your results after several months to see if they were helpful or could have been improved. If companies include these steps in their agreement with web design services in India, they can be confident they will retain their visitors and avoid making these mistakes when relaunching their website.
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