4 key SEO tips for Website Redesigning!

The world wide web is constantly changing and to make sure your business keeps pace, it is important to be up to date with the latest trends and technologies. And this is why companies decide they need a website redesign.

Of course, there are other reasons too like re-branding the business, updating the website to reflect the present status of the company in the market, deleting old pages and uploading new information, better marketing fluff and so on. However, search engine considerations are the most forgotten part in the website design process.

Website owners are so involved with creating a new look and feel for the website that they often fail to evaluate the SEO implications of their actions. They realize it only when the website is done and ready and there are fluctuations in the rankings of the website. But that is only when precious revenue is lost in terms of traffic, leads and sales.

To look after your website’s organic performance, here are 4 SEO tips that you should adhere to while redesigning your website.

Strengthen the Information Architecture

Usability should be the key concern while designing the information architecture of the website. However, you should also consider including some SEO objectives for the usability process. Search engine optimization should not come after the website has been launched. Rather, it should be a key consideration throughout the design and development of the project.

Draft a set of relevant keywords that encompasses the essence of your company and business. Then make sure your website has pages that are devoted to those keywords so that search engine has relevant content when their crawlers come to index your website.

Make sure you add new pages to your website, especially if you are deleting certain pages. This is because you don’t want the search engines to think that your website is shrinking. Rather you should tell them that its growing. The deleted pages would obviously take with them their search engine credibility so you would need something to compensate the loss.

Don’t Change the URLs

When you change the URLs of your web pages, the new URLs would be treated as completely new pages by the search engines. All the search engine credibility of the previous pages would be lost along with the URLs.

Therefore, focus on creating web pages with SEO friendly URLs and light code, whether you’re working on a WordPress web design project or any such CMS platforms. If any URL changes are made in the redesign project, make sure you’re linking old page to new with a 301 redirect; this helps Google see where your content has moved to on the updated site. The aim here is to make sure all the pages of your website are able to rank well in the search results, not just your homepage.

Update the Website Content

Search engine crawlers are always on the lookout for new and fresh content. And there is no better opportunity than the redesigning process to upload new content on your website. Unlike blogs, it is not possible to change the contents of the website, especially on core pages like the homepage, on a regular basis. So, make sure you take the opportunity to upload useful, refreshed content on such pages. Ideally, focus on updating the content on the homepage of the website, followed by lesser supporting content on the internal pages.

Launch the website Carefully

Don’t forget to run down the last minute check list before launching the newly redesigned website. Don’t rush to launch your new site, you want to make sure the site is fully checked with all issues resolved ahead of launch. The search engine rankings of your website depend on a variety of factors, including the website structure, the design and layout, and the content. Making sure these are all as you want them ahead of the launch is key to looking after your website’s rankings.

Want some more SEO advice?

Check out our top SEO tips for further guidance with your SEO strategy. And if you have a website project you want to discuss with us, then do get in touch. We’d love to find out how we can help.