The Internet is constantly changing with new trends and technologies daily, and if you don’t keep your website up to date, you will only get left behind. However, redesigning your website is a delicate process that should be done with caution. If you make changes carelessly, you could end up damaging your website’s ranking in search engines.
Here’s Why You Need to Consider SEO in a Website Redesign
A well-functioning website could drop significantly in search engine rankings if SEO is not factored into the redesign process. SEO could be affected if it is not taken care of during the process of redesigning. So while website updates need to be done on a regular basis, you also need to make sure that you don’t sabotage anything that is working.
To ensure this does not happen, let’s take a look at some of the steps to be followed to ensure that this will not happen:
• Audit the Old Site
• You need to check the old site to determine what was wrong, including which pages they are ranking for. It will help to create a list of what to do right with the new website. An SEO audit is a process of evaluating the effectiveness of your website’s presence against best practices.
Some involved while doing an SEO audit are as follows:
• Crawl your site
• Perform a manual search on Google
• Carry out technical SEO checks on-site
• Manage your external and internal links
• Check the speed of your website
• Check your website for offsite SEO and do a backlinks check
Content and Information Architecture
When information architecture, site, and overall content are changed during the redesign, these can impact SEO. You need to make sure that the pages that are useful for your SEO strategy are not left out of your website in the future. You should also make sure that the design doesn’t dilute the theme and overall message of your website.
On-page Optimisation
You must maintain the relevance of the content. Work proactively to protect or optimize at the page level for specific elements include URLs, page titles, headers, meta descriptions, body copy, alt text, and so on, that contribute to relevance. Moreover, make sure that your target keyword is present in your URL and throughout the page. Tracking topics and keywords for every page will help you to keep on top of this.
Back It Up
There is a possibility of data loss in a website redesign process, so it is important to back up your website. However, if you fail to back your website up, there is a chance that you will lose all of the hard work you have done so far, and this will ultimately have an adverse effect on your SEO.
Create a Safe Staging Environment
You should not directly make changes to the live website. Instead, a staging environment should be created, with a temporary URL to check everything first. A staging environment provides you with many benefits, including protection- from code, making fixes, and finger-pointing, poor performance.
Ensure Proper Redirects
In the redesign process, it is crucial to ensure proper redirects are there may arise the possibility of having broken links. After all, broken links are not only detrimental in terms of user experience, but they can be damaging in terms of your website’s relationship with Google.
Re-configure Google Webmaster / Google Search Console
After a redesign, it’s important to reconfigure Google Search Console, including the new sitemaps. Sitemaps are critical because they efficiently inform search engines about the changes made to your website. In addition, a sitemap can also help with canonical URLs and website planning. You can also use tools like Google Search Console to make sure that you have not missed any broken links.
Do a Post-Launch SEO Audit
An SEO audit will allow you to make sure that everything is working as expected. Otherwise, you can make changes quickly before they significantly damage your site and rankings.
Monitor Changes
After the overhaul, it’s important to keep an eye on the performance data. Make sure you continue to monitor the changes and adapt your website accordingly.
SEO aspects to consider when designing a new website
There are several key SEO elements that you are going to need to keep in mind when you build a new website. This includes the following:
· Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
· Optimise your website for speed
· Ensure navigation is intuitive
· Optimise your site for voice search
· Add a blog
Hence, insight into the steps you need to take to make sure that SEO is carefully considered throughout the website redesign process.
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