A Guide From Semalt On How To Avoid SEO Disaster During A Website Redesign


Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Backup
  3. Index the website at the right time
  4. Attend to redirects on time
  5. Change SEO gradually
  6. Upgrade hosting
  7. Keep the User Experience in mind
  8. Get a professional to do the Job
  9. Conclusion

Introduction

A website could be re-designed for many reasons such as for modernization purposes, to keep up with search engines changes, mandates, or updates. It could also be to keep up with new internet marketing trends and updates, or to remain relevant in the competitive market with competitors. For some companies, this is done every two to three years. Doing this helps them to achieve the goals aforementioned, and makes their site optimized. 

SEO (search engine optimization) is very important for websites. Search engines are what determines which site pops up when certain keywords are searched for by users. They employ crawlers (called search engine crawlers) to check out what a website is about, what they offer, its purpose, and its authenticity. Optimizing a search engine involves making changes to a website to help make the website easy to find when certain search engines are being used.

The result of SEOs is always supposed to be positive because it provides users with a clearer understanding of the site, along with faster site loading speed, user-friendliness, and a lot more concerning user experience. However, when done wrongly, it can lead to the loss of all rankings. Search engine crawlers could also get suspicious of a website and tag it as spam when the redesigning is done too quickly. 

Since a website is meant to go through redesigning as often as possible, how can a website owner avoid SEO disaster during this process? Here is what you can do.


Backup

Yes, the entire process would be done on a trusted computer, and it should automatically save your progress as well as your files and documents. However, it is highly advisable to make this a conscious effort to back up before beginning the process of the website redesign. With a backup, all old databases and files are safe for whenever they might again be needed. 

Index the website at the right time

The next step is to ensure that the website is indexed at the right time. This is to avoid losing all keyword ranking. If the website is not indexed, the website could also get penalized by Google for duplicate content. However, this has to be done at the right time. 

It is done too early (that is, before the appropriate time), it can lead to an overwhelming amount of duplicated content. And when is too late, that is, after the appropriate time - the website owner can lose many or all of the keyword rankings. This means that all SEO efforts previously attempted would have to be restarted from scratch.


Attend to redirects on time

After indexing the website, the next aspect to pay attention to is the redirects. They are very important in ensuring a website's successful migration. And to do this, Google Analytics and Search Console should be installed. This is the first step to ensuring that redirects are handled appropriately and professionally. 

When using these applications, make sure that they are using the same code as the previous website, because all data and keyword rankings could be lost otherwise. Next, a site map of the existing live site should be pulled up and cross-checked. This is to help in the decision of how the migration will go. The URL structure also has to be decided on. Although, it can be kept as the same (since this would reduce redirects), or it can be changed.

All redirects should then be implemented within the first twelve (12) to twenty-four (24) hours after the new site has been launched. Ensure that there are no broken back-links on the site and every URL that ends with extensions and file names like .html, should be converted to a more user-friendly URL. 

An important thing to note however is that, before the new website is launched, all the URLs that need redirecting should be compiled in a spreadsheet or a clear list so that the next step would be organized and direct. This would help to keep the SEO intact.

Change SEO gradually

As mentioned in a previous section, doing things too quickly is the recipe for disaster when it comes to SEO and Website Redesigning. This is because SEO is extremely delicate and any sudden or suspicious change could lead to the search engine crawlers on a spy mode towards the website. Instead, it is better to create a plan that can help with a steady, slow, and precise change of the SEO on the Website. 

The contents can be changed slowly over time, and the internal linking can remain the same as the old websites until much later. The meta and titles can also remain the same while all headings can be copied. However, the plan goes, ensure that it is all done slowly and steadily with a precise plan. 


To change the SEO requires a lot of time and conscious effort, and some companies might not be able to afford this time. Therefore, many companies hire an SEO expert like Semalt to help in updating the content as frequently as it should be updated, incorporate the keywords expertly, and put out information on the website. This way, the company can be assured of a positive result regarding SEO turnout in the long run. 

Upgrade hosting

Whenever a website redesign is being effected, it generally means the company is going through a website upgrade. And with a website upgrade should come a hosting upgrade. This helps to make the website better because of the additional resources that the upgrade offers. Bugs with the website will also be fixed with an upgrade. 

However, keeping a website hosting upgraded isn't free. It comes at a cost but the cost is well accounted for. With an upgraded hosting, the site would have a faster loading speed and would be free from interruptions or slowdowns from hosting of lower quality.

Keep the User Experience in mind

It is advisable to focus on the user experience when redesigning your website to avoid SEO disaster. This is because SEO depends greatly on user experience. Also, search engine crawlers lookout for the user-friendliness of a website for optimization. When there are too many click-on like pop-ups, call to action (subscribe to a newsletter, etc), or other related click-on, users get frustrated. This generally lowers the website's bounce rate and Google ranking. 

This does not mean that the website should be free from click-on or pop-ups, however, these features (just like changing an SEO) should be done slowly and gradually with a precise plan at hand. Use the illustration below to get a quick understanding of how the user experience can affect the SEO of your website during redesigning. 

When a website has a regular customer / reader (that comes on the site every day to collect information), he/she is used to a certain website structure. Then suddenly, one day, the customer opens the page and sees a new site flow with too many pop-ups and click-on. He / she would be overwhelmed and confused. And 7 in 10 readers would leave the site. This would lead to a disaster with the website's SEO. 

However in another case where the regular customer logs in and sees one added feature, he / she gets inclined to use the feature often. And when he / she gets used to it, another feature can be added. This is gradual and in fact, results in positive growth for the website's SEO. People need to be gradually led into new experiences instead of blowing them up in their faces all at once.

Get a professional to do the Job

So far, we've focused on how to avoid SEO disaster when redesigning your website. However, if the redesigning isn't done the right way, it can lead to a permanent catastrophe on the website. And fixing this issue would cost more time and money than doing it right in the first place. Some companies also do not have the time to do it all the right way. 



Therefore, it is advisable to hire a professional in a website redesign. It is even better when a company that deals in SEO as well as website design is hired because they would know the relationship between a website and the delicate SEO. This is what Semalt offers. The team would be concerned about this relationship and how to work both sides to effect a good result. 

Conclusion

A website redesign can cause SEO disasters when it is done the wrong way, and it could reveal this when rankings are lost, and readers continue to leave the site frustrated. This happens especially when the site gets indexed during development (at the wrong time), or when too many things are done at the same time or too quickly. 

The right approaches to avoiding SEO disasters when redesigning involve indexing at the right time, handling redirects effectively in a professional manner, and changing the SEO steadily with a precise plan in place. The best way, however, is to hire a professional in SEO and website redesign to help manage this activity. This is so that the website owner or company can avoid unnecessary costs to repair the damage done by wrongly redesigning the website. 

Interested in SEO? Check out our other articles on the Semalt blog.