SEO Checklist for Website Redesign – Tips to Avoid Big Drops in Your keyword Rankings
Your website may need a makeover if it is not performing at its peak. After a website makeover and SEO strategy, one case study found that lead generation jumped by 314%!
How can you prevent a huge loss in your search engine rankings during the redesign? These pointers will assist you in implementing an efficient website redesign SEO checklist to guarantee that your new site puts your visitors first while also getting the advantages of SEO tactics that have previously performed effectively on your old site.
What Is a Website Redesign?
Know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish with your redesign before diving in. You may think a website makeover is simple enough, but there are really a lot of factors that go into it. The first step is to determine whether you need a complete site to revamp or if a modest update would do.
Building a website necessitates this step, which is natural and essential. Customers feel that the design of a company’s website is an important part of its brand, with as much as 50 percent saying this. To get expert help when it comes to website redesign, you can search online for an “SEO agency near me”.
Benefits of a Website Redesign
Throughout a website’s lifespan, it undergoes several alterations and redesigns. If you don’t keep up with your site’s upkeep, you might see a dramatic shift in your site’s performance.
In certain circumstances, you may even have to delete material or photos that are no longer relevant. At first glance, these adjustments may not appear significant. Still, they may have a long-term influence on the traffic and rankings of your website.
- Optimize your website’s SEO and performance.
- Make it simpler for the consumer.
- It’s time to evaluate your content marketing approach.
- Refresh the look of your website.
- Faster load times may be achieved by providing updated security measures.
Website Redesign SEO Checklist
- Audit Your Existing Content
If you have any existing content, such as blog entries, ebooks, videos, or social media postings, you may assess its SEO worth. By not properly optimizing your current material, you may be losing money. Another possibility is that your material is already optimized to the point where it doesn’t need further work. Don’t miss out on any chances to get to the top of the rankings.
First, gather data from all of your website’s URLs using a program like Screaming Frog.
Utilizing your analytics and Ubersuggest, do a comprehensive content audit and identify your most significant web pages, as well as those that have become obsolete and may be moved to other locations on your site. You can also hire an agency to help you out by looking for an “SEO company near me” on Google.
- Update Information Architecture
Ensure that your site’s information architecture is user-friendly and as simple as feasible for visitors before beginning a website redevelopment.
A simple site map can show you which pages are most essential and how your information is accessed by visitors.
Using heat maps, such as those provided by CrazyEgg or ClickTale, you can see where your visitors are clicking and where they are leaving your material altogether. Once you have a fresh design, do automated usability testing to see whether it works.
All of these factors have a role in how you arrange your website’s content, including its purpose, who visits, and what information is most important.
- Carefully Map URL Redirects
Broken internal links were found on 42.5 percent of the 150,000 websites analyzed by Semrush.
In the case of old or missing pages on your website, a URL redirect may help you redirect users from such pages to a more current or freshly built page.
Your site’s visitors don’t want to be sent to a 404 error page; therefore, you must plan your redirects properly.
- Improve the quality of the content you’re keeping
Keep just the information that meets your quality standards. Page load time, bounce rate, and keyword optimization are all elements that might influence how well your website performs in search engine results.
There may be a need to redesign or overhaul your present website if these stats aren’t up to snuff. Certain websites may benefit from SEO campaigns, but a site-wide overhaul may be necessary for others.
Redesigning an old website is a terrific way to give it new life and vigor. An increase of as much as 106 percent may be achieved by using this strategy alone.
Content deterioration is a given. Your top sites are pushed to the bottom of the search engine results page when new information becomes available, and rivals invest in their sites.
Improving your present pages is vital to avoid losing half of your organic traffic if you fall out of the top rank.
- Optimize Page Speed
The speed at which your website loads is an important factor in search engine rankings.
For example, if two of your rivals have sites that load ten seconds quicker than yours, you may expect those pages to rank better than yours.
Your chance to dominate Google’s search results will be hampered if your pages take too long to load. Some of the best advice on how to improve page speed and bounce rate while retaining a beautiful design can be found here.
- Update Your XML Sitemap
When search engines scan and index your website, they employ a sitemap to help them do so. It’s important to remember to keep your XML sitemap up-to-date as you make additions or modifications to existing pages.
With an SEO plugin like Yoast or AIOSEO, you don’t have to worry about manually entering every URL on your new site onto the map.
- Test Your Site After The Redesign Is Complete.
Testing how your website redesign affects search results is a must once you’ve completed it. Sites may see a decline in ranks for various reasons, including a lack of traffic.
You may hire a web designer specializing in SEO to do a thorough audit of your site before it goes live to guarantee that you don’t suffer any ranking decreases when your new site launches.
Don’t expect everything to be flawless the first time you redesign a website.
Your new site may be vulnerable to catastrophic consequences should it go live without being thoroughly tested beforehand.
Conclusion:
When it comes to a website redesign, it’s not just about making it more visually appealing. Plenty of technical issues must be taken care of, from XML sitemaps and redirects to H1 titles and meta descriptions. If you need a helping hand, searching on Google for “local SEO agencies near me” is a good way to start.
