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It\u2019s best practice to maintain a modern, functional website. A redesign should be considered every few years. If you\u2019re in the market for a redesign, it\u2019s important to keep SEO in mind throughout the process. While a new, bright and shiny website is nice, it\u2019s only worthwhile if it\u2019s generating traffic. Here\u2019s a list of SEO items to consider during a website redesign:<\/p>\n
No matter how great the new website looks, that\u2019s not what the search engine spiders \u201csee.\u201d It\u2019s the crawlable text content on the site that is used to determine keyword relevancy and rank. During the website redesign process, it makes sense to review the site\u2019s content for quality and accuracy purposes. If it\u2019s determined that the content is outdated and needs to be updated, it\u2019s important to consider the keywords used on the page and incorporate them into the new content as long as they are still relevant. If you\u2019re thinking about removing text altogether because you don\u2019t like the way it looks or think it\u2019s not needed or obvious, think twice. Even if you don\u2019t think your visitors need this text, the search engine spiders do. Instead of removing it, consider re-locating it on the page or using JavaScript that can be crawled by the search engines as rollover text that only appears when the mouse hovers over a certain spot.<\/p>\n
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\nIf the site has already been properly optimized and the content isn\u2019t changing, the meta information shouldn\u2019t change either and should be carried over on all pages. You never want the title tag to revert to \u201cHome\u201d or \u201cServices\u201d or any other generic placeholder. The title, meta description, and H tags should all remain intact for every page of the website, including blog posts, which can be huge drivers of organic traffic for some websites.<\/p>\n
Ideally, the URL structure of the site should remain the same. But if the website currently has a funky, non-user-friendly URL structure that doesn\u2019t accurately represent the content on the page, it\u2019s the perfect time to update the URLs. A 301 re-direct will help to preserve SEO efforts as much as possible. There might be a slight dip and recovery period, but if the URLs were messy to begin with you will be better off in the long run.<\/p>\n
Every website should be responsive today. If for some reason you are late to the game, make sure that the new website design is responsive.<\/p>\n
During the redesign process, you never want to sacrifice usability for looks. Make sure that any design element you\u2019re using doesn\u2019t slow down the site. Page load time is a usability factor which affects rank. Load time should be under 5 seconds on every page, ideally even less than that.<\/p>\n
Make sure that the new site isn\u2019t indexed while it\u2019s in testing mode so that two versions of the site aren\u2019t being crawled, indexed, and ranking in the search engines.<\/p>\n
Two of the best SEO reporting tools at your disposal are Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Before launching the new site, it\u2019s important to add the GA code and verify Search Console so there is a smooth transition and you can easily see what the traffic looked like before, during, and after the transition. Search Console specifically will provide technical, back end SEO information that is useful if any traffic dips occur.<\/p>\n