SEO Guidelines for Web Redesign

The following SEO guidelines for web redesign will help you ensure you keep your valuable page rankings on search engines:

1.  Keep the old site live on a temporary web address, inaccessible to the web crawler. Having an old site to refer to can be a blessing in case of mishaps. Usually, some parts of the website will be archived on the web, but it is much better to have the real thing.

2. Keep the crawl data of your old website, even if you have the site on a temp URL. Crawl data can be helpful when you do any analysis.

3. Keep the same URL, as much as possible. Retain the same URL structure and page names if you can to minimize any errors.

4. 301 redirect is an important SEO guideline for web redesign. It should be your top priority. If possible, keep content on the same URLs when you redesign your website. List down all URLs on a spreadsheet on the old and new sites so you can roll out and test your 301 redirects. Once the new site is live, you will want to crawl the old list of URLs to ensure everything 301 redirects properly.

5. Retain content on web pages the currently perform well.

6. Keep the on-page SEO on your old site: page titles, meta descriptions, headers, etc. Transport them to your new site.

7. Gather the sites that send traffic, together with your best backlinks. Reach out to the webmasters to update these, where possible. Remember to prepare your 301 redirects so your updated backlinks can help get your new site indexed and ranking quickly.

8. Update your XML sitemap and submit it to search engines. Coordinate all your page structure, navigation, 301s, and XML sitemap. Specify the new site structure to help Google and Bing understand the changes as quickly as possible.

9. Monitor your rankings. Fluctuations are normal, but you should be able to revert back to a baseline within a month or so after the launching of your new website. If you have any issues, resolve them now.

10. Keep an eye on your organic traffic. It would be impossible to rank-track every potential keyword that brings traffic, so you also need to check traffic to key pages to ensure you see improvements.

11. Use a technical site audit software to identify any technical issues.

12. Use Google Search Console. It provides diagnostic data to uncover any SEO issues you might have. Check Search Traffic > Search Analytics section to find details about clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position.