I’ve been in the digital marketing game for a while, and let me tell you, there’s nothing more frustrating than watching a website redesign backfire.
And honestly, I never thought SEO could be so easily overlooked during a redesign. It would be a top priority, right? But it’s incredible how often seemingly small changes can impact your search engine rankings.
But here’s the thing… (and this is just my bias talking) … a lot of businesses don’t realize the importance of SEO until it’s too late. They get so caught up in the excitement of a shiny new website that they forget about the nuts and bolts of online visibility.
So, if you’re thinking about a website redesign (or you’ve already launched one and are seeing those traffic numbers dwindle), this blog post is for you.
We’re going to explore those sneaky website redesign mistakes that can absolutely destroy your SEO and, more importantly, how to avoid them.
Table Of Contents
Understanding the Impact of Website Redesign on SEO
Before we discuss the SEO blunders in greater detail, let’s look at the significance of SEO in a website redesign. Like many search engines, Google has a complex neural system that works tirelessly to rank and index websites.
When you redesign your website, you force search engines to relearn how they view your content.
Think of it like renovating your house. You could remove old walls, repaint the house, and even rearrange the existing furniture. But if you don’t rewire accordingly, the electrical appliances of the home won’t be functional anymore.
Similarly, failing to address SEO aspects of the redesign will cause search engines to have problems locating, interpreting, and ranking the new content.
Such scenarios can negatively impact search engine performance, reduce organic traffic, and eventually result in fewer leads and sales. Certainly not the result you would have been looking for, right?
The Importance of SEO-Friendly Website Redesign
Alright, let’s go back a little. We have discussed that SEO is an important consideration when redesigning a website. The question is how.
First of all, organic traffic (traffic coming directly from the search engine) is invaluable. It is laser-focused, relevant, and has a much better conversion rate than direct traffic. Therefore, if that organic traffic is lost, it could potentially spell disaster for your business.
Let us also add that there are other benefit from having a proper organic traffic strategy in place:
- Protect your Brand Image: Ensure your website does not disappear from searches for keywords that matter to your business. This will help keep your prospects aware of your business.
- Attract Qualified Leads: Sending appropriate traffic to your site helps you optimize conversion by attracting appropriate leads who can be turned into paying clients.
- Create Awareness of Credibility and Trust: The higher your site ranks in search engines, the more users know it is an authority site, and it helps to grow the brand’s reputation.
- Improve User Experience: The principles of SEO often coincide with the principles of user experience, and thus, both search engines and end-users will be happy with the site.
In a certain way, a website redesign that employs SEO principles means that the company’s site not only appeals visually but also ranks well on search engines, thus bringing visitors, leads, and, ultimately, sales.
If you want to leverage the full potential try SEO services and check their benefits.
Looking to Create a Marketing Strategy?Request a Quote
9 Website Redesign Mistakes Destroying SEO & User Experience
Now, let’s get down to business. There are nine such blunders that cut across all website redesigns and can be detrimental to your SEO and user experience no matter how detailed your website redesign SEO checklist is:
1. Avoiding an SEO Audit Before the Redesign
It is like going on a cross-country drive without checking your car’s oil, tires, or navigation system. It’s pretty dangerous. It’s equally dangerous to begin a new website design project without updating the SEO audit of the existing site.
If you wish to redesign your site effectively, begin with an SEO audit. This will allow you to determine and capitalize on the website’s weaknesses, establish the target audience, and improve your overall marketing approach.
An SEO audit provides an overview of the site’s current state, including what keywords it ranks for and how many, its backlink profile, various site sections, and its content.
This information is crucial for making informed decisions during the redesign process and ensuring your new website is optimized for search engines from the ground up.
2. Failing to Consider Existing SEO Equity
Your website will have significant SEO equity, such as backlinks, page authority, and established rankings. Discarding this equity during a redesign is like throwing away a winning lottery ticket.
Preserve the hard-earned value of your SEO campaigns by preserving the existing URLs, page titles, descriptions, etc., wherever possible.
If you need to change URLs, use 301 redirects so that search engines and users can easily find the new pages.
Think of it as forwarding your mail to your new address.
3. Ignoring the Website’s Current Ranking
Assess how well or poorly your website is ranking for keywords relevant to its content. This will guide you in setting realistic targets and also help you measure the effectiveness of your redesigned version.
Ignoring this information can lead to misguided strategies and missed opportunities.
Analyze your website’s current keyword rankings and traffic sources using tools like Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
Identify your top-performing pages and keywords and prioritize them during the redesign process. This will help you preserve and improve your search engine ranking for high-value keywords.
4. Changing URLs Without Proper Redirects
Changing URLs when redesigning the website is sometimes unavoidable, but failing to implement proper redirects can create broken links and confuse both users and search engines.
Let’s say you click a link, and instead of reaching the target webpage, you land on a page with a 404 error. It is certainly very annoying.
Whenever URLs are altered automatically,301 redirects are used. These indicate to the robots that the page has been moved and is no longer available on the previous site.
It redirects the customers to the right page and protects the link equity. It is the same as telling people where you have moved when you change your place.
5. Neglecting to Revise the Content
Your website content is valuable, but it can become stale and outdated over time. Not updating the content on a website during a redesign is a lost chance to improve its quality, relevance, and authority.
Take a closer look at your content to improve it, update what is not relevant, elaborate on what is too little, or focus your target audience.
It’s a great idea to build videos, infographics, and interactive content in addition to your main web pages to fascinate your audience and provide value to the pages.
6. Ignoring Image Optimization
Images are a core part of any website. However, failing to optimize images during a redesign could impact your SEO and page load speed.
Large images cause slow load times and browser lags for the target audience, leading to high bounce rates and poor SEO for the site.
To optimize your images, compress them to reduce the file size without compromising quality. All images used in the content should have relevant alt text to assist search engines and the visually impaired audience.
Looking to Grow Your Brand Online?Request a Quote
7. Missing out on Mobile Optimization
Now is the era of mobile devices, and not considering mobile optimization will be a recipe for disaster.
Google prioritizes mobile-friendly websites in its search results, so if your redesigned site is not mobile-responsive, you might lose potential organic traffic.
Thus, your redesigned site should be mobile-first, meaning it looks and functions flawlessly on all devices, from smartphones to desktops.
Using a responsive design framework is a good practice as it ensures that the website layout is not only consistent across various devices or browsers but also scales well with the screen size and maintains ease of use.
8. Not Having an Internal Linking Strategy
Internal linkages are usually neglected, but they are truly important for enhancing your website’s search engine optimization and enabling better navigation.
Internal links direct users to the relationships between a website’s various pages, making it easy for them to find content on the site. They also help search engines understand your website’s structure and hierarchy, improving your overall SEO.
It is essential to have a clear internal linking strategy that knits all relevant pages together while providing a flow to site users. Use accurate anchor texts that describe the page to which the page is linked.
Treat your internal links like street poles and arrows, which help users and search engines navigate your site’s various pages.
9. Failing to Test the Site After Redesign
Launching a newly redesigned website without proper testing and checking is dangerous. You can encounter technical issues, broken links, or compatibility errors that will affect your SEO and upset users.
Test how different devices and browsers render the site in different situations to eliminate any technical, usability, or compatibility SEO issues you may have.
Google PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix are effective tools for analyzing your website’s performance and identifying areas for improvement.
Conclusion: Prioritize SEO for Website Redesign Success
Your website is a valuable asset, and a redesign presents an opportunity to enhance its performance, aesthetics, and user experience.
However, paying attention to SEO during the redesign process can have disastrous consequences, leading to a drop in search engine rankings, decreased organic traffic, and missed business opportunities.
You can ensure that your new website not only looks stunning but also performs well in search results, driving traffic, leads, and business growth by understanding and avoiding these common website redesign mistakes.
Need Help with Your Website Redesign? Let our web design professionals help you sort it out!
