If this is your first time visiting our site please feel free to subsribe to our RSS Feed

Saving Your Search Engine Rankings From
A Website Redesign Catastrophe

Let's face it, websites can get old and stale fast. Web technology gets more advanced each and every day. Companies find it important to stay up to date with this technology and require several website redesigns over several years. Unfortunately what many don't know is what kind of implosion a website redesign can cause on their search rankings.

When SEO is not kept in consideration, a website redesign can be a Google implosions waiting to happen. If these SEO requirements are kept in consideration when redesigning the website it's possible to avoid most search engine catastrohes.

SEO Requirement # 1 - Search Friendly Navigation.

This part is so important; if you get this wrong then your redesign might struggle from the homepage on. Search engine spiders while getter better, still can't crawl flash development or JavaScript efficiently. Search engine spiders will normally enter the website and look at the navigation to see which page they need to visit next. If your site doesn't have any visible navigation links, odds are the search engines are going to leave. Make sure to keepyour naviational menus search friendly.

So you don't have search friendly navigation? Don't worry, text footers on the bottom of your site may save you. Make sure to create it with html links and point them to the deeper pages in your website. This footer sohuld be on every page of your website.

SEO Requirement # 2 - Changing Up Content.

Part of what ranks your site in the search engines is the content on your website. Deleting this content can be detrimental to your rankings. Consider adding to the content of a page or better yet create an additional page supporting the content from the previous page. (Good opportunity for internal linking between the pages too!)

Keeping existing content is not always possible given the fact that services and products are constantly being added and removed. However, it's really unfortunate to see perfectly good content being thrown away. *NOTE* if you are going to get rid of content, don't delete the page. Make sure to 301 redirect the pages to it's new pages on the redesigned site. (See 301 redirects below).

SEO Requirement # 3 - 301 Redirects & Maintaining URL Structure.

This is an absolute must. If you don't do this step you are putting your website in the Google garbage. Why re-create the wheel? If your page is already ranking in the search engines why not continue to use that pages URL? If your current websites about us page is www.company.com/about-us.html make sure to use the same URL for the redesigned about us page.

Did you already create a new page and you don't want to go back and rename all your files? It's ok, make sure to create a 301 redirect from the exact page your replacing to the new page. In this case 301 redirect from www.company.com/about-us.html to www.company.com/about-company.php (or whatever the new URL may be.)

SEO Requirement # 4 - Internal Linking & 404 Error Pages.

It's typical within website redesigns that pages get added and deleted. Make sure to go over your internal linking with a fine tooth comb. You don't want to send someone to the wrong page within your site or even worse to a dead end. (404 error page.) If you correctly implement 301 redirects or maintain your URL structure you shouldn't have much of a problem with this. Registering your website on Google webmaster tools will allow you to see what internal linking issues and 404 error pages are generated by your website.

SEO Requirement # 5 - Updating Analytics Package

Don't forget to transfer your Google analytics code to your brand new redesign. Website analytics are essential to maximizing your SEO results. If you lose your data, it will be a pain in the butt to go forward with your SEO campaign. Transfering your Google Analytics code isn't hard, its just another tedius task that needs to be done in order to successfully launch an SEO friendly redesign.

While there is no guarenteed ways to maintain your search engine rankings, following these 5 SEO redesign requirements will give you the best shot. Remember that first impressions count and that you want your website to look fantastic. Minneapolis web design firm DKS Systems is an award winning wed design firm that creates SEO friendly redesigns. Contact DKS today for more information.