How to avoid a drop in leads & traffic after a website redesign

Website redesigns are risky.

I’ve said it many times before and I’ll keep on saying it.

Years of hard work and incremental gains can quickly disappear without proper planning and execution.

I’ve spoken to countless companies that have spent months redesigning and launching their website. Totally unaware of what was about to happen.

And when launch day finally came, rather than seeing traffic and conversions go up… they drop off a cliff.

But, why does this drop happen? And how can you avoid it?

There are usually two key reasons for this.?

First up, we look at why your conversion rate may drop…

#1 Conversion rate (UX design)

This usually happens when no user research or testing has been carried out during the design stage. Meaning the new design is based on guesswork and causes conversions to drop.

To counteract this, you can carry out user research and user testing. Let's dive into both...

(a) User research

In short, user research will help you find out the core issues on your current site, which can be addressed in the new design.

In a previous newsletter, I run through how to carry out user research effectively. You can view that here .

Without doing research, you’re redesigning your website based on assumptions. You’re not getting to the root cause of the current problems.

Imagine being able to speak to your users and understand what they do and don’t like about your current website.?The issues that stop them from converting.

This is exactly what user research helps you do! Next…

(b) User testing

One common mistake brands make is launching their new website without showing any users or customers first.

A big reveal is fun when you’re a magician. But when your company’s revenue is on the line, it’s not so fun.

Wouldn’t it be great to get feedback on your new website before it launches??

User testing is the best way to do that.

Users test and review a prototype of your new design, before it launches. Allowing you to get feedback on the new design, to see if you’re addressing the old site’s problems.

And if you uncover any issues, you can fix them before the website goes live.

Both user research and user testing will help you feel confident on launch day that you’re site will improve your user experience and conversion rate.

Next, we look at why your organic traffic may drop…

# 2 Organic traffic (SEO migration)

Your search engine ranking positions, which took years to build, can be lost within weeks of a website redesign. Causing organic traffic to quickly follow suit.

In short, you need to carry over the authority your website currently has. And ensure what Google likes now, they find in the new design.

To do this, an “SEO migration” is usually carried out. I say usually because this is a step that is so often missed when redesigning a website.

A migration helps to fix two key problems:

Problem (a): When your URLs change

If the URL for a page changes (e.g. from example.com/doggy to example.com/dog), users and Google won’t find the page. They’ll see a 404 page. And Google will drop your page down the rankings and out of their index!

This is common if you’re moving from one platform/CMS to another (E.g. Drupal to WordPress).

Or, when you change your website’s subfolders. For example, your /blog/ subfolder may change to /journal/ or /news/, which means all of the URLs on the /blog/ will be changing.

Even if you’re staying on the same platform/CMS, then you will want to review the structure of the URLs to see what is changing.

This problem is fixed by the classic SEO migration task of adding redirects.

A redirect takes Google and users from an old URL to a new URL (with a permanent 301 redirect) so nobody is greeted with a nasty 404 error.

In summary, a URL from your old website must return the same page, or redirect to an equivalent page on the new website.

Problem (b): When content on your URLs change

If one of your pages ranks well for multiple keywords, it’s clearly resonating with Google and your users.

So drastically removing the content of that page can have a negative impact.

This happens a lot when redesigning a website. Content can be removed, merged, or changed by a design team which Google might not like.

We see this happen a lot with websites that try to take a minimalist approach, using little to no content. If those sites had lots of content before, then this removal of content can impact the site.

To help with this, ensure you copy over key bits of content from the old site for all page types. Bonus tip… keep an eye out for internal links!

In summary, an SEO migration is essential when launching a new website. Ensuring all of your authority is carried over from the old website to the new.

Bonus: Free SEO migration template

To try and make your life a little bit easier, we created a website migration checklist in Google Sheets. Ensuring you don’t miss any key parts so your website can keep thriving! You can check that out on our website .

Summary

Website redesigns don't need to be risky.

With proper planning, research, and execution they can improve user experience, and increase traffic and conversions.

To do this, you need to ensure you carry out the appropriate user research and user testing before designing. As well as an SEO migration before launching.

Both will ensure your years of hard work don’t disappear overnight.

Any questions on this, please leave a comment below.

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Pssst... want to learn more?

For those of you that don't know me, I'm Steve and I run a B2B marketing agency.

Optimising websites for B2B marketing teams so they can attract high-value customers.

If that sounds like something you want, here are two ways I can help you:

(1) Daily tips

Connect with me on LinkedIn, where I post daily tips for B2B marketers. And you can subscribe to this newsletter where I go in-depth on a different topic every two weeks.

(2) Book a free B2B Website Quality Audit

Looking to move faster?

You can book a B2B Website Quality Audit with me using the link below.

It's quick, free, and I'll help you figure out what's restricting your website from generating more leads and show you what's possible in the next 90 days.

You can book that here:?https://spaced.digital/b2b-website-quality-audit/

And finally, if you have any questions for me, please send me a DM and I'll get back to you asap.

Thanks for being part of the journey!

Steve