Revamp Your Website Design Without Affecting SEO

With time, you might think your website’s design has become too boring and it is time to design it afresh. In the process, your website design will be altered in several ways as mentioned below - 

• Changing domains or subdomains. 
• Addition, removal, or editing site content. 
• Adding or modifying site features or website structure. 

In any case, the primary concern website owners have is whether or not it will affect their existing SEO ranking. Now, the answer is simple - If you do it correctly, it might not affect your SEO digital marketing rank at all. However, the scenario can be altogether different if you don’t take the necessary precautions while redesigning your site. In such circumstances, availing of digital marketing services from a professional team is much-needed. 

Furthermore, whether you choose or not to seek professional advice from the professional team, these revamping website design tips will help you significantly. 

Website Redesign Checklist for Unaltered SEO 

1. Pre-design checklist 

a. Restrategize keywords - There might be a change in your website’s keyword plan if you are planning for a redesign. Make sure to choose high-volume keywords that are highly searched and relevant to your industry. Plan your keywords carefully and document them for further use. 

b. Note website URL and structure - Before you make any changes in the website design, make sure you note the URL and existing structure of your site. It will help you compare the changes that have been made. Analyzing it can help in restrategizing keywords or adding new categories on your site that are in demand. 

c. Apply 301 redirects - Since you might be changing URLs during the redesign process, it is best practice to apply 301 redirects. It helps in case one of your site pages permanently shifts to another location. In case of a redirect, the user won’t have to come across a 404 error page and will be directly redirected to the new page. 

Follow these tips before you start with the redesign part. When you avail of professional SEO services, they will take care of these concerns and your site’s SEO ranking won’t be affected in any way. 

2. Redesign checklist 

a. Block Google from crawling - You don’t want search engines like Google to crawl your site when you are changing your site’s content and haven’t even finished it. The Google crawler might index the new content and your site’s original SEO ranking will be affected. Make sure to disable this option depending on the CMS you are using. 

b. Metadata - Write a meta title and meta description (within 160 characters) depending on the latest requirements and include the primary keyword. However, one shouldn’t overstuff keywords or spam them. 

c. Mobile optimized - If you have availed of professional SEO services, they will likely tell you the importance of mobile-first websites. It is a key parameter in determining your site’s rank in SERP. Whether you change your website design or not, make sure to keep it mobile-friendly to optimize it for search engines. 

Subsequently, if you find enough reasons to redesign your website, make sure you follow these SEO tips and keep your ranking intact. Or, you can avail yourself of professional SEO services for the job. 

3. Post redesign checklist 

a. Import Google analytics - if your old website had Google analytics code, transfer it to your new site. In case you haven’t used analytics for your site, it is about time you use one. Any SEO digital marketing agency can help you in this pursuit. 

b. Add an XML or HTML sitemap - You might have added new pages to the redesigned site or removed a few. Sitemaps will help the user as well as search engines to find all the pages present on the site and index them. Users can also learn about the frequency of updates, changes in pages or URLs, etc. from here. Ask your SEO digital marketing agency to help you out on this front. 

c. Create Robots. Txt - You can inform search engines about the pages that you don’t want them to index. You can also add sitemaps here. 

d. Unblock Googlebot - Now that you have changed your website design, you need to unblock Googlebot so that the search engine crawlers can index your pages again. 

Once you have launched your site after website design, you will need to check whether the things you have optimized are functioning properly or not. Make sure that the 301 redirects are functioning and the search engine is indexing the pages. 

You also need to set goals for Google Analytics and check if the site is performing well as it should. Furthermore, availing of professional SEO services will guide you with the right way to redesign your website without affecting its SEO. 

Auxesis Infotech is a top-rated SEO digital marketing company that can help businesses sufficiently. The company can help provide quality SEO solutions that can help you excel.