How to Do a Website Redesign without Ruining the SEO?

Any changes in digital marketing, especially big ones like a redesign, are complex projects. They include research, prototyping, analytics, design creation, and involving developers — and this is just a tiny percent of the entire work.

As a design firm, we at Arounda know how important it is to plan a product redesign carefully. It's not just about doing the website redesign phases well. You should create it, preserving the SEO achievements of the previous version and making them even better. Failing these can mean losing the audience and decreasing sales.

In this article, we will share our tips and best practices based on recent redesign projects for our clients Myso and Infinity.

What is the Connection Between Redesign and SEO?

Redesigning a website often involves changes to its look, theme, content management system, or URL structure. Understanding how these changes affect SEO helps you maintain online visibility, traffic, and sales.

• SEO rankings. Changes influence how search engines rank your site. Google prioritizes user experience, site speed, mobile responsiveness, and content relevance. Disruptions in these areas during a redesign can lead to lower rankings, reduced traffic, and lost sales.
• User experience. Modernizing your website’s design to improve UX is directly linked to better SEO. 
• SEO-driven approach. Being data-driven preserves effective SEO elements while addressing weaknesses. It enhances the aesthetics and functionality of your site without compromising SEO value.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Website Redesigns 

With seven years of experience in UI/UX design, we have identified the most common mistakes businesses make. Understanding these issues will help you redesign your website without losing SEO.

• A major error during a website redesign is not factoring in SEO from the start. Engage an expert early on to make sure the new design supports existing strategies.
• URLs carry significant SEO value. Altering them can disrupt the indexing and ranking of your pages. Unless there’s a compelling reason to change a URL, it’s best to leave it as it is.
• Identify and retain content that performs well in search and conversion. This includes high-converting pages, popular blog posts, and other traffic-driving content.
• Redirecting removed or changed pages to the homepage can weaken your SEO efforts. This practice results in a poor user experience and loss of specific page authority. Instead, ensure proper redirects to relevant pages.
• An updated sitemap is essential for helping search engines effectively crawl and index the new site structure. Failing to create and submit a new sitemap post-redesign can delay the re-indexing process, impacting the site’s visibility and ranking.
• Before going live, thoroughly test the new site for potential SEO issues. Pay attention to broken links, missing meta titles and descriptions, incorrect use of header tags, and mobile responsiveness. 

Website Redesign SEO Checklist

Understanding the common mistakes, you might wonder how to redesign an app right the first time. We've gathered tips we use ourselves in our work. Consider them before starting, and you'll be satisfied with the outcome.

Keep a backup of the old site

It serves as a safety net, enabling quick restoration of the original site if issues arise during the redesign. Ensure your developer prepares for this by creating a backup and being capable of redirecting the domain to the old site folder if necessary. They should avoid overwriting current databases. 

Also, create a backup using your hosting provider’s tools or plugins. This dual approach provides multiple layers of protection against any potential mishaps.

Test staging site for mobile friendliness and core web vitals

Before launching the redesigned site, test it for mobile friendliness and CWV compliance. It improves site speed, stability, responsiveness, and mobile experience. Design flaws, such as unoptimized code or excessive use of animations, can significantly affect these metrics. 

Ask your site developer to run mobile friendliness and CWV tests on template pages and provide you with a report. You can use tools like Google Lighthouse to test these aspects on a password-protected staging site. It helps identify and rectify website redesign SEO issues before the site goes live.

Keep important organic pages

Save the pages that already rank well in search results. These bring in a lot of traffic and have valuable backlinks that are important for your site's SEO. Use tools like Ahrefs' Site Explorer to find out which pages perform the best and have the most backlinks. 

Avoid changing elements such as keywords in text, titles, and H1 tags. These adjustments can affect how relevant the page appears for related searches. If you need to remove some content, consider creating an "archive" page for old products or services. This will help maintain your traffic and improve user experience.

Run site audits before and after the launch

A pre-launch UX/UI design audit helps identify existing problems, while a post-launch audit can reveal new issues. Key areas to focus on include unwanted no-index pages, sites accessible via both HTTP and HTTPS, and broken pages. 

Compare the results to spot any discrepancies or new errors that need attention. Prioritize fixing the most impactful issues to ensure your site remains optimized for search engines.

Keep the old URL structure

Maintaining the existing URL structure is vital to avoid disruptions in SEO performance. Altering URLs can cause issues like broken redirects, backlinks, or orphaned pages. 

If changes are necessary, implement 301 redirects from old URLs to their new counterparts. Also, update your sitemap in Google Search Console to ensure search engines promptly recognize your site changes. 

Summary

Here at Arounda, we believe in taking a thorough approach to redesigning projects. We prioritize our clients' time and resources, aiming for maximum efficiency. With our deep expertise in design, we've developed a checklist to stay focused and avoid common pitfalls that could lead to extensive revisions.

If you're seeking a partner to manage your redesign from scratch, ensuring it's effective right from the beginning, reach out to us. We customize our approach to meet your specific needs and deliver outstanding results.