How Website Organic SEO Ranking can be maintained while Redesigning
Recognize your Current Keywords –
To maintain Organic SEO Ranking, you need to recognize your present keywords which are ranking. Check keywords ranking as well as for which page it is ranking. This will be helpful after website redesigning and while making it live again. After the site update you can analyze how the keywords are performing and whether it requires any changes.
An identity which Pages Bring Traffic –
You can simply spot out this by using Google Analytic which pages are bringing traffic or most visited by the user. Make sure that those pages should be included in your new site. Do not remove a page which is performing well, understand the key phrase that brings traffic to those old pages and if suppose you want to add new content try to keep as relevant as in old page and also try to use same URL structure.
Understand Site Architecture –
Site Architecture refers to how a website is set up, including navigation and internal linking. When performing a site redesign there is a chance that website URL structure will vary – at least to some extent – and it is important to inform the search engine where the old URLs have moved. If you avoid or skip this step, it will completely destroy any SEO control you had with the search engines. Luckily, there are several tools you can use to crawl your site to know the current site architecture and how pages should be migrated or redirected.
Recognize Website Inbound Links –
Inbound links are still greatly important for a website. If your website redesign changes your URL structure, fails to transfer important pages, or does not redirect the essential pages which drive traffic to site to their new version, your inbound link importance will be lost and this will hamper your traffic as well ranking of keywords. By inbound link analysis, you will understand which pages are linking to website and which pages they are linking to.
Update your Robots File –
When you moved to your new site several things may change, including your login section, shopping cart section, or your CMS (content management system). Robots.txt file will tell the search engines which pages they should not index, and should be updated to match with your new site structure.
Create a New Sitemap –
By telling the search engines which pages they should not follow, we should also tell them which pages should be followed and help them find those pages as quickly as possible. Website XML sitemap will perform this task easily. Most CMS platform, such as WordPress has plugins which help to create a sitemap, but any development company will help with this as well.
Set Up Webmaster & Analytic Tools –
Once your redirect plan has finished up, settings up Webmaster & Analytic Tools are the most important step. Both Google and Bing offer webmaster tools and provide enormous insights, such as allowing you to verify website ownership as well as other analytics data for your website. Both search engines will even alert when something is incorrect. In addition, if you are changing the domain name, Google has a way to let them know you are moving. Google Webmaster tool is the best way to keep an eye on your site before, during, and after the redesign or re-development to ensure everything is going well.
Conclusion: If your website is getting traffic from search engines & social media websites and are a core driver of conversions for your website, having a team like ours who are specialized in website redesign and SEO will be key to a successful website re-design or re-platform.
