How to Retain SEO Ranking after a Website Redesign - ABK Digital

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ABK Digital
Marketing Agency and its services
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(No Transcript)
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Highlights

• List Out all Pages from the Old Website
• Use a Temporary URL While Redesigning
• Test the New Website
• Check Proper 301 Redirects
• Configure your Sitemaps
• 404 Page Not Found
• Robots.txt
• Transition Period

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• We all know the importance of having a website
  for running a business or service. Without a
  proper online presence, it becomes difficult to
  remain visible to the relevant audience.
• But just creating a website does not mean that
  your job is done. It needs maintenance and
  updates from time to time. You also need to
  redesign the WordPress website from time to time.
• You cannot just SEO your website and be done. It
  is a forever moving goal post.  Stoney DeGeyter
• Also, it needs proper SEO for better rankings in
  the search results. But how are these two aspects
  related?
• Well, there is a common belief, that redesigning
  a website to keep it up to date with the current
  trends severely affects its SEO.

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• Well, they are not entirely wrong in thinking so
  because numerous factors get altered during the
  redesign of a site including code and pages. If
  not handled properly, it impacts the websites
  SEO negatively and hampers its long-term growth.
• But did anyone tell you that if done properly,
  redesigning a website could increase your SEO
  strength?
• So how to redesign a website without losing SEO?
• In this blog, we will provide insights into how
  to redesign a website without losing SEO.

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• Here are 8 useful tips

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List Out all Pages from the Old Website

• Use plugins to get the URL structure. It is the
  first step to download the URL structure of the
  website.
• Redesigning will bring lots of changes affecting
  the URL re-structure. If you do not back it up,
  it impacts your website rankings.
• While using the Yoast SEO plugin, crawl the
  website and download the updated sitemap.

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Use a Temporary URL While Redesigning

• It is not advisable to redesign a live website as
  it causes visitor issues and leads to problems
  eventually.
• Instead, copy the site and set it up into a
  temporary URL. Once that is done, you can start
  making changes. You may also switch the domain
  once all the necessary changes are done.
• You may hire a designer for this or get a hosting
  company to do the job. It will protect you from
  unforeseen issues happening in the future.
• Launched in 2003 and originally designed with
  blog sites in mind, WordPress is now among the
  top web-content management software for
  non-blogging websites.
• Here are the key reasons we recommend WordPress
  as a hosting service for small business owners.

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Check Proper 301 Redirects

• Here you need to go back to your redirect file,
  old sitemap, and old site crawl to test to ensure
  that all old site URLs perform 301 redirects to
  new site URLs.
• Here is where you can catch all stray 404s and
  implement additional redirects quickly.
• Spot-check the URLs and go deeper to work through
  as many old site URLs as you can.
• Check for unusual redirects as 302s or server
  methods to ensure clean 301s.
• If the designer changes the URL to
  www.yourwebsite.com/about-us.html then you
  should implement proper 301 redirects to ensure
  both URLs work and you do not lose the SEO
  benefits gained previously.

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• If not done correctly, the search engine will get
  404 web pages not found. By doing 301 redirects,
  the old URL gets redirected to the new one. It is
  the technical way to tell the search engine that
  the URL has changed.
• If you are not sure how to do this manually on
  WordPress, you can try out redirect plugins that
  let you do it by filling in a form.
• Test the New Website
• Before starting the redesign an end-to-end
  checkup of the website is necessary where you
  look at multiple aspects of the website
  including, features, broken links, CSS, etc.

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Configure your Sitemaps

• While launching a new website, you must have two
  complete sitemaps configured. One should be an
  HTML sitemap for users and search engines, and
  another should be an XML sitemap for search
  engines only.
• The XML sitemap will help search engines crawl
  and index your website quicker. Submit an XML map
  to search engines like Google and Bing through
  webmaster tools.

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404 Page Not Found

• A 404-error page is not something you want your
  visitors to see, but it is an essential element.
• Even if 301 redirects are made for all content on
  the old website, there will still be users who
  will come across broken links. A 404 page helps
  these users and search engines to get on track
  via useful links, a search box, or a redirect to
  the homepage.
• You can also keep the menu of the website on this
  page to increase usability. This page must be
  user-friendly, and it needs to return HTTP code
  404 so search engines know that they followed a
  broken link.
• Track this page to identify the referrers and fix
  the broken links.

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Robots.txt

• Keep reviewing and updating the robots.txt files
  if you have them on your old website. They are
  used to inform search engines about pages you do
  not want to be crawled and/or indexed. It should
  also match the new URL structure.
• Robots.txt also helps block the search engines
  and adds an extra level of security to ensure
  that none of the test websites are crawled as it
  will cause duplicate content issues.

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Transition Period

• This is the most crucial stage of the entire
  redesigning process. If you change the domain
  name, Google suggests keeping the old domain name
  with the 301 redirects for a minimum of 180 days
  as a transition period using the change of
  address tool.
• This period gives Google bots time to crawl and
  index all the new pages. Following these simple
  tips minimizes the risk of your websites losing
  their SEO and disappearing from search rankings
  in the transition.

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• Finally
• Website redesign is part and parcel of running a
  successful online business. You will have to
  follow trends in designing the site after every
  few years.
• It is thus considered wise if you can go through
  the entire process without losing on your current
  SEO rankings.
• Following the above-mentioned 8 tips will resolve
  this common issue for you to a great extent. For
  more information on web designing and SEO trends,
  you can contact us directly or visit our website
  for in-depth details of digital marketing.