August 8, 2023
Steps to Optimize SEO during Website Redesign with a Web Design/Web Development Agency
If you’re getting your website redesigned, you shouldn’t ignore the benefit that SEO can provide to a your website. SEO, or search engine optimization, improves your website’s ranking in search results and ultimately drives more visitors to your site.
By performing an assessment, creating SEO goals, and working with an SEO expert, you can adapt your new website to fulfill both the need for an updated design and a more efficient digital marketing advantage.
Step 1: Discuss SEO Considerations
Even though your web development agency’s primary function is not marketing or SEO, you should still initiate a conversation with them about the importance of SEO during the website redesign process. While the agency may not have dedicated SEO support, emphasize the need for SEO best practices and express your intention to hire an SEO agency or consultant for additional guidance. There are certain tactics they can employ on the backend, such as building it to pass core web vitals, tagging photos, that will improve your SEO as they build out your site.
Step 2: Evaluate Your Current Site
Conduct an analysis of your current website’s performance, including metrics like bounce rate, time on site, and form submissions. Google Analytics is an essential online resource to use for tracking this data. By identifying high-performing pages and areas for improvement, you can create a baseline for measuring the impact of the redesign.
Step 3: Preserve High-Performing Content
Getting your website redesigned does not mean that you have to change every article, page, or aspect of your site that is drawing high numbers. Prioritize the retention and optimization of pages that have demonstrated success in terms of shares, views, inbound links, and keyword rankings. Collaborate with your web design/web development agency to ensure these pages are carefully managed during the redesign process. Though improvement is always the goal of a website redesign, maintaining your current success is essential to retaining the audience you already have.
Step 4: Define SEO Goals
As you navigate your redesign, establish clear SEO goals, such as improving organic traffic, increasing keyword rankings, or enhancing user engagement. These goals will guide your decision-making process and enable you to communicate your expectations to both the web design/web development agency and the future SEO agency or consultant. The assessment of your site that you already performed is essential to developing these goals and your capacity for growth.
Step 5: Engage an SEO Agency or Consultant
There is great value to hiring an SEO agency or consultant who can provide expert guidance throughout the website planning, migration, and post-launch phases. Their expertise can help ensure that SEO considerations are properly addressed and implemented. Your web development agency may understand your desire for SEO optimization, but only an SEO expert can explore the fullest potential of your site’s content.
Step 6: Collaborate During Planning and Migration
Be sure to involve the SEO agency or consultant in the planning stages of the website redesign, including discussions with the web design/web development agency. Seek their input on factors like site architecture, URL structure, keyword targeting, and content optimization to maximize SEO potential. Incorporating this valuable advice before launch is key, so the new and improved version of your website can begin performing upon implementation.
Step 7: Perform Post-Launch SEO Checks
Once the redesigned website is live, conduct thorough SEO checks in collaboration with the SEO agency or consultant. This includes verifying proper 301 redirects, assessing page load speed, analyzing metadata and on-page optimization, and validating the XML sitemap. Don’t forget to address any issues or discrepancies promptly to ensure optimal SEO performance and prevent driving viewers away from your site. Having a successful launch with strong numbers doesn’t necessarily mean that your site has been properly optimized; those numbers may drop off over time without proper SEO checks.
Step 8: Ongoing Collaboration and Monitoring
Maintain an ongoing relationship with the SEO agency or consultant to monitor SEO performance, track keyword rankings, analyze website traffic, and make continuous improvements. Their expertise will help you navigate algorithm updates, optimize content, and adapt to evolving SEO best practices. SEO is a long-term strategy, meaning you may not see results straight away once your site is live. Relying on your SEO agency or consultant will ensure that your site will only continue to rise in the rankings over time.
By combining the expertise of a web design/web development agency with the guidance of an SEO agency or consultant, you can ensure a comprehensive approach to SEO during your website redesign. This collaboration will enable you to lay a strong foundation for SEO success, enhance the user experience, and drive organic visibility and traffic to your website.
