Redesign Your Website Without Losing SEO Rankings

By Gavin Kilgallon on Friday, 17 January 2025

Improving your search engine rankings takes a lot of time and effort, so you must follow proven strategies to maintain them during a redesign.

As an established London web design agency, we have witnessed the adverse effects of not having a proper SEO plan during a redesign. We receive a significant amount of work from clients looking to redesign their websites, and we would like to share some of the practices we follow to help ensure that your SEO is maintained or even improved.

What Can Go Wrong?

Without proper planning and preparation, you could experience severe declines in your Search Engine Result Page (SERP) listings. This will lead to a significant decrease in your website traffic and fewer conversions.

An infamous example of going about a revamp in the wrong way was unfortunately experienced by CNN in 2014. They aimed to improve the UX of their website. However, poor decision-making and lack of planning lead to the following:

After the redesign, there were significant 404 errors and numerous dead links. This is frowned upon by search engines and negatively affected CNN SEO listings.
Drop in SEO due to non-friendly page titles, descriptions and URLs.
The introduction of bloated JavaScript resulted in slow-loading pages, making it difficult for search engines to index all the content.
Surprisingly, they also got the mobile usability side wrong, decreasing their SEO metrics further.

Conduct A Site Audit

Many tools can make this process a lot easier and quicker. Some of the main ones we recommend are Ahrefs, Semrush and Screaming Frog. They can automate the audit and produce comprehensive reports in minutes.

The primary purpose of an audit is to allow you to compare the old site with the new one before it is made live. Some of the main areas to cover with the audit include:

URL structure. Ensuring any changes are covered with 301 redirects (see below).
Test internal linking so there are no 404 errors.
Ensuring content, titles, and headers are relevant and optimised.
Check all outgoing and incoming links.
Look at analytical information (especially views and bounce rate). You'll look for the bounce rate to decrease and views to increase on the new website.
Check Google speed analysis to ensure your website is optimised for desktop and mobile.

Inspect Your Current Content

Although website content has been mentioned above, it must have its own section due to its significance in SEO. We know first-hand how changing just a few sentences of content can influence your SERPs. A website revamp can be the ideal time to review the value of your content.

Create a list of what content receives significant traffic and ensure it's copied to the new website.
Is content still relevant, and does it need updating? This is an opportunity to remove irrelevant information that serves no purpose.
Analyse Keyword usage. Are you mentioning your target search terms within your headings and text?
Can the quality of your content be improved before the new site goes live?
Can the content structure on the new site be improved to make it more user-friendly and intuitive, helping search engines better index your website?
Inspect competitor's sites and look for new content opportunities.

Competitor Analysis

Analysing your main competitors should be undertaken regularly, not just during a website revamp. It is an excellent opportunity to gain insights and opportunities you might have missed. It can also give you a better understanding of what SEO tactics yield the best results. Some key areas to investigate include:

Who's ranking top for your target keywords?
Analyse competitor keyword strategies, word count, titles, descriptions and content depth.
Which websites are linking to your competitors, especially ones with do-follow links. Can you also get links from them?
Review your competitors' internal linking strategies.

Ensure 301 Redirects & No 404 Errors

A 301 redirect is a permanent page move to a new URL. This is crucial for maintaining good SEO and providing an optimal user experience (UX). If this is not set up correctly, users will encounter a 404 error page. A 404 does not look professional and can damage your SERPs. We have created a separate article on making the most of your 404 error page.

ID Studio often uses Screaming Frog to check for broken links. This great tool can automatically scan your entire website for broken links, completing what could manually take days in seconds. If you find broken links make sure you fix them.

Schema Markup

Schema markup allows website owners to add code snippets, allowing search engines to understand the content better and make them more visible in the search engines. During a redesign, reviewing the current schema and ensuring it is still relevant and fully integrated into the new site is an excellent opportunity to increase your search engine exposure.

Keep Monitoring SEO

After a website redesign, it is essential to monitor its SEO, as some ranking changes (both positive and negative) can take a while to materialise.

Google often updates their algorithm criteria, which can impact SERPs. These changes can be significant, such as the Google March 2024 update. Hopefully, these updates boost your rankings; if they don’t, being aware allows for immediate action to be taken to reestablish your positions.

Looking For Help With A Website Redesign?

We have completed hundreds of website redesigns at ID Studio and ensured no adverse SEO issues for our clients. If you are thinking of updating your website or have problems with a redesign, contact our team for impartial and professional advice.