How to Maintain SEO Ranking during Website Redesign?

Posted on 3 Feb at 10:54 am

Every company present in the digital realm relies on a steady flow of visitors to its website. Customers and long-term prospects cannot be generated if no people are visiting your website. Your search engine visibility will rise if you establish yourself as an authority in Google’s eyes. The question is, what do you do when you’ve climbed to the top of Google’s search results? Ranking well for certain keywords is just half the game, contrary to common opinion. Search engine optimization (SEO) is ever-changing, and marketers need to keep up with the newest developments.

Also Read – How to do Technical SEO Audits to boost your website on SERP

So, how can you maintain the website ranking achieved for the keywords you’ve worked so hard on. First, let’s consider the scenario where ranking dips during a website redesign. Here are some issues that arise along with suitable tips to curb the issues and maintain SEO Ranking.

Maintain SEO Ranking #1. Focus on On-page SEO–

Taking care of on-page SEO and missing out on the hidden key phrase chances is a major issue. To optimise your website’s content during a website redesign, you must take extra precautions. Search for ways to improve your site’s visibility, such as changing the names of your pages, your Meta description, or adding new quality content.

Maintain SEO Ranking #2. 301 Redirect Plan –

After changing your URL structure, you should meticulously plan out your 301 redirection strategy. When it comes to SEO, this is the most important part of a website relaunch. Inbound links to your pages will drop significantly if you have a huge website and modify your URL structure. All of your older pages should 301 redirect to their more recent equivalents. In this way, just 10-15% of your traffic will be lost, ensuring that your search equity remains intact (which is normal).

Maintain SEO Ranking #3. Well Optimised 404 Page –

404 error spikes may be handled by creating an intuitive 404 page. Your analytics may show a rise in 404 errors after you launch your new site. It’s easy to make a note of the pages that need fixing. To keep visitors on your site, you must also have an error 404 page that is well-optimized.

Maintain SEO Ranking #4. Re-submit your XML sitemap –

Re-submit your XML sitemap to search engines with the new URL of your content. Your content’s new URL locations need to be indexed by Google bots. You must first ensure that your robots.txt file allows search engines to scan your website. Make sure that your whole website is being indexed as well. Set the location of your sitemap in your txt file, and you’re done! Webmaster Tools > Crawl > Sitemaps is where you may submit your sitemap for crawling purposes. You may also utilise numerous XML sitemaps to aid in indexing and txt file retrieval by search engines.

Some Other Tips to Improve and Maintain SEO Rankings are:

Regular Site Updates – Digital marketers make the mistake of assuming this is a no-brainer. If you want to preserve your website’s place in Google’s search results, you’ll need to make sure that your material is up-to-date. If you’re still using out-of-date tactics like “text-only” articles, you’re hurting your search engine results. To keep up with your keywords, you should provide a variety of video and graphic material to your posts. This will make your site more appealing to visitors and encourage others to connect to it. Give attention to the aesthetics of your company. To lower bounce rates and enhance the possibility of your visitors interacting with your content, you should optimise the style of your website.
Site Speed Matters– A long-standing Google ranking criteria is site speed, yet many websites still don’t load quickly—especially on mobile, where a majority of searches now occur. Over two million new blogs are published every day, so if yours takes too long to load, readers will most certainly find an alternative. Google recommends that webmasters aim for a mobile page load time of less than one second. If you can’t get it that low, consider the fact that every second you take off of your page load time lessens page abandonment. Fortunately, you shouldn’t need to employ a tech specialist in your industry to make your website load quicker.
Backlinks are as important as quality content – When it comes to backlinks, one of the most frequent errors made by marketers is to concentrate on the number over quality. Building backlinks to a page only because it is already well-ranked is a waste of time. Google can tell when the number of links to a site is out of whack. Building links too rapidly might be seen as a red signal and lead to your website being blocked. If the bulk of your links is pointing to a single article, your rankings may suffer as a result. Google wants your site’s visitors to be able to find relevant and helpful information. If you want to keep your site’s search engine rankings high, you must increase your inbound links to all of your site’s pages. With this method, Google will see a more diverse backlink profile and a more authoritative website overall.
Social Media presence increases brand visibility – There’s considerable debate about whether or not social media activity affects search rankings directly or not. All major social media platforms are seen as authority brands by search engines, and this is quite evident. Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all have a high PageRank in Google, making them popular websites. Your website’s relevance will be boosted by connections from these networks. These social media sites will provide you with greater exposure if more people enjoy and share your material. In the long run, excellent backlinks may help you maintain and improve your rankings. To make your blog more visible on social networking, follow these simple guidelines:

Also Read – Negative SEO: How to Protect Website from Spamming Attacks

Include social media sharing buttons in the article’s sidebar.
You must provide clear calls to action in your content.
In return for social media sharing, provide your users with a free piece of content.

Long-term outcomes aren’t possible with merely search engine optimization. To see the results of your SEO efforts usually takes months. After you’ve ranked for a certain term, the tactics listed above will help you keep your authority. If you wish to maintain SEO ranking and improve brand awareness, consult the best digital marketing agency, New Vision Digital. We can help improve brand visibility, website ranking, and business visibility in the digital realm.