Website Redesign 

Understanding Website Redesign 

Before you panic about how your SEO will be affected by a new website, it’s important to understand the two basic types of site redesign. 

Cosmetic Touch-Ups 

Cosmetic touch-ups are just that—cosmetic, superficial, on the surface changes. You’re not changing the actual structure of your site, not doing a total copy update, and not moving and deleting pages. Cosmetic changes usually involve refreshing your page layout for a better user experience, swapping out low-res photos for better quality images, or doing minor copy tweaks. 

A Complete Rebuild 

A complete website rebuild is essentially a total overhaul. This can mean scrapping all the copy on your site and starting from scratch, changing your site’s navigation and the way pages are structured, or moving to an entirely new platform. 

Design Changes and SEO 

In general, cosmetic changes have little to no effect on SEO. You won’t see much impact—if any—from updating your logo throughout the site, fixing some typos, or making other small updates. 

However, more extensive changes will affect your SEO. With a site rebuild, you can almost certainly expect to lose most, if not all, the SEO benefits you had originally. Put another way—your search engine ranking could tank.

This happens for several reasons. For example, changing a page’s location in the site's navigation will change the way Google’s algorithm views it. In other words, what Google considered an important, high-ranking page before may now be viewed as unimportant and therefore, not work ranking. Another example is organic traffic to specific URL’s; if you change the URL, you’re losing that traffic and subsequently, search engine ranking.   

How to Approach a Site Rebuild with SEO in Mind 

SEO should not be considered an afterthought when you’re rebuilding your website. On the contrary, it should be in the front of everyone’s minds from the start. 

Before any work begins, round up all your current and historical SEO data; this will be helpful for comparing your new site’s performance to that of your previous site. 

Start the process with fresh SEO research and while you’re at it, do some competitor reconnaissance. 

Plan the site’s new structure with SEO in mind. This means creating a user-friendly structure that makes sense and is easy to navigate.  Same goes with page names and URL’s. 

When it comes to the copy for your new site, you might be tempted to recycle the same keywords you were using before. Don’t make this mistake.  Start anew with your keyword research. Sure, many keywords will likely be the same, but you don’t want to miss out on any new words that can help you climb the rankings. 

Realize the Possibilities 

You may be wondering if redesigning your website is worth it, considering the established SEO you stand to lose. 

Ultimately, an up-to-date, user-friendly site that reflects your company’s brand and mission should be your end goal. If your current site checks those boxes, maybe you only need a few cosmetic updates. But if it doesn’t, you may want to consider a rebuild despite the negative impact it may have on your SEO. 

Keep in mind, overhauling your website can be an awesome growth opportunity. Building a site with SEO embedded in each layer can help you reach rankings you might never have achieved with your prior site. You may fall behind your competitors in terms of search ranking for a while, but Google’s regular algorithm changes mean no website’s position is permanent.