Regaining website traffic after a redesign and development without an updated SEO strategy is risky. An SEO strategy should always accompany a website as things like architecture, new copy and keywords change and affect website rankings. If SEO in not part of the redesign project, hiring an SEO expert to check and fix major factors that affect traffic may be an option.
- Make sure your Google Analytics tracking code is correct and in place to track views, number visits, pages per visit, bounce rate, new visits, and average time spent on site, traffic source and top performing posts.
- Even the slightest change to a URL (link) has an effect on SEO and ranking. Create a new sitemap to display the new site structure. Check all links and ensure they all work and link to intended page
- Update keywords to match page new or updated copy
- Test the loading time of the site and all pages – increased loading time contribute significantly to website rankings
- Deleting a lot of copy and web pages negatively affects web rankings- rather edit and repurpose the content on the pages
- It is preferred and less of a headache to keep the same url structure as the old site. Should content have to be rather update or revamp the page coy but keeping in mind it still has the previous goals
- Changing site navigation – losing text aspect of menus or increasing the number of pages the homepage links to
- Track traffic drop – a sharp decline is expected after web redesign but a steady decline may be due to incorrect or lack of following good SEO practices, new competitors,
- A completely new website address will affect ranking as it will be considered as a new site to search engines
- Content strategy and SEO should not be in isolation but as part of the design & development process.
