How Revamping Your Website Can Negatively Impact Search Engine Rankings

by Christina

Website Redesign and SEO: Avoiding the Ranking Drop

A website redesign can be a fantastic opportunity to enhance user experience, modernise your brand, and introduce exciting new features. However, it's crucial to understand that without careful planning and execution, this process can negatively impact our search engine rankings.

Think of your website as a well-organised library that Google meticulously catalogues. When you redesign, you're essentially rearranging the shelves, re-labelling the books, and potentially even changing the library's address. If not handled correctly, Google can get lost, misinterpret your content, and ultimately reduce your visibility in search results.

Here's a breakdown of how a website revamp can inadvertently harm your SEO:

Common SEO Pitfalls During a Website Redesign:

URL Structure Changes Without Proper Redirects: This is arguably the most critical mistake. If your page URLs change and you don't implement 301 redirects from the URLs to the new ones, search engines will encounter 404 errors. This signals to Google that the content is gone, leading to de-indexing and a significant drop in traffic and rankings.
Content Modifications Affecting Relevance and Quality: While updating content is often a goal of a redesign, ensure that the new content remains relevant to your target audience and keywords. Drastically changing the core topics or reducing the depth and value of your content can lead to lower rankings for those pages.
Internal Linking Structure Disruption: Your internal links help distribute link equity (ranking power) throughout your site and guide search engine crawlers. Altering this structure without careful consideration can break the flow of authority, making it harder for important pages to rank.
Keyword Targeting Shifts Without Strategic Planning: If you decide to target different keywords during the redesign, you need a well-researched strategy. Simply changing keywords without ensuring they align with your content and user intent can lead to a loss of rankings for your previous targets and a struggle to rank for the new ones.
Technical SEO Oversights: Redesigns often involve significant backend changes. Neglecting crucial technical SEO elements like site speed optimisation, mobile-friendliness, schema markup, proper robots.txt and sitemap.xml configuration, and fixing crawl errors can severely hinder your site's performance in search results.
Loss of Valuable Metadata: Forgetting to migrate or optimise meta titles, meta descriptions, and alt text for images can reduce your click-through rates (CTR) from results and impact how search engines understand your content.

Why Google Might Treat Your Revamped Site as "New":

Google's primary goal is to provide users with the most relevant and high-quality results. Significant changes to your website can signal to Google that it needs to re-evaluate your site's content and structure. This can lead to a temporary dip in rankings while Google re-crawls, re-indexes, and reassesses your website it:

URLs are significantly altered.
The overall layout and user experience are drastically different.
Substantial portions of the content have been rewritten or removed.
Old URLs don't redirect to their new equivalents.

Proactive Steps to Safeguard Your SEO During a Redesign:

To minimise the risk of negative SEO impact, implement these crucial steps:

Comprehensive SEO Audit Before the Redesign: Understand your current website's SEO performance, including top-performing pages, keyword rankings, backlinks, and technical health. This baseline data is essential for comparison post-launch.
Detailed URL Mapping and 301 Redirect Strategy: Create a meticulous map of all your old URLs and their corresponding new URLs. Implement permanent (301) redirects to seamlessly guide users and search engines to the updated pages. This is non-negotiable.
Content Inventory and Optimisation Plan: Review all existing content.
Decide what to keep, update, or remove. Ensure new content is high-quality, relevant, and strategically targets your desired keywords.
Maintain and Enhance Internal Linking: Plan your new internal linking structure carefully. Ensure important pages are well-linked and that the flow of the link equity remains strong or is improved.
Keyword Research and Integration: Conduct thorough keyword research to inform your content strategy and ensure you're targeting relevant terms with sufficient search volume. Integrate these keywords naturally into your content, titles, and descriptions.

Focus on Technical SEO Best Practices:

Site Speed: Optimise images, leverage browser caching, and consider a Content Delivery Network (CDN).
Mobile-Friendliness: Ensure your new design is fully responsive and provides an excellent user experience on all devices.
Schema Markup: Implement relevant schema markup to help search engines understand the context of your content.
robots.txt and sitemap.xml: Ensure these files are correctly configured to guide search engine crawlers.
HTTPS: Confirm your site is secure with HTTPS.
Utilise a Staging Environment: Build and thoroughly test your redesigned website on a staging environment before launching it live. This allows you to identify and fix any SEO issues without impacting your live site.
Pre- and Post-Launch Crawl and Indexing Checks: Use tools like Google Search Console and Screaming Frog to crawl your old and new sites. Identify any broken links, crawl errors, or indexing issues.
Monitor Key SEO Metrics Post-Launch: Closely track your keyword rankings, organic traffic, search impressions, and crawl errors in Google Search Console. Be prepared to make adjustments if you notice any significant negative changes.
Communicate with Search Engines: Submit your updated sitemap to Google Search Console after the launch to help them discover and index your new pages faster.

Troubleshooting Ranking Drops After a Redesign:

If you experience a decline in rankings after your website redesign, follow these steps to diagnose the issue:

Rule Out Google Algorithm Updates: Before attributing the drop solely to the redesign, check for any recent Google core updates or algorithm changes that might be affecting overall search rankings.
URL and Redirect Audit: Verify that all old URLs are correctly redirected to their new counterparts using a 301 redirect. Use tools to identify any broken redirects or 404 errors.
Crawl-ability and Index-ability Check: Use Google Search Console to check for any crawl errors, indexing issues, or security problems that might be preventing Google from accessing and understanding your new site.
Internal Link Analysis: Compare your pre- and post-redesign internal link structure using tools like Screaming Frog to identify any broken internal links or significant changes in link flow.
Content and keyword Review: Ensure your new content is still relevant, high-quality, and targets your intended keywords effectively. Check if any crucial content or keywords have been inadvertently removed or de-emphasised. Pay attention to heading structure and paragraph placement.
Image Optimisation: While changing all images might not directly impact web search rankings, ensure new images are properly optimised with descriptive file names and alt text. If your original images were driving traffic from image search, replacing them entirely could have an impact there.
Competitive Landscape Analysis: Analyse the search results for your target keywords to see if there have been significant shifts in the types of websites ranking. This could indicate a Google algorithm update favouring different types of content.

The Important of Planning and Preparation:

A successful website redesign that doesn't harm your SEO hinges on meticulous planning and preparation. By understanding the potential pitfalls and implementing proactive strategies, you can ensure a smooth transition and maintain or even improve your search engine rankings. Remember to always back up your website before making any significant changes, allowing for quick restoration if necessary. Consulting with an experience SEO professional throughout the redesign process can provide invaluable guidance and help you avoid costly mistakes.

You may also enjoy these articles

Get some valuable advice straight to your inbox.