Redesigning your website can give your business the visual overhaul it needs to attract more customers. It can also do wonders for improving your brand visibility, increasing website traffic, and helping you generate even more sales. However, a real risk of redesigning your website is failing to account for your search engine optimization or SEO efforts, which can tank your rankings.
SEO must be part of your website redesign conversations from the get-go. That way, you can incorporate it into your process, maintain your brand recognition and avoid confusing your customers. To avoid disaster, here are four tips for making sure you have the best website redesign process from start to finish:
1. Ask If a New Website is Necessary
Before investing your time and money into a brand new website, ask if it’s absolutely what your business needs. Do you genuinely need a new website, or could you work on your existing one and improve it?
Generally, you’ll need a completely new website if your current one is built on obsolete technology that cannot be updated. Additionally, if you’re overhauling your brand with a new look, a new website is the best way to do it. Other reasons, like merging multiple websites or outgrowing your current platform, also call for migrating to a new page.
2. Conduct a Website SEO Audit
Even if you detest your current website, it likely holds a goldmine of information that can illuminate your website redesign plans and help you build a smoother, faster, and gorgeous page. For instance, take a look at your bounce rate, which measures how many people stay on your website after clicking from a search engine. The time on site tells you whether your content is engaging enough to keep your visitors. Other data like mobile versus desktop traffic, location, return visitors, and conversions are crucial to your success and must be considered as well
3. Use Advanced SEO Tools
You can gain more SEO insight from your website through tools like Ahrefs or SEMRush. With these, you can look at your domain authority, demonstrating where your website competitively sits. Your backlink profile can help you figure out the content to keep and which 301 directs you’ll need. SEMRush can also help you get an idea of your website health score and recommend SEO priorities for migrating to your new page
4. Conduct Keyword and Competitive Analysis
Using the same SEO tools, start looking at the keywords your website is ranking for along with the keywords your competitors rank well at on search engines. It will offer you eye-opening insights, as you may be ranking for unexpected words or phrases you weren’t targeting. You may also rank for only your brand terms, like your company or product name.
Checking what your competition ranks for will inform you of the vital keywords you may want to focus on, helping you improve your visibility. It can also improve your content strategy by incorporating keywords your target audience uses to find your product or service.
Conclusion
Redesigning your website is usually a good move that will enhance your visitors’ browsing experience. However, failing to consider SEO will put you behind your competitors, making it harder to reach the top of a search engine results page. By integrating these tips into your planning process, you’ll enjoy a higher chance of success.
The Strategy Channel is a full-service SEO agency offering the best website design, social media strategy, and content marketing services. Take your marketing to the next level by contacting us today!
