A website redesign offers a fantastic opportunity to enhance your SEO, boost conversion rates, and elevate your digital marketing efforts. However, without careful planning, it can turn into an SEO disaster.

This article highlights key areas to focus on during a redesign to not only maintain but improve SEO performance.

If SEO is a priority, the first step is to ensure it’s integrated from the start of the redesign process. A helpful resource is “SEO and Website Design: How to Build Search Engine-Friendly Sites,” which outlines the essentials for weaving SEO into your website strategy.

A Cautionary Tale

Maintaining traffic during a redesign can be tricky.

When asked if it’s possible to avoid losing traffic during a redesign, Google’s John Mueller had a clear response—no.

Over my career, I’ve seen numerous websites—some high-budget and mission-critical—that suffered massive drops in organic traffic after a redesign. But one project, in particular, stands out.

A small charity supporting multiple sclerosis (MS) patients needed a site redesign. They had built organic traffic over the years, but the site was outdated and in desperate need of a refresh.

After 12 months of working with two different companies, the new site finally launched. Anticipation was high. However, the excitement soon turned to panic as traffic plummeted—and stayed low. After waiting a month for improvements that never came, and with no help from the web design agencies, we took on the project pro bono.

Reversing SEO damage after a redesign is challenging. While it’s tough enough when SEO is considered from the start, fixing it after launch is far more difficult. SEO oversights can lead to issues that make recovering lost traffic almost impossible.

In this case, we managed to recover around 90% of the traffic, but it was a long, frustrating process. Two years later, we worked with the charity to plan a new site, this time integrating SEO throughout the process. The result? Traffic surpassed previous levels.

The lesson: Failing to plan is planning to fail.

SEO and Website Redesign: Key Considerations

When redesigning a website, maintaining—and ideally improving—your SEO depends on three core components:

1. Understanding what currently works for your SEO
2. Being aware of common SEO pitfalls during redesigns
3. Having a clear plan for changes on the new site

Here’s how to approach each of these areas:

1. Understanding What Works

If you’re already running SEO campaigns, you likely know what’s driving traffic:

• Keywords and topics that rank well
• Pages that generate organic traffic
• Other sources of organic visibility

Document these successes to ensure they’re preserved during the redesign. If a page performs well, make sure it either remains intact or is migrated appropriately.

2. Common SEO Issues During a Redesign

Redesigns often come with more than just a visual overhaul. They can affect SEO in many ways. Common issues include:

• Content removal: Removing content means losing its ranking.
• Content changes: Altering a page’s substance can impact rankings.
• URL changes: Changing URLs or directory structures can disrupt rankings if not managed properly.
• Technical issues: New features or platforms can introduce errors that affect indexing or crawling.
• Internal link structure: Changing internal links can impact how search engines distribute PageRank.
• New technology: New tools or platforms could slow down load times or harm mobile responsiveness.

The more changes you make, the higher the risk of introducing SEO issues. Try to minimize variables to avoid unnecessary complications.

3. Planning for Change

With a solid understanding of what’s working and what can go wrong, the next step is planning for the redesign. Key SEO objectives should be:

• Preserving current rankings and traffic
• Improving rankings and traffic

To do this, create a complete sitemap for the new site. This will allow you to map out any URL changes and ensure the new structure supports your SEO goals.

Website Redesign SEO Checklist

To preserve your rankings and traffic during a redesign, follow these steps:

1. Keep the old site live: Host it privately so you can reference it during the redesign process.
2. Save crawl data: Use tools like Screaming Frog to save a crawl of your current site.
3. Don’t fix what isn’t broken: If something works, avoid unnecessary changes.
4. Set up 301 redirects: Redirect old URLs to new ones, and ensure all redirects are working properly post-launch.
5. Maintain high-performing content: Keep content changes minimal until the new site is indexed and stable.
6. Optimize on-page elements: Retain key on-page elements such as meta descriptions, headers, and titles.
7. Update your backlinks: Reach out to webmasters to update backlinks where possible.
8. Be mindful of internal links: Maintain a strong internal linking structure to preserve SEO value.
9. Update your XML sitemap: Submit it to search engines to help them crawl and index the new site.
10. Monitor rankings and traffic: Use tools like Google Search Console to keep an eye on changes post-launch.
11. Conduct technical audits: Regularly run audits to spot any technical issues affecting your SEO.

Retaining and Enhancing SEO During a Redesign

The most critical element of a successful website redesign is planning. Failing to plan, especially when it comes to SEO, is a recipe for disaster. Without a well-thought-out SEO strategy, key ranking elements can easily be overlooked, leading to a loss in traffic and visibility.

By factoring SEO into the design and development process from the start, you can avoid these pitfalls and confidently launch a website that not only retains its SEO value but sets the stage for growth.