Does redesigning a website affects SEO results
-
We have a website and we are getting good traffic to it. Its a travel related domain registered many years back. Now its ranking high for most of the potential keywords even if it is not at all SEO friendly (Domain is an exact match keyword). We are planning to redesign it. Will that affect the SEO Ranking?
We need to ask some more doubts:
1. When redesigning we are planning to change the inner page URL. So it it wise
to redirect (301) old URL to the new URL? Old url will not be there after redesigning. But its currently having page ranks.
2. Can we redirect more than one old url to a single new page?
3. Google new updates said "they will be going to diminish the exact match results domains". Does that updates affects us?
4. Any more suggestions for the redesigning?
-
I have recent experience with a very similar situation. We decided to go ahead and change the entire look of the site and a lot of the content, but we kept the same URL structure. For one of the main keywords we experienced the following:
Google: We fell from first page to fourth page over a period of 4 months. We are just now starting to see an uptick in rankings and have climbed back to the 3rd page.
Bing: We climbed from the third page to the bottom of the 1st page over a period of 3 months.
Part of the redesign was to focus our on page optimization results.
In answer to your 4 questions:
1. Redirect anything that won't be there for sure. You don't want people clicking an old link just to find a 404 dead site.
2. Yes you can redirect more than one old url to a single new page, but make sure it is a logical redirect and is helpful to the user. Don't just do it for fun.
3. Like Joram said, "You'll have to wait and see"
4. Don't redesign just because you are tired of the look. Too many web site owners look at their website everyday and get tired of the look when it is a perfectly fine site. Have a purpose for redesigning that includes something along the lines of, "This redesign will help my visitors because...."
-
Would it also be important to keep the content similar to maintain SEO and then change it slowly to prevent a drop?
-
My 2 cents:
First of all with any major redesign there will be a lot of changes on the rankings side: those could be positive or negative or a mix of course.
You really need to plan everything with extra care especially if you rank already ...
A good advice is allways to do everthing step by step. That measn: change the design and don't touch the url structure. Change the design but don't inject new pages or delete old ones.
As soon as teh dust is settled with teh design change you can move forward and remove / add new pages and wait again. When everthing is done you can start the redesign of the url structure but again step by step.
In this way you will be able to track and monitor all changes and be able to go back if something bad really happens.
As for the url change - it's a golden rule not to touch those on an existing domain unless it's really really imperative tod o so.
With any url change, even if 301 are implemente correctly you still face a big possibile drop in rankings !
Been there - done that - got burned.
To stay safe, make and bring on the table a contingency plan just in case.
Overview to your questions:
1. When redesigning we are planning to change the inner page URL. So it it wise
to redirect (301) old URL to the new URL? Old url will not be there after redesigning. But its currently having page ranks.
** Even with 301 redirects the site will suffer from the url change. It dosen't mean you don't have to do it but just plan it with care and only if it's really really important to move with the change.
2. Can we redirect more than one old url to a single new page?
** Yes.
3. Google new updates said "they will be going to diminish the exact match results domains". Does that updates affects us?
** Doy ou have an EMD and target the keyword that is in the domain ?
4. Any more suggestions for the redesigning?
** Do everything step by step - build a road map / project plan with the changes- don't dive in live there's no tomorrow as you can run into some serious problems.
Everything can be done and usually a redesign is more then welcomed - especially if it's done from an UX point of view. Do plan however everything with extra care.
-
Hi,
To start with: Yes, your redesign it going to affect your rankings. The question is how it's going to change.
Changing your url structure will definitely have quite an impact on your rankings. It's wise to read some more information about the effect of the url structure on SEO. Maybe this is a good one to start with: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo/basics-of-search-engine-friendly-design-and-development
If the old url's won't be accesible any longer you should definitely redirect to the new url's. It is possible to redirect more of your old url's to one new url. After the change in your url structure it might take a while before Google has indexed all your new url's and it's very likely that you'll see a fluctuation in your rankings.
About Google's 'EMD update": You'll have to see over time how that update affects your site.
At least make sure all content is accesible on the new site and don't remove too many internal links to well ranking pages. There are tons of other do's and don't for redesigning your site. I think you can find some very important ones in this SEOmoz guide.
Good luck!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Quality Traffic - Terrible Results
Hello all, I have been working hard on my SEO (and SEM) to the point where I'm getting plenty of traffic from my targeted keywords. The only problem is that none of this people are becoming leads (the goal for our business). Anything jump out about these pages in terms of how to get people more likely to get to the form page? www.enertiv.com/solutions/
Web Design | | Enertiv
www.enertiv.com/solutions/asset-intelligence
www.enertiv.com/solutions/automatic-tenant-submetering
www.enertiv.com/solutions/enertiv-two-meter Anything on the form page that could be optimized to drive more form completions? www.enertiv.com/get-started Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks0 -
What is the Estimated Time for SERP Rankings to Replenish after a Site Redesign?
Hello Fellow Moz'ers, My company's website, www.1099pro.com, is currently OLD and not mobile-friendly! However, we rank #1 for out most important keywords and don't want to lose that ranking. I've recently redesigned our site, currently in testing, to use the same standard desktop pages but to also have responsive, mobile friendly, pages for different view ports. My question is if anyone knows an estimated time frame that search engines (mainly Google) takes to re-crawl the site and restore SERP rankings to their previous levels? The reason is because we are HIGHLY seasonal and if we are not back at our top rankings by early December, at latest (November would be better), then we stand the chance to lose a considerable amount of traffic/revenue. -The Unenlightened One
Web Design | | Stew2220 -
Parallax Websites
Hi Just wanting to see what peoples view is on Parallax websites (all content on 1 page separated into sections), and does Google see them as a good user experience or would they be seen as difficult to read for a search engine i.e not enough content?
Web Design | | Cocoonfxmedia0 -
Changing website to Mobile site
Hi All, We are building a new website and would take it live in next few weeks. I want help to understand what all should we consider.. The site structure would be same with additional features but the URL path and site name is same...Should i take any precausions before shutting down the old site and getting the new one live? Thanks
Web Design | | jomin740 -
SEO and Squarespace? Is this Really an Option?
Hi all, Any feedback on Squarespace, SEO capabilites and ranking factors? I have a client wishing to use the platform and despite the good reviews, which appear to be from resellers by the way, the forums say not. Although apparently Rand Fishkin, SEOMoz (yes right here!) gave them a big thumbs up “The square space team have put together a remarkable platform, SEO friendliness! Really not sure here and don’t agree, there are many limitations and hosting with a template provider is always big no no. Cheers
Web Design | | VirginiaC
Virginia0 -
How does using a CMS (i.e. Wordpress/Drupal) affect backlinks and SEO?
So I need to build a website with over 100 pages in it. Elements of the design will probably be moved around and or tested so I need to use a CMS. It's pretty much a review site so while the content will remain static I'd like to employ A/B testing to mess with conversion rates. Wordpress has a plugin for that even. So I'm just wondering, since CMS pages are pretty much created on spot and not retrieved from a library, how this affects backlinks and anchor text? How exactly does the external website point to yours if the URL is dynamically generated? Or am I misunderstanding something? Please recommend any extra resources as well if you can.
Web Design | | seochump0 -
Websites with only one "html file" and page href # is good for SEO?
I bought one website from templatemonster that contains only one HTML and the pages are generated by links (PROGRAMACAO) My website: www.nextformaturas.com.br This is good in term of SEO? or it is better an website with deveral pages with diferent contents? What are the pros and cons? I really lost on this.
Web Design | | Naghirniac0 -
Bing free mobile website
When editing my Bing business listing, I have noticed that they offer a free mobile website. I was actually looking to build one and I'm not sure if this is what I'm looking for. I want to be able to customize it as well. Anybody tried it already? arBS3.jpg
Web Design | | echo10