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
-
H1 for users or SEO in this case
Hello, A client of mine has an online store with a pre-made cart. In this cart the name below the product in the category pages and the H1 tag on the product pages themselves are the same textbox entry (they have to be the same thing) We want to add two product features to the product name, but this will make the H1 longer and diluted. Let me give you a fictional example, A category page for cross-trainer shoes would have products in it. Below each product it says things like "Nike Sports One Shoes" and "Adidas Action Series Shoes". We want to make it "Nike Sports Shoes size 7 through 12 for running and walking" and "Adidas Action Series Shoes size 5 through 10 for running, walking, and hiking". The reason for the change is that we want users to know about size and one more important feature before they visit the product page in our case to save them time. But this changes the H1 on the product page (a pre-made cart problem) from "Adidas Action Series Shoes" which is the direct search term to "Adidas Action Series Shoes size 5 through 10 for running, walking, and hiking" which is not a direct search term. This dilutes the keyword in the H1 but will save users time. We will put a tag inside the H1 just so you know, so that we can bold the name of the product to still be seen clearly, I hope that's not an HTML SEO problem. **What do you think, for users with diluted SEO or better SEO in this case? Our product pages are our most important pages in this industry. Thanks**
Web Design | | BobGW0 -
Examples of B2B websites offering services (not products)
Hi there, I need some help - I am looking for some examples of SEO and inbound marketing websites in the B2B service sector. Thanks in advance!
Web Design | | Hughescov0 -
What would be the best way to translate my website for international seo?
I am planning on creating a multi language website that targets different countries and would like to know what would be the best way to translate my content from English to multiple different languages (French, Spanish, Swedish, Chinese, etc.). I would hire a translator but doing so for all these different languages would be too costly. Using Google translate will leave me with at best a rough translation. What are my other options? Is there a website that can provide me a better translation? Would Fiver be a better/cheaper alternative? Thoughts?
Web Design | | Shawn1240 -
Live website is an addon domain - Need site old development url inaccessable from live domain
Hi everyone, I have a website which is built in Joomla 2.5. The development site is located at www,abc.com/subdomain/. We have set the site live using an addon domain which is www.xyz.com. The problem is, www.abc.com/subdomain/ is still accessible and being crawled by Google. How is the best way to make the development url inaccessible? Any help would be appreciated!
Web Design | | DougHosmer0 -
Website subscribe form.
Hello, Im working on a clients website and I have 2 box's. One is a subscription box and the other is a newsletter sing up. Subscription box is a google feedburner where every time there is a new post, it automatically notifies the readers. Whats the best strategy to have subscribe box since its confusing for readers when you have 2 forms. Thank you for your help.
Web Design | | KentR0 -
How do I learn how to build custom wordpress websites?
Is wordpress a good platform to build websites with? If so, what are some good resources to learn how to build custom websites using wordpress?
Web Design | | Lael0 -
What are some of the best website hosting platforms for Wordpress?
I'm looking for a new hosting provider and have been told to find one that specializes in Wordpress hosting because of higher page speed load times, etc.. Can anyone recommend a couple of Wordpress Hosting providers
Web Design | | webestate0 -
Am I on the right track -- still not seeing results in rank, traffic, etc.
I am a complete novice, but I tend to learn quickly. My site is one year old, and I have very low traffic. I also rank poorly. I have recently learned a ton, and made some changes: 1. Put in meta no follow, no index tags on certain pages 2. Found and fixed some horrid content -- I had forgotten to finish certain pages (!) and they had been left up for months -- a good example is /California-homeschool.html basically said "Washington homeschool, blah, blah, blah" for about 8 months before I fixed it (!) 3. Added new content, changed the look and navigation of the site, added social media links and have been working to build those up (FB, Twitter, etc) 4. Started blogging regularly. Those are the main things I have done. I plan to continue to add content, tweak the navigation, and blog regularly. From what I can tell, link building should happen organically. My question is: Am I on the right track? Here is a link to my site: http://www.i-school-at-home.com Am I missing anything -- there seems to be so much info out there. Because there is a time lag between making changes and seeing results, I just would love to know if I am on the right track, before I devote more time to this strategy. What I would like to do is be the #1 homeschool website (long term goal) and generate revenue (eventually) from affiliate marketing and creating my own curriculum and resources. Thank you!!!!!!
Web Design | | WendyKKelly0