Re-Branding Website

[Derrald]

Hi everyone!

I'm currently in the process of re-branding a website, and am really worried about the SEO consequences of doing so... The site I'm working on has recently been seeing a large increase of organic search traffic (almost 25% each month for the past 3 months)  and I want to do my best to avoid screwing that up in the process of changing the aesthetic of the site.

A couple specific questions I have are:

1. Does changing the stylesheet, but none of the on-page content affect SEO?

2. Would condensing menu items (i.e. putting all services under 1 item named "services") have a positive or negative effect? Neither?

Any advice, tips, or previous experiences on this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Derrald]

Thanks, Jordan!

[Derrald]

Thank you, Patrick!

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi there

A rebrand is a business decision. I would take advantage of all the information from Umar as well as a few more points for good measure:

Content Audit - Find what current content can be updated, consolidated, removed, and migrated to the new website. What other opportunities do you have for your content?
Website Migration Guide from Moz - This will help make sure that your transition to the new website will go smooth and cover your bases.
Backlink Audit - This will help you on a couple of fronts. First, you will find backlinks that you will want to update to the new domain once it is live and ready to go. Second, you will find links that you can eitherremove or disavow so that when you redirect, it won't be a factor.
Change of Address - You will want to use this so that Google knows your site moved to a new address. Google also has a resource for when you move a website.
Local SEO - If you have listings or citations, make sure those are updated. Perform an audit so you can make sure that any mention of your business is corrected and now points to a new domain.
A/B Test - Make sure that you test new designs and usability to make sure users like what they are seeing that engagement maintains or increases with changes.

There are a lot of opportunities in rebranding, but you want to make sure that you take care of everything that you can to help users and search engines see that your site has moved and you are now a new brand.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

[JordanLowry]

Changing the stylesheet wouldn't have an affect on SEO but it could have an effect on user engagement which could reduce rank positioning over time. I would recommend some heavy user testing to make sure there are no negative consequences of switching up your aesthetics on the site. You can try out peak user testing they offer a free service.

As far as the second issue if it makes logical sense for the end user and it helps with user experience to condense the menu items then it shouldn't have any negative effects on SEO. Just remember design with the end user in mind.