What You Need to Know Before Launching a New Website

As your business's core online communication tool, investing in a website redesign every couple of years is a no brainer to keep the design fresh, relevant, and optimized. A big question we hear when deciding on a redesign is if the switchover will risk losing the SEO successes your site has built up. With SEO being a long-term strategy, it's important to avoid any mistakes that inadvertently result in a drop in rankings.

Search Engine Land recently broke down some of the top mistakes to avoid in a website redesign launch. To summarize, they were:

• Mistake #1: You added Flash-based or unoptimized images
• Mistake #2: You neglected to migrate important content
• Mistake #3: You blocked search engines from crawling your site
• Mistake #4: You didn’t prioritize mobile-friendliness

Read more about what you can learn from these mistakes.

While those items have critical SEO implications when launching a new site, there are other considerations we've come across that are important to keep in mind:

• 301 redirects. 301 redirects are key to ensuring users can still reach the content at your old URLs, reduce 404 errors, and ensure a smooth transition as your content moves.
• Changing domain names. A switch in domain names can be tricky, especially if you are ranking for terms included in the URL. Pay careful attention to search console and ensure Google is aware of the change and your redirects are all in place.
• Site speed. While a new fancy design may look good, site speed is important to improve in the process. Site speed optimization should be a priority as your new site is built.

While many factors go into website redesigns and search rankings, being aware of the items above will ensure you avoid crucial mistakes that will make your digital marketing an uphill battle.

Have you run into any issues during a redesign? Share in the comments below.

Thinking of redesigning your website? Let's chat about how we can help!