8 Tips to Maintain Rankings After Website Redesign

An article by Shilpi C

Although the answer to the million dollar question "How to maintain rankings after website redesign" is relatively straight forward, but the fact is, depending on the intensity of the redesign, it can become very complex. In most of the cases there will be specifics for each site to prepare the final plan and it is nearly impossible to cover all scenarios in a single article. So in this article I am describing the process that would apply in most cases.

1. File Names

Do not ever change your filenames unless it is absolutely essential to restructure the file hierarchy since you risk losing valuable rankings with page renaming. Not only that, but you also lose existing customers / visitors who might have bookmarked the now-moved page. In cases where you do not have a choice but to rename the page filenames, use of a 301 redirection is best solution. The 301 redirection will automatically direct your existing customers /visitors to the new location of the now-moved pages. Permanent 301 redirects also help to retain the Page Rank of your pages and sometimes your rankings also.

When you move a page with the 301 redirects, credits are re-assigned by the Search Engines. Existing rankings will eventually be transferred over to the new location along with any credit from inbound links.

2. Site Structure

This is the extension of above mentioned point. Along with filenames, change in site structure can also include your domain name. The above rule still holds true if your domain name is the only change you make to your site. Even with proper 301 redirects, your rankings may drop significantly. Changing your domain name can be a complete rankings killer.

It is also very important to ensure that you have 404 redirects in place. Either direct "page not found" traffic to a custom 404 error page, or to your site's home page.

3. Image Links

If your current website utilizes text links to link to the home page, ensure that they are carried over to the new design without losing the relevancy.

4. Content Management Systems

Today many new sites use CMS for content management which can sometimes destroy your rankings. Before switching to a CMS ensure that changed URL's are properly covered with 301 redirects and try to find a system that offers clean simple URL strings with minimal extra characters. Also ensure that your system allows you to edit all aspects of a given page like addition of unique title and meta tags and adjustment of alt tags.

5. Content

If your new site contains entirely fresh textual content, ensure that the keyword densities remain as close as possible to the old copy. Be sure to keep inline text links, heading tags, and keyword placement within the top portions of the new site.

6. Title and Meta Tags Make sure to copy the title and meta tag of your old page to the new version.

7. Alt tags

Make sure to keep the optimized alt tags in place for the images remaining on the site. In cases where header images and image based navigation is being completely updated be sure to follow the same guidelines with the alt tags in the original design.

8. XML Sitemap

XML sitemaps help Google index the new location of your site pages to ensure an easy and faster recovery from the change.

By following the above mentioned steps, you will stand the best chance for retaining your existing rankings.

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