A redesign can breathe new life into your website—but if done wrong, it can suffocate your SEO.
When businesses decide to redesign a website, the focus usually revolves around appearance, functionality, or branding. But there’s a catch- if you don’t factor SEO into the equation right from the start, all of the time and investment you’ve put into developing your online presence could disappear overnight. Redesigning a website without integrating SEO is akin to constructing a house without a foundation.
Whether you hire a web design company or keep it in-house, this guide will walk you through how you can redesign your website while maintaining the organic rankings that you have worked so hard to attain.
Understanding What Works In Your Current SEO Strategy
Before making any changes, you need a crystal-clear view of what’s already working. Identify:
- High-ranking keywords
- Top-performing content
- Pages with strong backlink profiles
- Organic traffic sources
You can’t preserve what you don’t understand. This is exactly where the expertise of an experienced SEO company can come in handy, they’ll audit your existing website and make sure successful elements are preserved in the redesign.
Keep good documentation of these assets. Leverage tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, as well as crawling tools to collect data. Your redesign should be built on the foundation of your current SEO strengths.
Recognizing Common SEO Pitfalls In Website Redesigns
Many redesign projects unintentionally disrupt critical SEO elements. It’s not just what you change but how and why you change it. Here’s what often goes wrong:
- Content gets deleted or heavily modified
- Page URLs are changed or lost
- Internal linking structures are altered
- Meta tags and headers are overwritten
- Technical SEO settings are misconfigured
- Website hierarchy is disrupted
- The domain, protocol (http/https), or subdomain changes
Each of these factors, even individually, can damage your rankings. Combined, they can tank your entire SEO strategy. That’s why an experienced website design company should always include an SEO specialist in early planning conversations.
Create a Redesign Strategy That Safeguards SEO
With a deep understanding of what’s working and what might break, it’s time to build a smart redesign strategy. Your two key SEO goals should be:
- Retain your current rankings and traffic.
- Improve upon them with better structure, content, and performance.
To accomplish this, follow these steps:
1. Backup and Save Crawl Data
Before launching any changes, crawl your current website and export all key SEO data—URLs, meta tags, content, headers, etc. This gives you a baseline and helps recreate or preserve SEO-critical elements post-launch.
2. Keep What’s Working, Change What Isn’t
Don’t fix what isn’t broken. If your current URL structure, content, or metadata is performing well, carry it over to the new website. For underperforming areas, take this as a chance to optimize. Consider consulting a website design agency that also specializes in SEO to align design and optimization.
3. Build a Redirect Map
When URLs change, plan 301 redirects before the new website goes live. This is critical. Redirects ensure visitors and search engines reach the right content and help retain link equity. A reliable website redesign services provider will implement and test redirects as a top priority.
4. Optimize On-Page SEO Elements
As you redesign, maintain, or improve your title tags, meta descriptions, headers, image alt text, and structured data. On-page SEO still matters in terms of rankings. If you’re not sure how to handle this properly, an experienced SEO agency can specialize in this without compromising UX.
5. Focus on Technical SEO and Speed
Modern websites need to be fast, mobile-friendly, and technically sound. Optimize for:
- Core Web Vitals
- Mobile responsiveness
- Secure protocol (HTTPS)
- Clean code and fast-loading media
Partnering with a web design service provider that understands these technical demands can prevent SEO setbacks due to performance issues.
6. Maintain and Improve Internal Links
Your internal linking influences both user navigation as well as how search engines will crawl and index your website. Ensure that key pages still get enough internal links, especially those with a history of strong rankings. Ahrefs or SEMrush are good tools to gauge your internal link distribution.
7. Update Your XML Sitemap and Robots.txt
Once the new website is live, immediately update your XML sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Also, ensure your robots.txt file isn’t blocking essential pages. This helps search engines understand your new structure and index it efficiently.
8. Monitor SEO Performance Post-Launch
Expect slight fluctuations in SEO rankings after launch, but monitor traffic closely. Use tools like Google Search Console, rank trackers, and heatmaps to spot unexpected drops. Keep the previous website backed up (preferably on a private URL with password protection) to compare and troubleshoot.
Work with a search engine optimization service provider during this period to audit the live website and proactively address issues.
9. Don’t Forget About Backlinks
When URLs change, your backlinks don’t automatically follow. Use backlink tools to identify external links pointing to your old pages and try to update them where possible. Although 301 redirects preserve most SEO value, updated backlinks often result in faster indexing and better authority.
10. Treat Redesign as an SEO Growth Opportunity
A redesign isn’t just about avoiding SEO loss—it’s an opportunity to scale. Take a critical look at your past performance and use the redesign to expand your content, improve targeting, and capture more relevant keywords.
A professional website design company can collaborate with your SEO team to design a website that’s both beautiful and strategically structured to drive business growth.
Smart Redesign, Stronger SEO
A website redesign is a powerful move for any business, but only when done with SEO in mind. By auditing what works, anticipating what could go wrong, and executing a smart, well-documented plan, you can redesign your website without losing visibility on search engines.
Partner with a trusted Website design company like Site It Now, who specialize in redesigning websites without jeopardizing the rankings. Our experts thoroughly examine your existing websites, finding ways to enhance user experience while preserving your search rankings. We combine creativity with SEO expertise to deliver websites that not only look amazing but also perform exceptionally well in search rankings. Contact us today at Contact@siteitnow.com or call (312) 442-0352 to get started.
In short: don’t just rebuild—rebuild smarter with Site It Now.
