{"id":233516,"date":"2022-01-10T09:55:23","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T22:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitaltreasury.com.au\/?p=233516"},"modified":"2023-07-31T15:37:58","modified_gmt":"2023-07-31T05:37:58","slug":"seo-rankings-redesign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitaltreasury.com.au\/seo-rankings-redesign\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Retain Your SEO Rankings When Redesigning Your Website"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Much like building a website from scratch, redesigning it also influences user experience and SEO<\/a>. And it doesn’t matter if you’re only redesigning the site in bits or its entirety. Neither does it matter if you are repeating the process every 3months or 3years. The effects remain just as crucial, especially for WordPress websites!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, does that mean you should ditch all notions of redesigning your website?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No! Redesign your website to keep to your industry innovations and trends. Plus, this is a golden opportunity to audit your SEO strategies<\/a> and see the improvements you could add. But while you are at it, we\u2019ll advise you to go about the entire process systematically. Else, you will lose your SEO rankings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, what is the way forward?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10 out of 10 times, it is best to leave your website redesigning projects to professionals like Brett Melville, the owner of <\/em>Digital Treasury<\/em><\/a>. But if you\u2019re a web designer and a digital marketing guru, the following tips can help. Check it out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 Systematic Steps To Retain Your SEO Rankings Despite Redesigning Your Website<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t Start Without A Staging Site!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The number one rule for website redesigns is to have a staging site. It is a development phase where you can test your maneuvers before pushing them to your live websites. While we have heard many professionals claiming not to use it (the staging site), we\u2019ll advise you to do otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regardless of your years of experience, it is unprofessional to work directly on a live site. Even as a pro, you can make mistakes. What if you committed an error on a high-traffic website? If such a website were commercial, your client could lose sales. Even for personal sites, absurd layout and content could cause loopholes in your reputation management.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom line: you don’t want to leave things to chance. So, before you even start redesigning your website, ensure your live site is up and functional. And while you are at it, keep the old website operational until the changes are perfect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pro tip: Your hosting provider might have a built-in staging site feature, ask. But if you\u2019re creating yours on a separate URL, ensure you enforce a \u201cno index\u201d on it. If it does, Google bots will crawl the staging site.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Were Your Initial SEO Metrics?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

If you want to retain your SEO rankings, you must know them to start. So, what are your rankings on SERPs? Are you on page one for your industry and location on Google? More importantly, what was the score of your website on the Google Core Web Vitals test?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you have the answers, you will know your baseline. Still, have tools in place to monitor your maneuvers and their impact on your SEO ranking. In particular, watch out for these metrics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n