If you’re contemplating a website redesign, you might wonder if upgrading a website can impact its SEO. The answer is yes; it can affect your SEO. However, it’s crucial to note that updates can also enhance your rankings and are definitely worth the effort. Indeed, Google favors updated websites and prioritizes those that frequently refresh their content.
Conversely, neglecting your website and not updating the user experience or content relevance can gradually diminish your search engine rankings. Moreover, a website upgrade can alter its structure, content, and URLs, which might adversely affect your SEO rankings if mishandled. Post-update, you may face issues like broken links, duplicate content, and other technical problems.
Considering that SEO is vital for website ranking and sales, it’s essential to be cautious before proceeding with an upgrade. This article will discuss strategies to safeguard your website’s SEO during the upgrade process.
To update your website without affecting its SEO, you should follow these best practices:
Plan ahead
Prior to implementing updates, it’s crucial to carefully plan the changes and evaluate their potential effects on your website’s SEO. Doing so will help prevent any adverse outcomes and maintain your website’s optimization for search engines.
Here are some things you can do to prepare for an upgrade:
- Perform a thorough SEO audit on your website to pinpoint potential issues and opportunities for enhancement. For instance, consider cataloging all your website’s URLs to assess their current rankings and associated keyphrases/keywords.
- Craft a comprehensive plan detailing the modifications you intend to implement and their projected impact on your website’s SEO. For example, a minor design update, such as swapping out icons while retaining the text, may not significantly alter the page’s SEO.
- Formulate a contingency plan for any unforeseen complications that may arise from the updates. It is advisable to back up the live site and trial substantial changes in a staging environment prior to a live deployment.
- Verify that all new content or modifications cater to your intended audience and are in harmony with your overarching SEO strategy.
Create a temporary URL
In the process of a significant website overhaul, establishing a temporary URL is essential to prevent disruptions for users and future complications for the site. Avoid implementing redesign modifications directly on the live site. Rather, clone your website and apply the changes on a temporary URL. This approach ensures that the ongoing website operations remain unaffected. Once the redesign is finalized, you can then transition your domain to the updated version. These precautions help safeguard both your website’s integrity and the user experience during extensive updates.
Use 301 redirects
When you’re redesigning your website and altering its URL structure, employing 301 redirects is crucial. These redirects signal to search engines that the old URLs have been permanently transferred to new ones, which helps preserve your site’s search rankings and prevents broken links. To retain the SEO value of your old URLs, implement proper 301 redirects to the new URLs. For instance, if the URL of your “Our Services” page changed from “www.example.com/ourservices.html” to “www.example.com/our-services.html,” setting up 301 redirects ensures that both URLs remain functional, avoiding 404 errors for search engines. The process can be streamlined using WordPress redirect plugins, which allow you to set up redirects easily through a form.
Keep content fresh
It’s important to consistently refresh your website’s content to maintain its relevance and appeal. Doing so not only enhances your site’s SEO but also retains visitor interest and engagement. Sometimes, you don’t need to create a new page; simply adding a paragraph to an existing blog post to update it with the latest information related to the topic can be sufficient.
Monitor your website’s performance
Consistently track your website’s performance with tools such as Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Doing so will assist you in detecting and resolving any technical problems that may occur, ensuring that your website maintains a strong presence in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Consider hiring a professional
If you’re uncertain about updating your website without impacting its SEO, think about engaging a professional web developer or SEO specialist. They can assist with the necessary updates while maintaining your site’s optimization for search engines. Finding an agency that offers both web development and SEO services is ideal, as they can adopt a collaborative approach to enhance your website from both a user experience and search perspective.
Adhering to these best practices will allow you to update your website while preserving its current SEO value and ensuring strong performance in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Conclusion
Indeed, upgrading a website can influence its SEO. An upgrade involves more than just visual enhancements; it demands technical know-how and careful planning. To mitigate the effects on SEO, it’s crucial to approach the upgrade with a strategic plan, ensuring that all alterations to the site’s structure and content consider SEO implications. If executed properly, this can maintain your online business’s competitive advantage and draw in more customers.
Oceanura boasts a team of in-house web developers and SEO specialists who can enhance your website without compromising its search engine optimization. Our experts will make certain that your website continues to be optimized for search engine visibility while integrating the most up-to-date features and functionalities.