SEO Checklist for a Website Redesign

When a website is refreshed, a lot changes. A website refresh often means a new design, URLs, and content — a reimagined user experience. While these changes are typically for the better in terms of SEO— a move to a faster, more secure, more user-friendly website — the immediate impact is a lot of change. Google and the search engines can get lost in the shuffle along the way. This can mean anywhere from weeks to months to even a year of decreased traffic and reduced visibility on Google.

Fortunately, by weaving SEO into a website redesign project, you can mitigate the potential for lost traffic and position the new website for immediate growth.

The challenge is that combining SEO with a website redesign project adds complexity. Multiple team members or agencies may be involved, and there is added cost—whether it’s more time or the cost of hiring an agency.

Fortunately, the upside is invaluable. Think of building a website as similar to building a house. If you know you want solar power, it’s best to integrate this into the design and build of the house at the beginning of the project. Of course, you can install solar power later, but there will be an added cost to adapt it to your house, and you will have lost the months or years when you weren’t collecting the solar gain.

So, how do you redesign a website without losing SEO? The answer is to follow a checklist or a standard process. Here’s the SEO checklist for a website migration we developed at our search engine marketing agency, webShine. Whether you are a business owner or marketing manager taking a do-it-yourself approach to SEO or you are a web designer building a website for clients, this website redesign SEO checklist will help you navigate a seamless transition.

Website Redesign SEO Checklist

Phase I: Strategy

Invest in these tasks immediately as a website redesign project begins.

1. Establish the Baseline

Set up Google Analytics and the Google Search Console to better understand your current traffic. Both are free tools from Google.

• Google Analytics provides general website performance statistics, such as the number of sessions your website receives, the traffic sources responsible for it, and the performance of each page.
• Google Search Console is an SEO-specific platform that helps you understand what keywords drive traffic to your current website and which pages are most important. It is also a communication channel with the search engine, providing feedback on how your site is crawled and indexed.

The key questions to answer are:

• What percentage of my current traffic comes from organic search?
• Is my organic search traffic increasing, decreasing, or staying the same over the past 12 months?
• What are my top-performing landing pages?
• What keywords drive traffic to my website? How important are these to my business?

2. Invest in Keyword Research

Keyword research is the backbone of your SEO strategy. It is the process of establishing what words and phrases your audience uses to search for your business.

• Keyword research can be overwhelming, as many tools and data need to be analyzed to craft your strategy. My recommendation is that you start simply.

• Start analyzing data from Google Search Console.

• Use google.com to search for seed phrases to see what other phrases Google suggests.

3. Apply an SEO Lens to your Sitemap

While designing a new website, invest in a sitemap. This is a list of all the pages on your new website, their structure, and how they fit together. Analyze the sitemap from an SEO standpoint to ensure key pages are included.

4. Crawl the Live Website with Screaming Frog

Create a list of all the pages on your existing website, along with pertinent information such as title tags and meta descriptions using Screaming Frog.

5. Set Up Rank Tracking

Start tracking your keyword performance. Use SEO software such as Wincher to track your keyword performance over time.

Phase II: Pre-Launch

Pace this work as the new site comes together.

6. Apply an SEO Lens to the Content

Review your website copy, paying particular attention to high-opportunity landing pages. Optimize the copy to utilize your keywords effectively without sacrificing readability.

7. Create 301 Redirects

A 301 redirect is essential for moving visitors and search engines from old URLs to new ones, ensuring that the authority of the existing URLs is passed on to the new pages.

8. Add Alternative Text to Images

Ensure all images on your website have alternative text added for accessibility and SEO purposes.

9. Draft & Implement Page Titles & Meta Descriptions

Draft your title tags and meta descriptions in a spreadsheet for implementation on your development site. Focus on the most important pages first.

Phase III: Immediately After Launch

Complete these tasks on the day of your site launch.

10. Add Google Analytics to Your New Website

Utilize your existing Google Analytics account and configure conversions or key events at this time.

11. Verify the Website with the Google Search Console

Update the verification method if your domain stays the same.

12. Create and Submit an XML Sitemap

Submit your XML Sitemap to Google Search Console once ready.

13. Test your 301 Redirects

Check for any page not found errors and adjust your 301 redirects as necessary.

Phase IV: Monitor Results

Invest in these tasks in the weeks after the site launch to ensure a smooth transition.

14. Analyze the Data

Watch the data every week with Google Analytics and Google Search Console to observe trends and stabilize your rankings.

15. Communicate with Your Team

Keep regular communication with your team regarding results and concerns, especially after the launch.

16. Keep Investing in New Content

Continuously evolve your website by creating new content that can enhance rankings and share expertise.