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Writer's pictureLeanne Robertson

8 SEO Mistakes to Avoid When Redesigning Your Website

Let’s set the scene: you have a website for your business, but it’s just... okay.


Maybe your user experience needs improvement, or perhaps your website doesn’t lend your brand the credibility you desire. The visuals may not align with your brand’s persona, or your current SEO strategy may not bring in enough organic traffic.


Whether your site needs some basic tweaking or a complete overhaul, giving your business a fresh online face will put you in front of more prospective clients and wow them with stellar copywriting and striking media.


The Brand Brew  - 8 SEO mistakes to avoid when redesigning your website

Avoiding SEO Pitfalls for a Successful Website Transformation


However, not all website redesigns are created equal. Like a personal style makeover, some common pitfalls do more harm than good (we’re looking at you, spontaneous bangs).


While a redesign can transform your website for the better, it also has the potential to compromise the success you’ve earned so far – especially when it comes to SEO. If careless, you could inadvertently erase your hard-earned rankings and watch your traffic take a nosedive.


Avoid these common SEO errors as you approach your next website redesign, and watch your online makeover bring all the pros and none of the cons!


1. Skipping the SEO Audit


Search engine optimization is integral to a website’s success. You don’t want your redesign to compromise your SEO strategy, and the best way to prevent that is by performing a comprehensive SEO audit before making any changes.


If you’re wondering, what the heck is SEO? This is for you.

This audit provides you with a baseline that you can use to compare against your redesigned site and ensure that none of your implemented changes have compromised your SEO strategy.


2. Maintaining – Rather Than Improving – SEO


Sure, preserving your SEO strategy through a redesign is a good start. But wouldn’t it be even better to actively improve your SEO in the process?


Take your SEO audit one step further and use it as a tool to pinpoint where your SEO strategy could use some optimization. For instance, if you find that your local SEO is lacking, you might consider employing strategies to land your newly redesigned website in Google’s Map Pack.


After all, you’re giving your website a glow-up – why not do the same for your SEO strategy?


3. Replacing Winning Content


You may be gung-ho about redesigning all aspects of your website. While the enthusiasm is great, there’s a limit – don't revise or replace your high-ranking content!


You're redesigning to improve the effectiveness of your website. So, why get rid of the content that’s already performing? Before making changes, assess your current website to determine which pages bring the most value to your business and include those pages in your new site. They’re already producing the results you’re looking for, after all!


4. Getting Lazy “Above the Fold”


“Above the fold” refers to content that can be seen before scrolling on a webpage, and for SEO purposes, it needs to have unique, benefit-led, customer-focused copy above the fold.


This content is valued highly in SEO rankings, but it’s also crucial for engaging visitors and encouraging them to explore the rest of the content on your website. Appealing to clients and appeasing search engines are equally important and can be achieved through strategic, creative SEO copywriting.


5. Overlooking Page Speed


Nobody wants to wait for a web page to load. Slow page loading speeds drive people away from your website and negatively impact your SEO rankings.


Pay attention to this when redesigning your website. If you’re not careful, you may end up with messy, redundant code or large, slow-to-load media that drastically impact your page loading time. In this mission to transform your website design, be sure to optimize your page loading speed, too.


6. Neglecting Mobile Users


You likely always have your smartphone with you, and your clients are no different. Ensuring that your redesigned website is mobile-friendly is an absolute must to engage your target audience effectively.


Make sure your pages load quickly on mobile devices, and your content still looks appealing (and readable!) on smaller screens. Optimizing your website for mobile users is crucial for connecting with those on-the-go customers and is a big factor in SEO scores.


7. Dead-End URLs


Once again, this common error directly impacts both user experience and SEO.


Some pages may gain new or changed URLs when you redesign a website. Those pages must be equipped with proper 301 redirects so that search engines can tell that the page content has been permanently moved, saving your SEO and preventing visitors from encountering those ever-so-frustrating 404 “page not found” messages.


8. Using an Outdated XML Sitemap


Your XML sitemap outlines your website’s structure and lists its essential pages, which allows search engines to find and crawl your site and benefits your SEO ranking.


When you redesign your website, you must also update your XML sitemap. Search engines only crawl a website’s sitemap the first time it’s encountered, so after updating it, be sure to resubmit it to Google Search Console and any other search engines you rely on to bring traffic to your website.


The Takeaway


As you can tell, redesigning a website involves much more than choosing fonts and colours. Remember that a successful website requires technicalities and a hefty dose of SEO best practices. If you can avoid these eight common errors in your redesign, you can take the world by storm and wow visitors with your freshly designed website.


When you choose The Brand Brew ®’s Website Design solution you avoid all these pitfalls and more. You'll gain intentional, effective page design with content that connects with your dream clients. We love giving websites a complete makeover – and we’re good at it, too!









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