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Why Your Site Rankings May Drop With A Redesign

In a world where consumerism, digital, marketing and web design are continually changing, it’s not uncommon for businesses to redesign their websites every couple of years. (Or in our own case, every other month…) Chucking a fresh coat of pixels onto a dated site, enhancing branding and becoming mobile-friendly are a few of the many reasons revamps are so popular and highly recommended. However, a revamp isn’t just about the way the site looks and presents your business – a redesign done wrong can cause a number of issues including permanent drops in traffic due to diminished rankings. Here are some reasons why site rankings may drop with a redesign along tips to avoid that from happening!

1. Improper  Redirects

One of the most common characteristics of a website revamp is modifying content through either deleting existing and/or adding new content and pages. While there’s nothing wrong with deleting pages (we’ll talk about adding content later), there is a wrong way to doing that. Without creating a 301 Redirect, content gaps will arise and result in broken internal links, 4XX codes and minimised user experiences and flow.

Once set up, a 301 (Moved Permanently) Redirect sends a visitor from one URL (the deleted one) to another URL permanently – working kind of like a mail forwarder. Setting up a 301 on deleted pages will ensure all web visitors are directed to the right, relevant content on another page. A change in URLs due to deleted pages without proper redirects will likely cause traffic drops particularly if these pages have high engagement. Utilising a platform such as Google Search Console can help quickly identify any coverage and crawl issues including pages not found.

2. Site Content

You’ve probably heard it said before – content is king. And just as that’s true in a marketing sense, it is also true when it comes to Google’s ranking algorithm. A good redesign project will include a review of content that may lead to changes whether minor to boost factors such as keyword density, relevancy and text length, or major and possibly even entirely new content.

Google cares about finding the most relevant and useful search results and so it makes sense they reward businesses who develop that content. Consequently, changes to content can cause your website’s rankings to rocket up or plummet down. Any and all content changes must be made with SEO in mind. Content changed on a whim and with little regard to searchers, Google and SEO will likely end in rankings falling

3. Site Structure

Amongst the 200 plus factors considered by Google when indexing a site, structure plays a big part in ranking. A website’s architecture including menu navigation, slugs, categorical silos all the way down to internal linking help Google better understand your site and whether you answer a user’s search request.

Updated design and content are likely to result in an updated structure too. Often, website architecture is an afterhought or completely disregarded when it should be one of the first things to be addressed. By maintaining or even better, enhancing the site’s structure, your business will help Google crawl the site more effectively and minimise changes in indexing. (One of the biggest mistakes made when it comes to revamping a site is treating great content like treasure and expecting people to dig for it – where possible minimise the number of pages it takes to get to cornerstone content.)

4. Site Performance

Google has said time and time again that site speed plays a big part in organic rankings, especially in our mobile-first indexing times. A website redesign sometimes causes changes in loading speeds across pages. While changing text content is unlikely to make much of a speed difference (even if your page length has gone from a short-story to Lord of the Rings trilogy), adding features and functions such as HQ videos on sliders, accessibility and language translation tools and customer portals, to the site may.

A lot of these features can, to an extent, be minimised performance-wise with optimisation of media, hosting servers and plugins. Our agency implements several strategies during development and the launch to minimise performance impacts off the bat and keep your site fast and in shape.

5. Site Hosting

You may be thinking – website hosting isn’t a ranking factor. Cheap hosting can have an impact on rankings especially if the hosting comes with poor downtimes, loading speeds and security.

Sometimes a revamp website involves changing of hosting and your best bet to safeguarding your rankings is to partner with an established host provider or with a digital agency who have a history of delivering affordable, dynamic and performance-driven hosting solutions to clients.

6. Poor Foundation / Theme

If your site is using an ‘off the shelf’ WordPress theme, this can have an impact on site performance. Over the years, we have come across a number of nasty (and often very cheap) site themes – ones which don’t care about performance any more than it does user experience. If you are planning on revamping your website with a well-known theme (that’s noted for being SEO-friendly) or through a reputable agency, there is less of a risk but it’s something worth keeping in mind.

Help – My Rankings Have Dropped!

Generally, a revamped site will temporarily lose some of its visibility upon launch – that’s usually unavoidably as Google must go through re-evaluating, indexing and ranking your site. On average, this is only a minor drop of up to 7% or so percentage, and lasts only a couple of weeks at max.

A site with a decline exceeding 5-10% is a revamp gone wrong, and the first step to recourse is finding out what has happened. 90% of the time, it’s one of the factors addressed and can be easily and rather rapidly remedied. Using tools such as Google Analytics and Search Console will help with analysing a site’s performance and structure alongside even offering insights into content. (Unfortunately, Google Analytics only reports proactively and not retrospectively so the platform will only help if it contains metrics from before the launch.)

I Want A Website Revamp Without Ranking Issues

We hear from local businesses all the time who want a website redesign that doesn’t impact their rankings. Our SEO and development team work closely on each website to ensure that it doesn’t only look good but is strategically developed in a manner that maintains, if not, eventually boosts rankings! If you are interested in partnering with an agency that maps out site architectures, sets up 301 redirects, reviews and creates content for Google and users, has in-house servers and more, get in contact with Start Digital.

startdig

We are a collective of designers, coders, producers and technologists from around the world who collaborate on a shared passion for innovative websites. Based in Perth, Western Australia, we bring style and innovation to the projects we undertake. Taking time to understand our clients requirements we strive to produce quality web design work for an affordable price. We then leverage our years of experience to make sure that our websites are responsive, SEO friendly and meet the clients requirements.

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Jack McLoughlin
Jack McLoughlin
17:04 29 Jun 20
Thoroughly professional and well communicated. Thanks Neil
aimxi online
aimxi online
04:37 15 May 20
I am from Brisbane, my name is Craig, I have a dog training company, it was my first time attempting on page SEO, after calling nearly all SEO companies in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, this was the only place that gave me some time to help me out. 5 star from me, well done in being a human and not worrying about what you could have got from me. hats off to you !. from dogtrainingbegins.com.au
Sheri Macmahon
Sheri Macmahon
09:04 17 Jan 20
Knowledgable, inspiring and helpful. Getting my online presence created and managed by the Start Digital is the BEST decision I ever made.
Hello :-)
Hello :-)
12:39 12 Jun 19
Neil & The Team at Start Digital are fantastic to work with. Our new website is exceptional. The guys here have fresh, modern ideas and the process from start to finish was flawless. Highly recommended.
Blank Walls
Blank Walls
03:57 11 Jun 19
Neil and the team at Start Digital provide such an excellent service and have been a massive help for us since we launched late 2018. Their attention to detail is unmatched compared to other digital agencies we've dealt with, and the team go out of their way to ensure the best result is achieved in the most time & cost efficient way. Thanks again Start Digital
Move Homes
Move Homes
00:18 11 Jun 19
A huge thank you to Neil and the Start Digital team! We engaged them to redesign our Move Homes website to take our brand to the next level. Not only does the website look fantastic, but throughout the website build we received frequent and transparent communication- we knew exactly what was happening and why. Start Digital listened to what we needed and would offer their advice on how to achieve our goals. Aside from their expertise, they’re also great people and really easy to deal with. We look forward to working on more projects over the coming years!
Sheila Woods
Sheila Woods
04:36 12 Mar 18
Neil Mason and the Start Digital team have done a tremendous job with the design and implementation of Interstaff’s new website. Our brief to Neil was for a clean, modern website which visually communicated our brand values, ‘sharp, dependable, expert and human’ to both business and individual clients, and importantly to offer an engaging and easy-to-navigate online experience optimised for SEO. We are delighted with the design as well as the level of consideration and attention to detail Neil and his team put into shaping the online experience of our brand. Start Digital have been very flexible and easy to collaborate with and nothing was ever too difficult. They went above and beyond – even working over the weekend to help us have our website ready to launch ahead of one of our key business seminars. We look forward to continuing to work with Neil and his team in the future and would definitely recommend their services.
iQuest Consulting
iQuest Consulting
05:48 21 Feb 18
The Start Digital team built us a new website and have been managing our SEO for over a year now. During that time our site has moved into the top five on page 1 of Google for keywords such as IT Company Perth and IT Support Perth which has increased our traffic considerably. We're very proud of our website and highly recommend Start Digital.
Heather Bush
Heather Bush
01:02 16 Feb 18
Neil and his team at Start Digital go above and beyond expectations. Having worked with many web agencies I can honestly say that Start have been one of the most open and cost effective agency I have worked with . They come highly recommeded
Anthony Godin
Anthony Godin
05:11 04 Jan 18
Excellent Perth website design, development and SEO agency
Uniting ChurchWA
Uniting ChurchWA
06:58 06 Dec 17
After years of tolerating our old website, we are now proud owners of a sleek, responsive and easy to use new site, thanks to Start Digital. Professional, practical, affordable and easy to work with-Neil and his stellar team delivered our site along with 22 additional sites for some of our congregations. Our organisation is complex and this project was massive. Throughout the project, Start Digital were flexible and patient with us. They responded quickly to emails and phone calls, kept us in the loop and always made time to touch base in their cool office. We can’t thank the team enough for their tremendous effort. It’s only been a month, but we have received plenty of positive feedback since launching the new site. We look forward to working with Start Digital for future digital projects and highly recommend anyone who needs a new website to give them a call.
Amantha Imber
Amantha Imber
08:25 02 Dec 17
Neil and the team created an AMAZING website for Inventium. We have received so much positive feedback since launch. I highly recommend Start Digital - they are awesome!
Lee Bramley
Lee Bramley
03:54 16 Nov 17
Fantastic Service, Really Knowledgeable in all areas of Website and Marketing strategies, they built us a fantastic looking site and nothing was too much for them throughout the process, We also found them to be very reasonably priced compared to other quotes we had, highly recommended.
Dean Capelli
Dean Capelli
06:22 11 Jul 17
Start Digital have built 3 websites for The Highways Group. We've been impressed with their attention to detail and quality of design every time. They're a friendly, professional agency and our go to web team.
John Argiropoulos
John Argiropoulos
07:45 19 May 17
We highly recommend Start Digital service, their efficient , personnel approach and professional skills gave us great results thanks .
Mitch Capelli
Mitch Capelli
22:13 25 Nov 16
Knowledgeable and excellent service at a great price I highly recommend Start Digital. We engaged them to redesign our website and manage our online presence. Previously we were a few pages back on a google search, however after only a few months we are in and around the top 5 on the first page. The guys at Start were great to deal with providing straight forward easy to understand information without the typical sales pitch that we have experienced many times before from other providers in the industry. We continue to receive updates on the progress of our website and their SEO service all for a very reasonable rate (ie. much cheaper than we were previously paying for a lesser service)
Eva Wood
Eva Wood
01:24 23 Nov 16
Neil and his team was responsible for the design and re-branding of our website, business cards and marketing material. They quickly understood our business, they identified the market we needed to target and delivered an excellent solution to match. We would highly recommend Start Digital.
Compac Marketing
Compac Marketing
04:05 14 Oct 16
Neil and the guys at Start Digital took care of some problems we had with our website performance. They were really efficient, responsive, easy to get along with and gave us some great pointers to help us with SEO. Unlike many digital marketing companies out there, Start Digital were very genuine and well-priced. Would definitely recommend their services to others.
Paul Avery
Paul Avery
05:23 13 Oct 16
Great design ideas and technical capability means a complete solution for small and medium sized businesses like us. Neil & Co actually take an interest in what you are trying to achieve rather than just turn and burn volume website factories out there! I recommend them.
Claire Leech
Claire Leech
02:11 04 Oct 16
We have had the pleasure of working with the team at Start Digital recently as we wished to update our website for our restaurant business. WOW! An amazing new, innovative, trendy and professional approach taken by these guys has resulted in a brilliant new site, clearly directing so much more traffic through our business resulting in increased brand awareness and google presence. As a relatively new business, Start Digital will definitely be going places ! We really look forward to continuing to work with them in the future and watch both our and their business grow! Thanks Neil and the team at Start Digital.
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E: info@startdigital.com.au
P: (08) 6144 3710

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