The Dark Side of Website Redesigns
Have you ever thought something like this?… “Our website feels stale. It’s time for a redesign.”
Perhaps you spent some time daydreaming about what your new website might look like. And, before long, you were writing new webpage content, finding new photos, reviewing page design options, etc. You could hardly wait to see your dream become reality. Then, after weeks or months of hard work, your new site finally went live!
Hopefully your new website lived up to your expectations. Hopefully your search engine rankings, website traffic, and leads/sales improved. But what if they didn’t? What if your dreamy new website quickly turned into a nightmare?
That’s what happened to a client of ours earlier this year when they redesigned their website without first consulting us.
Shortly following the launch of their new website around the third week of April, look what happened to impressions from organic Google rankings…
After launching their new website, this client completely fell out of Google for 75% of the keywords they were previously ranking for!
Unfortunately, even though it’s easy to kill your SEO in a day (i.e., with a single-day’s action of launching a new website), resurrecting your search engine rankings is always a long-term ordeal.
Remember, even though your website might feel stale to you, it probably looks relatively fresh to your new website visitors (who are seeing it for the first time). How can you be sure that leveling your current website won’t also kill your organic search engine rankings and, in turn, tank your website traffic and leads/sales?
What if giving your website a design upgrade also means a massive SEO downgrade?
Don’t get me wrong, every website needs a facelift from time to time. But there’s a lot more to consider beyond a website’s appearance when contemplating a redesign. If you’re not careful, you could unintentionally demolish what you’ve worked so hard to build.
What should you do before redesigning your website?
- Don’t go it alone. Coordinate with your SEO agency well in advance.
- Don’t go forward unaware. Consider how a redesign could impact your search engine rankings and overall website performance.
- Don’t go in blind. Ensure all web analytics tracking code snippets are correctly installed on your current and new websites (including goal and ecommerce tracking).
If you know what you’re doing (or otherwise work with an experienced SEO agency), you won’t have to sacrifice your Google rankings for a killer website. Why not have a great-looking website that also ranks high in the search engines?! You can have both!
If you’ve lost search engine rankings or are planning to change or redesign your website, then you need a free SEO evaluation ASAP – get one here!