SEO Best Practices for Redesigning Your Website

Published: Tuesday, January 19, 2021 | Tags: SEO, SEO for chambers, SEO for Economic Development Organizations, SEO for JCCs, SEO for Real Estate Associations, Website Redesign

SEO on laptop screen with yellow sticky notes on the wall-pens in bin sitting on a desk

Redesigning your website can improve your site’s design, functionality, conversion rate and user experience, however, it can also jeopardize your search engine ranks and traffic.

Here’s why: There are a lot of steps to follow during the redesign process. You might change your domain name, subdomains, page-level optimization or URL structure. There might be changes made to the content, adding or even deleting it from your website’s hierarchy. Now we’re not saying all of these things will happen, but some aspects could change and result in being problematic for your search rankings and organic traffic.

We are here to help your organization enjoy and benefit from redesigning while avoiding any of these pitfalls.

First let's discuss a question that gets asked often during a website redesign process: How long will it take for SEO changes to take effect after a redesign?

The truth is it depends; a very anticlimactic response, we know. The average it takes for a new website is four to six months to start seeing some traction. However, since there are so many factors in SEO, there is no definitive answer because every industry is different. If you want to rank faster there are some factors you need to know, which we will discuss in this article.

Now, let's look at some strategies and tactics to help you retain your existing search engine rankings and traffic with your new website.

Table of content:

Preserve What is Performing

Make sure to move all performing content to the new site. Content that is ranking, don’t abandon it, understand what’s performing and preserve this content.

How do you know what content is ranking? Viewing your Google Analytics can show you what pages people are visiting when they get to your site. Another approach to this is to do a Google search with your top keywords or phrases. This also gives you an idea of what content is ranking and also examines the competition's ranking.

Don’t Start from Scratch on Content

Adding new pages to your website will require new content, but don’t start from scratch on your performing content. If anything, use that as your north star for the content on your new pages.

Another important SEO strategy is defining and using niche keywords and phrases. Analyzing and understanding what is working for others gives you the opportunity to do it better. Make sure to evaluate how the competition and other organizations similar to yours in other markets are performing in search. This will give you an understanding of what works for them and an opportunity to refine your own niche keywords.

Be Industry and Location Specific

A part of SEO‘s success is understanding the competitive market. You don’t want to compete with other organizations that have enormous marketing budgets. Think “big fish in a small pond.” Keep in mind that this also means changing your organization’s focus from more general to specific services/programs.

For example, Chambers of Commerce, emphasize your networking events and city so you’re not trying to capture networking meetups around the country. Or for Jewish Community Centers, focus on listing your summer camp and city so you’re not trying to capture J camps around the county.

Plan Strategically

Using keywords that are relevant and realistic to your industry will also help your organization with SEO. When planning for which keywords to use, develop a list of queries to answer. For example, if your organization is a Chamber, you can use “Business networking in Charlotte, NC” or “where to find information on government affairs in Charlotte, NC.” This will help you curate a list of your keywords to use throughout your content.

Be sure to use the Google Keyword Planner to figure out how the majority of searchers are phrasing these questions. It’s important to speak your customer/member’s language.

How to Use Keywords

Once you have your list of keywords, it’s important to make sure that your meta descriptions include one to two of your most important keywords as this is part of your web page that is directly served to search engines.

Publishing a blog article? If possible, you can add a keyword into the title of your content since Google pairs this title header with your meta description. Keep in mind that Google reviews the first 200 words of a blog post so it’s paramount to get your primary keyword in the first sentence or paragraph. Google is trying to get an overall picture of what the article is all about. You have to carefully lead Google to where you want to go and not confuse it when optimizing content for keywords.

In terms of the interior pages of your website, each page should have at least one keyword, but in most cases, organizations are using three or four keywords.

Where to Place Keywords

The following page elements are what search engines pay most attention to when determining where to rank your web page in search results. By placing your most important keyword phrases in these elements, you can help search engines rank you for the right search queries.

Place your most important keyword phrases in the following webpage elements:

Page Title

In Accrisoft Freedom, this is called "Title" and is located right below the web page text editor.

Best practices:

Each web page should have a page title.
Each webpage’s page title should be unique—no duplicates!
Page titles should be within 30-55 characters.
Page titles should not be exactly the same as that webpage’s H1 header.

H1 Header

In Accrisoft Freedom, this is called Page Title or Heading 1.

Best practices:

Each web page should have an H1.
Each webpage’s H1 should be unique—no duplicates!
Include only one H1 per page.

URL

Best practices:

URLs should be static and human readable.
URLs should be under 115 characters.

[Pro tip: Ask your Accrisoft Freedom provider to set your URLs to be human-readable.]

Choosing the right keywords will allow Google to help drive an already-interested audience to your website.

You don’t want to launch your site with images that have no optimization. Ensure you have placed all alt tags and SEO titles for each image, to ensure the search engines will have the ability to identify those images. Also, make sure your images are compressed for fast loading for a good user experience.

Img Alt Tags

In Accrisoft Freedom, this is called Alt Text and can be applied to an image when choosing one from the File Manager.

ALT tags are important because, while search engines can’t see images, they can read image ALT tags. ALT tags also enable visually impaired individuals to use screen readers to hear a description of the image. And images with ALT tags will appear in Google Images.

Best practices:

Every image on your website should have an ALT tag.
The ALT tag should accurately describe the image.
Include keywords when applicable.

Follow these guidelines and you’ll be on your way to improving your organization’s SEO. Need help or have questions along the way? Always feel free to reach out to our team and someone at Accrisoft will be happy to assist you.

Helpful Tools

We also wanted to leave you with some helpful tools that your Chamber of Commerce, Economic Development Organization, Jewish Community Center, Association or Real Estate Association can use during your website redesign.

Google Search Console – Use this to find tools and reports to help you measure your site's Search traffic and performance and fix issues.

Google Keyword Planner – You can search for words or phrases related to your products or services. This keyword research tool will help you find the keywords that are most relevant for your business.

Keywords Everywhere – This site is Chrome and Firefox’s extension that displays search volume, related keywords, and other data related to your query.