Although the answer to the million dollar
question "How to maintain rankings after website redesign" is
relatively straight forward, but the fact is, depending on the
intensity of the redesign, it can become very complex. In most of
the cases there will be specifics for each site to prepare the final
plan and it is nearly impossible to cover all scenarios in a single
article. So in this article I am describing the process that would
apply in most cases.
1. File
Names
Do not ever change your filenames unless it
is absolutely essential to restructure the file hierarchy since you
risk losing valuable rankings with page renaming. Not only that, but
you also lose existing customers / visitors who might have
bookmarked the now-moved page. In cases where you do not have a
choice but to rename the page filenames, use of a 301 redirection is
best solution. The 301 redirection will automatically direct your
existing customers /visitors to the new location of the now-moved
pages. Permanent 301 redirects also help to retain the Page Rank of
your pages and sometimes your rankings also.
When you move a page with the 301 redirects,
credits are re-assigned by the Search Engines. Existing rankings
will eventually be transferred over to the new location along with
any credit from inbound links.
2. Site Structure
This is the extension of above mentioned
point. Along with filenames, change in site structure can also
include your domain name. The above rule still holds true if your
domain name is the only change you make to your site. Even with
proper 301 redirects, your rankings may drop significantly. Changing
your domain name can be a complete rankings killer.
It is also very important to ensure that you
have 404 redirects in place. Either direct "page not found" traffic
to a custom 404 error page, or to your site's home page.
3.
Image Links
If your current website utilizes text links
to link to the home page, ensure that they are carried over to the
new design without losing the relevancy.
4.
Content Management Systems
Today many new sites use CMS for content
management which can sometimes destroy your rankings. Before
switching to a CMS ensure that changed URL's are properly covered
with 301 redirects and try to find a system that offers clean simple
URL strings with minimal extra characters. Also ensure that your
system allows you to edit all aspects of a given page like addition
of unique title and meta tags and adjustment of alt tags.
5.
Content
If your new site contains entirely fresh
textual content, ensure that the keyword densities remain as close
as possible to the old copy. Be sure to keep inline text links,
heading tags, and keyword placement within the top portions of the
new site.
6. Title and Meta Tags
Make sure to copy the title and meta tag of your old page to the new
version.
7.
Alt tags
Make sure to keep the optimized alt tags in
place for the images remaining on the site. In cases where header
images and image based navigation is being completely updated be
sure to follow the same guidelines with the alt tags in the original
design.
8.
XML Sitemap
XML sitemaps help Google index the new
location of your site pages to ensure an easy and faster recovery
from the change.
By following the above mentioned steps, you
will stand the best chance for retaining your existing rankings.
