Recently updated on January 12th, 2024 at 03:48 pm
If you’re considering a website redesign, you may be wondering, “can upgrading a website affect its SEO?”. The answer is yes, it can potentially affect your SEO, but it’s important to remember that updates can also boost your rankings and are well worth the effort. In fact, Google is biased! Google loves fresh websites and gives higher priority to those that update their content frequently.
On the other hand, neglecting your website and failing to improve the user experience or keep your content relevant can lead to a slow death in search engine rankings. That said, upgrading your website can also change its structure, content, and URLs, which can negatively impact your SEO rankings if not done properly. There’s a chance that you’ll encounter broken links, duplicate content, and other technical issues after an update.
With SEO being a crucial factor in website ranking and sales, it’s necessary to take precautions before upgrading. In this article, we’ll explore ways to protect your website’s SEO during the upgrade process.
How can I upgrade my website without affecting its SEO?
To update your website without affecting its SEO, you should follow these best practices:
Plan ahead
Before making any updates, take the time to plan the changes and assess their potential impact on your website's SEO. This will help you avoid any unintended consequences and ensure that your website remains optimised for search engines. Here are some things you can do to prepare for an upgrade:
- Conduct a comprehensive SEO audit of your website to identify potential issues and areas for improvement. For example, you may want to list all of your website’s URLs and identify how each of them are ranking currently, and for which keyphrases/keywords.
- Create a detailed plan of the changes you want to make and how they will affect your website's SEO. For example, if the change will involve a minor design addition such as replacing icons but keeping the text intact, this might not affect the page’s SEO.
- Develop a backup plan in case the upgrade causes any unexpected problems. Best practice is to create a backup of the live site, then make significant changes to a staging environment first - before pushing to live.
- Ensure that any new content or changes are relevant to your target audience and align with your overall SEO strategy.
Create a temporary URL
When planning a major website redesign, it's crucial to create a temporary URL to avoid causing issues for visitors and long-term problems for your website. Never attempt to make redesign changes directly on your existing website. Instead, make a copy of your site and set it up on a temporary URL. This allows you to make changes to the redesign without affecting your current website's functionality. Another option is to switch your domain once all redesign changes are completed. By taking these steps, you can protect your website and visitors during a major redesign.
Use 301 redirects
When redesigning your website and changing its URL structure, it's important to use 301 redirects. These redirects inform search engines that the old URLs have permanently moved to new locations, helping to maintain your website's search engine rankings and avoid broken links. To ensure you maintain SEO benefits from your old URLs, use proper 301 redirects between old and new URLs. For example, if your old "Our Services" page had the URL "www.example.com/ourservices.html" and was changed to "www.example.com/our-services.html" implementing 301 redirects will ensure both URLs work. This prevents search engines from encountering 404 errors, as the old URL will redirect to the new one. You can simplify the process with WordPress redirect plugins that lets you identify redirects by filling out a form.
Keep content fresh
Make sure to regularly update the content on your website to keep it relevant and engaging. This will not only help improve your website's SEO, but it will also help keep visitors interested and engaged. In some cases, this might not require creating an entirely new page. It may be as easy as adding a paragraph to an existing blog to cover any new information that relates to that topic.
Monitor your website's performance
Regularly monitor your website's performance using tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console. This will help you identify and address any technical issues that may arise, and ensure that your website continues to perform well in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Consider hiring a professional
If you are unsure about how to update your website without affecting its SEO, consider hiring a professional web developer or SEO specialist. They can help you make the updates you need while ensuring that your website remains optimised for search engines. If you can find both web dev and SEO in one agency - all the better! They can take a collaborative approach, looking at your website from both user experience and search.
By following these best practices, you can update your website while maintaining its existing SEO and ensuring that it performs well in SERPs.
Conclusion
So, upgrading a website can affect its SEO. Upgrading your website is more than just aesthetics; it requires technical expertise and a number of considerations. To minimise the impact on SEO, it is essential to plan the upgrade strategically, making sure that any changes to the website’s structure and content are done with SEO in mind. When done correctly, this can help your online business keep its competitive edge and attract more customers.
Spark has in-house web developers and SEO experts that can help you upgrade your website without negatively affecting its SEO. Our team will ensure that your website remains optimised for search engine visibility, while also providing the latest features and functionality.
