WordPress site redesigns can have a big impact on SEO. When done well, the improved UX can boost rankings, a poorly planned redesign can lower your authority and result in your WordPress site losing a lot of organic traffic. In this guide, we’ll outline the steps you should take before launching a redesign so that you can be confident that your SEO rankings won’t suffer from the change. If you want to learn more about making sure your rankings stay steady as you make aesthetic changes, read on!
Step 1: Plan before Going Live
To minimize interruptions to your organic traffic and to make sure your site rankings are not affected by any potential mistakes, start your redesign with planning. Map out any major redirects before you go live, determine where new links will come from, get in touch with site owners about linking to you once your redesign is complete, etc. Think about how users will react when they see changes on your WordPress site as well. Determine how you’ll handle negative comments or complaints from users.
Step 2: Map Out Redirects
Once you’ve mapped out your site’s hierarchy, it’s time to start mapping out all of your redirects. Redirects are kind of like directions: If you were going from Sydney (the old WordPress site) to Central Coast (the new WordPress site), you’d need to know what route you should take, how many miles between each stop, etc.
Step 3: Page Structure & Internal Linking
Since Google’s Panda update, it’s also important that your pages be accessible from every other page on your site. To make sure of that, include internal links (both in text and image link) within each individual piece of content. Also, don’t forget about your site map—it helps visitors find everything you want them to find and lets search engines index all of your content so you rank better.
Step 4: Security Checklist
WordPress site security is essential for maintaining your organic traffic. The best way to prevent having your WordPress site hacked is by updating your WordPress installation regularly and using strong passwords for all users, including those for logging into WP Admin. Take advantage of plugins like Google XML Sitemaps and All in One SEO Pack, which will help your WordPress site maintain high rankings. Make sure you don’t use any plugins or themes that are out of date and also avoid opening links or attachments from email messages unless you are absolutely certain they are safe.
Step 5: Build Backlinks Through Quality Content
Building backlinks isn’t an easy task, especially if you don’t have an extensive network of contacts. The fastest way to build backlinks is through content marketing–your brand can publish great content on reputable sites that’ll likely link to your WordPress site in their articles. If you’re trying to build backlinks to enhance your WordPress search engine optimization (SEO), there are two basic paths
Step 6: Technical Optimization
There are numerous things you need to think about when preparing your WordPress site for a redesign. While making sure redirects are mapped correctly will prevent loss of authority, that’s just one piece of it. For optimized technical work, you need detailed analytics information such as site errors and pageviews over time – so you can see if there have been any sudden drop-offs in traffic. Also look out for possible loopholes or security issues with plugins that could be hindering performance or possibly exposing your WordPress site to attacks from hackers.
Step 7: Social Media Optimization (Part 1)
Once you’ve got your site redesigned and reorganized, optimize it for social media. But don’t just share posts directly from your business’s Facebook page; encourage people who share your content to also like your page on their personal profiles. You can do so by adding Facebook Like buttons (which will then lead back to your own profile). Add Twitter and Pinterest buttons, too, but make sure they link back to specific landing pages that are optimized for those platforms. Google+ isn’t important for SEO rankings, but some businesses find success with it in terms of driving traffic back to their WordPress sites; if that’s a priority for you and is consistent with your brand identity, add +1 buttons.
Step 8: Do an Outreach Campaign Before Going Live
Last, but not least, you want to start building relationships before you launch your podcast by doing an outreach campaign. I’ve got step-by-step instructions here, so just follow those instructions and get it done! I don’t recommend doing it AFTER you’ve launched because there are too many people who will ignore your emails.
Step 9: Monitor Everything after Going Live
After your WordPress site is live, you’ll want to keep an eye on everything from traffic and engagement metrics, keyword ranking data and SERP positioning. Tools like Google Analytics, HubSpot and Google Search Console will help you understand your target audience and give you insights into what content is working best for them. Once your rankings have recovered from any low-quality redirects, monitor your SEO traffic closely for about 3-6 months as well. If there’s no significant change in traffic within that timeframe, congratulations! You’ve succeeded in implementing a new version of your WordPress site without hurting your business by doing so. If there are declines—at least they were expected and planned for!
