Website redesign and SEO: is it really necessary?
Through our SEO Agency Optimize 360
on the theme : duration of an SEO service
Over time, website owners often ask themselves the following question: "Will I have to redesign my site if I do SEO? ?.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) aims to improve the visibility of a website in search engine results.
But how do you reconcile a website redesign with SEO best practice?
What impact will this have on your URLs and menu? Discover the key points to bear in mind when combining redesign and SEO.
Reasons for redesigning a website
First of all, it is essential to understand why a site owner decides to carry out a redesign:
- Improving theuser experience to offer a more ergonomic interface, adapted to the screens of smartphones and tablets.
- Design modification To give the site a facelift in line with the current brand image.
- Technical update Using more recent and secure technologies, benefiting from greater compatibility between browsers and devices.
- Adding functionality integrating new functions to meet specific needs (e-commercemember area, online booking, etc.).
But what are the repercussions of a redesign on natural referencing? Let's take a look at some of the key points to assess.
URL management during a redesign
Avoid traffic loss and preserve link juice
When a redesign is carried out, it is often the case that the structure of the URL change. To avoid losing traffic from external links or internal URLs pointing to these old URLs, it is essential to put in place 301 redirects. These redirects mean that the URL address has been moved permanently and allow search engines to consider the new address as being the same page.
Think about internal networking
Le internal networking plays an essential role in a site's SEO performance. When redesigning a site, you need to ensure that maintain consistent links between the different pages on the site. A good practice is to use SEO optimised text anchors containing the relevant keywords for each page.
The menu is a crucial element in giving your site a logical architecture and making it easier for users to navigate. A good menu can also help improve your SEO:
- Lighten the menu Limit the number of items and focus on the most important pages to better guide visitors to key content.
- Think responsive Make sure your menu adapts correctly to different types of media (computer, smartphone, tablet).
- Optimising title and alt tags tags: these tags are essential for informing search engines about the content of each menu item and thus improving the indexing of your pages.
Content: an essential element for SEO
Redesigning a site is also an opportunity to review the quality and relevance of its content. Content plays a central role in search engines' evaluation of a site's quality. Here are a few points to bear in mind when updating content:
- Working on semantics H1, H2, H3 tags, etc.: remember to optimise the structure of your texts by using H1, H2, H3 tags, etc., to organise the different parts into a hierarchy.
- Strengthen the presence of keywords Make sure you include the relevant keywords in your content, while maintaining a certain fluidity in your reading.
- Update regularly Maintaining a regular rate of publication of new and updated content is one of the criteria taken into account by search engines.
- Improving quality Quality content, well-written and informative, will be appreciated by both web users and search engines.
So it's perfectly possible to redesign your site with search engine optimisation in mind.
By following these best practices, you will be able to improve your search engine optimisation without sacrificing the design and functionality of your website.
