A new guide, Best Practices for Website Redesign & Migration[1], outlines detailed best practices for implementing search engine optimization (SEO) for a website redesign.
It includes a list of comprehensive tips aimed at educating website owners about common redesign obstacles, website structure as it relates to SEO[2], preserving domain and URL equity, keyword research[3], and more.
This post summarizes some key SEO migration elements listed in the guide, with an emphasis on helping organizations avoid costly errors related to a website redesign and domain or platform migration.
Content produced in collaboration with Investis Digital[4].
Common SEO obstacles in website redesign and migration
A proliferation of web design platforms and tools have made it easier than ever for businesses to complete a website redesign in record time.
However, many of these platforms aren’t fully compatible with older computers, slower connection speeds, and present obstacles for search engine spiders.
The Investis Digital SEO guide lists twelve of the most common obstacles and includes tips for avoiding them. Here are a few examples:
Dynamic URLs that don’t include keywords
Dynamic URLs rely on variable parameters provided by the web server and are not easily indexed by search engines since they change based on user query input. A dynamic URL typically includes character strings versus keywords. Investis Digital recommends that dynamic URLs be rewritten to include relevant keywords.
Non-permanent redirects
Investis Digital recommends avoiding all redirects[5] that aren’t permanent. That is, only permanent 301 server-side redirects should be incorporated into your website update. That means avoiding 302, JavaScript, and meta refresh redirects.
Page content
Since text is the backbone of how search engines determine keyword relevancy, the Investis Digital guide recommends that some relevant content[6] be