This document provides guidance on SEO best practices for website redesigns. It discusses avoiding common mistakes like lacking goals, plans, content mapping and auditing. It emphasizes the importance of pre-launch checklists, post-launch testing, and metric tracking to measure success. Regular auditing and reporting on key performance indicators is also recommended to catch issues and showcase progress. The overall message is that preparation, testing and analysis are crucial for a successful website redesign.

1. SEO Disasters to Avoid During a
Website Redesign
By: Rebecca Berin

2. Contact: Andrew@digitalreachagency.com | Digital Reach
We are a B2B Digital Marketing Agency
focusing on demand generation.
Companies work with us to:
• Increase qualified leads
• Track SEO and SEM to ROI
• Get Funnel Visibility
About Us
• Search Engine Optimization
• Paid Search & Display
• Website Redesign
• Marketing Automation

3. Contact: Andrew@digitalreachagency.com | Digital Reach
1 SEO Mistakes to Avoid During Website Redesigns
2 Checklists for Pre- and Post-Launch
3 Tracking the Progress (and Success) of your Redesign

4. 4
SEO Mistakes to
Avoid During
Website Redesigns

5. Starting Without a Goal
Begin your journey with a solidified goal in mind. Are you looking to improve your UX?
Are you rebranding? Or is it just time for a general update?
Best Practices for Goal Setting:
● Evangelize what you hope to accomplish and get everyone on the same page.
● Understand the metrics you’re hoping to impact and how to track them.

6. Lacking a Plan
Have a plan, have a checklist, and thank us later...
A website redesign can be a gruelling process and going in without a solidified plan
in place (showing what needs to be done and who needs to do it) can be detrimental
to your success.
1. Set your goals and intent.
2. Map your process.
3. Assign tasks and deadlines.
4. Stick to the plan.

7. Not Making Content Important Enough
Here are the key things to remember as you begin your content process:
● Understand the intent of your pages and the audience you’re targeting.
● Know how much content you hope to have on your webpages (your designers will
thank you for sticking to this).
● Perform keyword research and map to all appropriate pages.
The value of your content has rapidly become one of the most important factors
in your search ranks. Your content goals and planning should be a priority.

8. Not Mapping Site Structure
Your site map will be an important guide for everyone in your process. It will be critical
you establish your map to help guide:
• Navigation: Your header and footer navigations
as well as what pages will be dependents.
• Content Hierarchy: Your site map will be helpful
for understanding the purpose of each page in
the structure.
• Redirect Mapping: Your map can also help make
the redirect mapping process much easier.

9. 9
Checklists for Pre- and
Post-Launch

10. Pre-Launch Prep
Content
planning and
creation
Design
phasing
QA testing
Following a thorough pre-launch checklist is crucial to a healthy launch.
Make sure everyone is on the same page with what needs to be done and
when.
What should be included:

11. Pre-Launch Checklist
High-Level Starting Points:
• Clarify your goals and intent. Understand the audience you’re targeting.
• Going in with a general understanding of 1) what you hope to accomplish and
2) who you’re hoping to effect will make the process go smoothly.
Planning for your Content:
• Perform an SEO and Content Audit to find gaps and opportunities to target.
• Plan and map the content through a navigation/sitemap.
• Create the content and stick to your deadlines (to the best of your ability).

12. Pre-Launch Checklist
Design and Development:
• Create a style guide to establish the layout, color scheme, fonts etc.
• Consider the User Experience.
• Prioritize mobile friendliness on your site.
Other Important Details:
• Redirect Mapping - map your old URLs to what the new URLs will be.
• This is a very important step on the SEO side due to link equity and UX.
• Download a backup of your site.
• Test, test, test!

13. Post-Launch Checklist
It seems like a short checklist… but it can be quite a time commitment!
Test, Test, Test Weekly Auditing
It will be very important to QA test post-launch
to make sure everything was launched as
planned and any uncovered functionality issues
are fixed ASAP.
You’re looking to uncover: possible 404s,
content gaps, or site speed lags.
Utilize a multi-tool approach to audit your site
from an SEO stand-point.

14. Sticking to the timeline is imperative to completion success.
• Skipping steps or forcing teams to move forward without important collateral
can cause roadblocks and delays moving forward.
Post-launch auditing is a necessary commitment.
• Dependent on the size of your site, you’ll end up committing to a 4-8 week
auditing timeline.
• These weekly audits are important for catching small errors early so they don’t
become big problems later.
Things to Know…
*Already in the midst of a redesign and missed a step?

15. 15
Tracking the Progress
(and Success) of your
Redesign

16. Metric Tracking
It’s important to take your time to map out what impact you
want your projects to have on your site and its data.
Often times, you can’t put an exact timeframe or number on SEO goals. Get
everyone on board with what the end goal is and how you’ll track it.

17. Metric Tracking
Your Goals Metrics to Watch
Checking Post-Launch Health Search Visibility, Traffic
Tracking Successes User Behavior, Conversions
Finding Room for Improvement Errors, Stagnant Metrics

18. ...can be tedious. But it is important and a valuable best practice you can utilize in your
digital marketing efforts moving forward.
Look Into:
• Technical errors like 4xx and 5xx or redirect issues.
• Content errors like duplications or gaps.
• Testing your site’s speed.
Post-Launch Auditing

19. Reporting & Audit Cadence
Weekly Auditing
• Post-launch weekly audits are important for health tracking.
Monthly/Quarterly
• Use monthlies to help to showcase quick wins on your site.
• Quarterlies will help to show success with bigger swing strategies and
those with steady success over time.
Yearly Review
• Use this time to show the impact your redesign had at a high-level. YoY
metrics, growth over time, etc.

20. 20
Get Your LIVE Site
Analysis

21. Site Analysis
Rebecca
Berin
Associate
Director of SEO
In a 30 minute consultation, learn:
✓ Where you stand in relation to competitors
✓ Measure revenue opportunity from Search
✓ What you can do to accelerate your SEO results
Get a second opinion on your approach to SEO