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How to Maintain Rankings after a Redesign
By Scott Van Achte, Senior SEO, StepForth Placement Inc. (c) 2007

As an SEO I am asked a number of questions covering a broad
range of SEO related topics and one question in particular is
asked quite often. This question holds answers which, when
ignored, could see a once well ranked website spiral into depths
of the search engine rankings forever.

    "I am in the process of redesigning my site, what should I
     look out for in order to maintain the SEO (and rankings)?"

In a word, the answer to this question is relatively straight
forward, but depending on the intensity of the redesign, it can
become very complex. In most cases there will be specifics for
each site, and it is near impossible to cover all scenarios in a
single article. With that in mind I will describe the process
that would apply in most cases for a site which is currently
enjoying great rankings that they do not want to disturb.

If your site has no, or very few rankings, some of this advice
may be safely ignored (it really depends on a number of
factors). If you currently do not have any rankings, and have
very few pages indexed, or if your site has never been properly
optimized, you may be able to undergo a redesign with minimal
worry. (If you are looking for SEO Friendly Web Design
(http://news.stepforth.com/2006-news/SEO-Friendly-Redesign.shtml),
please view this article.)

However, if your site ranks very well in the search engines, or
even has 1 or 2 key positions that you would not want to lose,
it's an entirely different story. The following rules assume
that there are current rankings you are trying to watch out
for.

Site Structure

The existing structure of your site is in most cases the single
most important factor behind a safe redesign. If your structure
changes, even just a little, you could easily see your rankings
plummet.

With the redesign you will want to do everything in your power
to maintain your existing site structure and page file names.
The second you move or rename a file you risk losing valuable
rankings. (Not only that, but you risk losing existing customers
who may have bookmarked the now-moved page). Unless it is
absolutely necessary to restructure the file hierarchy, don't.
In cases where it must take place, the use of a 301 redirect is
your best friend.

The 301 redirect will save your existing customers from head
aches when visiting now-moved pages by seamlessly directing them
to the new location. Permanent 301's will also help you retain
your rankings – sometimes.

In theory, when you move a page, the 301 will tell the search
engines "Hey, this page moved" and the search engines will
re-assign credit. Existing rankings will eventually be
transferred over to the new location along with any credit from
inbound links.

It is important to note that the 301 is not a wild card that you
can play to trump any drop in rankings. In principle this is the
effect the 301 should have, although credit is not always
transferred and when it is, it is sometimes many months down the
road. It is certainly in the best interest of the site owner to
not require this approach in the first place. If your redesign
can maintain the existing site structure and file names your
site will be in much better shape.

Advanced sites are another story all together. If your site
suffers from obese URL strings loaded with extraneous
characters, bizarre paths, session ids, etc. you may be in
better shape to change your URL's to something much cleaner.
For example, www.domain.com/product/model/color is much more
valuable than
www.domain.com/product.cfm?item=productid&model=abc&c=white.
Long URL's like this can usually be processed by the search
engines, indexed, and ranked, however cleaning them up offers a
better chance of rankings, a cleaner impression to your site
user, and an opportunity to incorporate some potential target
phrases.

Change in site structure can also include your domain name. If
your domain name is the only change you make to your site, the
above rule still applies. Even when proper 301 redirects are in
place, you can expect to see your rankings drop significantly if
not entirely. The 301 should help to reduce the down time, but
it is not uncommon to see a sites rankings slip considerably,
sometimes indefinitely with a domain change. Changing your
domain name can be a complete rankings killer.

If you have implemented the new site to include a new site
structure, a valuable tool combination is an XML sitemap
combined with an HTML sitemap. For sites with current rankings
many will have these two items already in place, but if you
don't, they can be your best friend. This is one more way to help
Google index the new location of your site pages to ensure an
easy and faster recovery from the change.

Be Safe! Even if you move all your files around and implement
the appropriate 301 redirects and everything looks all nice and
perfect, ensure that you also have a 404 redirect in place.
Either direct "page not found" traffic to a custom 404 error
page, or to your site's home page. Displaying to a potential
client (or search engine for that matter) a 404 error can be
tragic. Customers and search engines can lose confidence in your
site. The custom 404 page is your best bet for retaining their
attention.

Navigation

Undoubtedly, navigation is one of the most important aspects of
your site contributing to positive site rankings. Drastic
changes in the site's navigation can be fatal to your existing
rankings.

    Flash
    With newer design applications and technologies available
    these days more and more webmasters are incorporating Flash
    into their designs. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but
    if used incorrectly it can destroy your rankings. Flash has
    incredible benefits with site aesthetics. The possibilities
    for phenomenal design are endless, but it is not search
    friendly and really, search engines do not like Flash one
    bit. If you are thinking of introducing an entirely Flash
    based site to replace your existing one, there is only one
    circumstance where I would say go for it – if you don't care
    about your search engine rankings. (Actually, there is also
    another exception here. If your site is a very high level
    authority site, with thousands, if not millions of inbound
    links, you just may be safe to do whatever you want without
    jeopardizing your sites rankings).

    If introducing a new Flash based site is essential to your
    master plan, you would be best to offer users, and search
    engines, a non-flash version of your site.

    The best middle ground between Flash developers and SEOs is
    to use "spot-Flash". Incorporate pieces of Flash into the
    html based site. This will allow the search engines all the
    content they require, while leaving the aesthetics in place
    for your visitors. This said, your new design should not
    utilize Flash as the exclusive means of site navigation. In
    order to retain your existing rankings, you are best to
    retain the existing means of site navigation. In most cases
    your optimized site will have some form of textual based
    navigation. This is here for a reason. While spiders are
    fully capable of following image based links, as well as a
    number of dropdown menus, basic text links offer the most
    'bang for your buck'. Basic text links provide an easy path
    for spiders while also helping with relevant
    contextualization. The relevance of the link anchor text
    passes along to the destination page, and along with this,
    keyphrase value.

    Image Links
    The major search engines really have no problems following
    links contained within images. The problem here is adding
    relevance to the link. Alt tags help, but the best way to
    link to main pages is through standard text links. The text
    helps add key phrase relevance to the linked page. If your
    current site utilizes text links, ensure that they are
    carried over to the new design. Even if the new site switches
    over to image based navigation, be sure to include the text
    based links somewhere on the page.

Content Management Systems

Many new sites today are utilizing CMS for ease of site updates
and new content additions, but many of these systems can destroy
your rankings. If you decide to make the switch to a CMS you
need to ensure that changed URL's are properly covered with 301
redirects. Where at all possible retain your existing URL paths.
Many Content Management Systems create a site structure with
very unfriendly URLs that contain a number of extraneous
characters. Do your best to find a system that will offer clean
simple URL strings with minimal extra characters. Try to find a
system that will still allow you to edit all aspects of a given
page. Can each page have unique title and meta tags? Can you
adjust alt tags? A good search engine friendly CMS is money well
spent, especially if you have existing rankings you wish to
maintain.

Content

Chances are if you are redesigning the look of your site, the
majority of the content will not be changing. If this is the
case ensure that all textual content makes it over to the new
site, as it is most likely playing a significant role in your
existing rankings. Changing up your content significantly can
cause a drop in rankings if not done properly.

If your new site will contain entirely fresh textual content you
will want to ensure that keyword densities and focus remain as
close as possible to the old copy. Be sure to keep items such as
mid-sentence (inline) text links (especially if they link to
internal pages on your own site), heading tags, and keyword
placement within the top portions of the new site.

If your SEO has implemented text above the header image (often
referred to as Search Engine text, or SE text), be sure to keep
it in place also. This text was probably placed there to ensure
that the search engines saw relevant content immediately when
visiting the page, and there is a strong chance this text is
contributing to your positive rankings.

Meta / Title Tags

Be sure to copy over your title tag, meta keyword tag, and
description tag from each page to the new version. The title tag
is especially important as there is still significant value
placed here. You want to ensure that each page retains its old,
optimized title tag.

The description meta tag is also important to carry over to the
new design. The description tags do still carry some weight, and
also can have an influence on the copy used in the search engine
listing. Be sure not to lose these tags.

The meta keyword tag can really go either way. While these days
it provides little to no value, if it is optimized and unique
for each page, you may as well carry it over. It will provide
some value for some of the smaller engines, but really have next
to no impact on Google, Yahoo and MSN. Since you'll be
transferring the description tag over anyways, it's all part of
the same cut and paste action to transfer the keyword tag also.
If you are switching the entire back end system, and copying
over the keyword tag will provide you with an extensive amount
of extra work, then you are most likely safe to leave it out.

Alt Tags

For images remaining on the site be sure to keep the optimized
alt tags in place. In cases where header images and image based
navigation is being completely updated be sure to follow the
same guide set with the alt tags in the original design.
Wherever it makes sense, be sure to have the same alt tags
copied over to the replacement images. These alt tags do have
some value in your search engine rankings, and removing them
entirely could cause a ranking decline.

Summary

If your website has rankings in the major search engines,
chances are you have spent good money, time, or both on making
this happen. This is not something that you want to simply throw
away for a newer, fancier looking site. By incorporating the
above items into your new design you will stand the best chance
for retaining your existing rankings.

I do want to put an important caveat here. Redesigning your
site, even when following all the rules, can still result in
your site being demoted. You may still find your rankings
disappear. Redesigning a ranked website is really a gamble any
way you look at it. Your rankings could drop, they could
skyrocket, or they could stay exactly where they are. There is
no way to know for sure without moving forward.
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Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Search Engine
Placement (http://www.stepforth.com). Several years ago after
graduating from Camoson College with a Diploma in Computer
Systems Technology, Scott joined the team at StepForth and began
his SEO career. When he is not busy with work he can be found
out at the golf course, fishing, or simply spending quality time
with his wife Lyndsay.

Scott can be reached at mailto:scott@stepforth.com
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