Redesigns can have a significantly negative impact on hard-earned search visibility. Steps must be taken to ensure search rankings don't drop. Content structure, internal linking and keywords usage in the new site is critical. Not messing with external linking is a good idea. Google webmaster tools and other analytics can be used to set-up and monitor launches. This talk focused on staying sane - and successful - through a redesign. Case studies included.

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Maintaining Sanity, Measurement and
Visibility Through Redesign
Barbara C. Coll
CEO
WebMama.com Inc.
@webmama

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Maintaining... Through a Redesign
Sanity – insert your own definition
Visibility – in organic search results
The Realistic Ability to Measure – a major
redesign is going to make it hard to
compare apples to apples.

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Goal =
Search Results Page Domination

4. + Top Reasons for Redesign and #1 Effect
on Measurement, Visibility and Sanity
 Company Name
Change/Acquisition =
Domain Name Change.
Every URL Changes
 New SEO Company =
Tactical changes too
many to mention in this
small box
 New CEO/CMO = New
brand agency, new web
design
 Repositioning of
Company/products =
New content, new
keywords

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Pre-Redesign (1)
 Keyword discovery research – what keywords define the
company
 Which content drives traffic into site (review landing pages) and
set content/SEO strategy to maintain that content
 Look at Page Authority (moz.com) and don’t kill pages with high
page authority

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Redesign Examples

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Pre-Redesign (2)
 Check and document rankings (east/west coast, outside US)
 Brightedge, MOZ
 Personalization discussion here….
 Competitive Positioning – Who’s There?
 Paid Search – Gap Analysis

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More than Rankings – it’s about
what it LOOKS like
 Examples…..

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Changing DomainsFilename Changes
 Inventory which page names are changing
 Set up redirect list for .htaccess file
 Use 301 redirects
 Consider leaving high Page Authority pages’ URLs the
same regardless of high value of adding keywords to URL
 Test redirects before launch
 Test redirects of main pages after launch by searching and
clicking

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Error Page: Count it in Analytics
 Example of Error Page

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 Organic Search Interests:
 Sources
 Visits
 % New Visitors
 Landing Page (ding, ding)
 Keyword (no longer)
Google WebMaster Tools Google Analytics
 Errors
 Indexed
 Queries
 Clicks
 Position

18. Launch

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Right about Now
 Spot check for redirect errors – click on organic search results
 Home page change? 3 hours
 Sitelinks? 1-3 days
 Old and new URLs at same time – yup – some overlap
 DNS propagation – 4-5 days across world
 Major ranking changes – 2 weeks
Launch
2-weeks

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Might be missing redirects?

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Do a visible search.

22. + Google Webmaster Tools (tied to Analytics)
Queries

23. + Google Webmaster Tools (tied to Analytics)
Landing Pages

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Conversation Rate Down?
 Did the landing page change for a specific keyword?
 Did your SEO company get you to produce a new page?
 Was there lead generation on the page?

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Don’t forget to Count:
 Mobile search
 Error pages
 Consider traffic that has moved to Google+
 Consider traffic that has moved to Twitter
 Consider traffic that has moved to Facebook

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Careful about SEO Advice
 Moving from http://tidemark.net to http://www.tidemark.net (two
sites unless redirects done properly and webmaster tools
configured properly)
 URL/file name changes – can’t compare page-to-page traffic
easily in Omniture or Google Analytics
 Letting them choose the target landing page for important
keywords when they have no knowledge of company lead
generation strategy
 Most will say 301s are the right way to go for everything – I
disagree. Leave some things alone. Don’t change the URL all
the time.

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Have the same person/team work with
analytics and webmaster tools.
Have the same person/team work with
paid search and web traffic analysis.
WebMama Recommendations:

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More Redesign Examples

33. Add bill.com before

37. + Barbara Coll
WebMama.com Inc.
@webmama
eMetrics Boston 2013