SEO After a Site Redesign: Don’t Let Rankings Slip

Your site looks better. But your rankings don’t.A site redesign can improve how your brand looks and works. But if SEO isn’t part of the plan, the launch can lead to a sudden drop in traffic or visibility.It’s a common story. The design improves, but performance takes a hit. The good news? Most of the damage can be avoided with the right checks.Here are the most common SEO problems after a redesign and how to prevent them.1. URLs change without redirectsIf your page URLs have changed and there are no redirects in place, search engines will treat the old pages as missing. That means a loss in rankings and traffic.What to do:Keep a full list of old URLsMap them to the most relevant new pagesUse 301 redirects, not temporary or wildcard onesAvoid redirecting everything to the homepage2. Meta tags are lost or overwrittenNew CMS platforms or templates can wipe out your original meta titles and descriptions. If these aren’t checked, it can hurt click-through rates and rankings.What to do:Carry over key meta data from the old siteCheck for missing or duplicate tagsRe-optimise pages if the structure or content has changed3. Page speed and Core Web Vitals dropA fresh design can bring in new fonts, animations or large images. These can slow things down and affect mobile performance, which Google considers in rankings.What to do:Test your site speed before and after launchOptimise images and limit large scriptsUse PageSpeed Insights and Search Console to track Core Web VitalsFix any key issues as soon as they appear4. Internal links are removedDuring redesigns, it’s easy to remove links between important pages. This can harm crawlability, user journeys and SEO.What to do:Keep links to key pages in placeUse a crawler to find broken or dropped linksCheck that anchor text is clear and helpfulMake sure your navigation supports the pages that matter mostHow SEO and design work better togetherDesign and SEO can work side by side. The most successful redesigns are the ones where both are involved from day one.Simple ways to improve collaboration:Involve SEO in the early planning stagesUse data to shape structure and content decisionsTest SEO basics before going liveKeep page value in mind when making layout changesRequest a Rescue ReviewIf your rankings or traffic have dropped since your website launch, don’t wait. Book a free Rescue Review and let our SEO Migration Paramedics take a look.Request a Rescue Review