Web Redesign - What You Need to Do

All websites become outdated after some time; this is because the World Wide Web is evolving at a very high pace. Thus they need a web redesign for a fresher look. During this process there are a few things to avoid so your website can keep its search engine rankings.

Changing URLs

This can happen if you are updating from a static website to a dynamic one or if the url structure is being changed. The new urls will probably rank better than the old ones but you might be losing visitors if you do not redirect old pages to new ones as the old internal pages will disappear from search engines if they are no longer available. One of the best solutions to this problem is to use "301 redirection" to automatically direct existing users to the new pages.

Alt Tags for Images

After a web redesign it is good not to forget about alt tags for images. If your images were not tagged before, you were probably losing visitors. Search engines can not read images; if these are properly tagged will appear in image searches. Be as descriptive as possible when tagging images, also for image name; e.g. keyword.jpg rather than img0012.jpg.

Sitemap

Updating your sitemaps will help search engines index your new pages faster. Both the xml sitemap and the one already on your website should be updated. The faster Google indexes your new pages, the fewer users you will lose.

If you follow the above tips, it is less likely to lose your ranking than otherwise.

Webline Ltd offers quality web redesign services to meet your needs. Visit www.WeblineUK.com for more information.