A website redesign requires a clear definition of your needs and goals, as well as the needs of your users. A site redesign can correspond to a structural and/or design update. But it can't help but affect your SEO positioning. If you want to redesign your website to be a powerful attraction lever, now is the time to strengthen your natural linking strategy.

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Website redesign and natural links

Website redesign is an important project for any business. It is very important that it develops according to the expectations of your users. Several reasons can lead you to change your website: ergonomics, usability, speed, security, new offer, change of CMS, new graphic charter, etc. Whatever happens, today it is very important to stand out from the competition by improving your image and your values. To do this, your website as a whole will be your best ally.

Your website should reflect the quality of your offering. But it will also allow you to be as visible as possible in the search engines . So be careful to remember to take some precautions to keep your SEO results . Redesigning your site will obviously affect the natural links to your site in one way or another. The slightest mistake can affect your site's performance, and thus your company's results. To avoid this, you need to prepare the process well, step by step.

In this article, we'll talk about what to consider before, during and after the redesign.

Why should I think about site redesign?

A site redesign can respond to a variety of problems: performance issues, reduced natural links, CMS changes, rebranding, etc. Even if a redesign is a good solution to start on a good basis, it is above all the best way to review its ergonomics .

Website design has a big impact on conversion rates. A design review can increase your conversions (+30 to 40% on average). Moreover, if you simultaneously strengthen your natural linking strategy, you have a good chance of also increasing traffic.

However, SEO, load speed, and user experience should not only be considered during the redesign, but throughout the life of the site. After a redesign, performance optimization must be maintained over time. The quality of your site and your content will remain a major criterion for search engine visibility. They are real assets for your positioning, but also for the user experience.

Mistakes to avoid when redesigning

Also, if you decide to (too much) change your content and texts, it can negatively affect their original SEO juice (the authority of your site). Indeed, if Google stops deeming them relevant, it will lower their ranking compared to the originally positioned queries. And this will have a direct impact on the visibility and prominence of your site.

In addition, during a redesign, changes are often made to the tree structure of the website . This can lead to a drop in your search engine rankings. Indeed, the organization of your menus, the content integrated into them and the internal grid strongly affect your SEO links. When these elements change too much, even excessively, you run the risk of losing search engine (search engine) rankings.

But don't panic, these risks can be anticipated! When redesigning a site, you should take some precautions regarding SEO.

How to successfully redesign the site?

• Determining the goals of the redesign

Once the decision is made, the first thing to do is to determine the goals of your website redesign . It is important to be clear about what you want to achieve. Improve the user experience, the technique of your site, increase traffic, reposition your offerings, etc.

Make a list of achievable goals and prioritize them so you can focus on what's most important during your website redesign. If you set your main goal, it will be easier for you to keep track of the progress of your website redesign. Whatever the goal is, you will need to take several metrics into consideration, but you should focus on the most important ones. You will also be able to refine your objectives after you go through the audit phase of your site.

Obviously, as with any project, it is preferable to follow a well-defined schedule to achieve your goals . In addition, you can also incorporate post-launch tasks into this schedule.

• UX

A UX audit will allow you to make sure that your visitors can easily navigate through your site and find the information they need. Indeed, the conversion rate depends a lot on the user experience . If the latter is not optimized enough, you may observe it with a high bounce rate.

To audit the UX of your site, start by putting yourself in the shoes of your users. This is a simple exercise that will allow you to take a step back and project yourself. Specifically, check accessibility, readability and CTA . You can also ask external testers to review your site to analyze their behavior . Finally, analyze quantitative data such as flow (user views) and bounce rate .

These few steps will allow you to identify the weaknesses of your site and ways to optimize user interaction.