Website relaunch SEO

Planning your website content for a successful relaunch

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In this presentation, you will learn which role your website content plays

for your SEO performance after a relaunch.

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Contents of this presentation:

1. A little story2. How to evaluate content3. Dealing with important content

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As a young SEO consultant, I assisted in a massive website relaunch project.

Let’s start with a story…

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We had a big SEO budget and we were able to influence every little detail of the new website.

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Here are some of the things we were able to do:

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We took care of all of the technical SEO basics, like indexability and crawlability, or 301 redirects for the

relaunch.

Technical SEO

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We influenced the web design and user experience to create maximum synergies between user and search engine

friendliness.

Web design and UX

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We defined the content of the main navigation as well as the internal linking structure and internal link anchor texts.

Navigation

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We optimised every relevant aspect of the new website and achieved an overall result that was almost perfect from an

SEO perspective.

Optimisation

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From an SEO consultant point of view, it really was the perfect website relaunch project.

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When the new website was finally launched, this is what happened:

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- 25% visibility loss- Significant traffic and revenue

loss- 12 months of hard work to

restore the previous state

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What went wrong?

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While planning the new website, the client had decided to delete old content that was no longer needed.

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We were so focused on creating a perfect website

for SEO that we ignored what seems like common

sense:

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If you remove content, you will lose the traffic this content is generating.

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Don’t delete old content.

Don’t make the same mistake.

do instead.

Here’s what you can

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Start by identifying important content on your old website.

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● Visibility, traffic, goal KPIs● Data sources for the above● Additional data to use

How to identify important content

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The following KPIs will help you determine which

content is important and should not be deleted.

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Visibility KPIs (per URL):

● Impressions in search results● Search engine rankings

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● Clicks in search results● Website visits from search

traffic

Traffic KPIs (per URL):

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● Conversions from search traffic● Revenue from search traffic

Goal KPIs (per URL):

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Use the following data sources to compile a list of your important URLs with

the relevant KPIs.

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Google / Bing / Yandex Webmaster Tools for impressions and clicks from search results.

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Google Analytics or another web analytics tool for visits, conversions, and revenue from organic search.

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Pro tip:Use a custom attribution model for numbers of conversions and revenue.

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Specialised ranking tools (like Sistrix or Searchmetrics) for search engine rankings.

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Too many URLs? Often, less than 40% of your URLs account for more than 90% of your performance. Focus on top URLs, if necessary.

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Add all URLs that have backlinks. You can get this information from specialised backlink tools.

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Pay special attention to non-HTML files, such as PDFs, that drive organic search traffic.

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PDFs and other file types often rank very well, but they will not show up in your web analytics data, because they don’t have tracking codes.

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Images are another special case: Check which images are performing well in image search results.

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Now you have a list of HTML pages, PDFs, images and other file types that you don’t want to delete from your new website.

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Let’s have a look at how best to deal with the different types of content you want to keep.

Dealing with important content

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● HTML pages● PDFs● Images

Ideas for dealing with different types of important content:

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● Don’t delete it● Integrate it into your new website structure● Improve it (if you can)

The general rule is:

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Every old HTML page that has visibility, traffic,

backlinks or that contributes to business

goals should be kept on the new website.

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Content is not relevant anymore or not up-to-date? Improve it to make it relevant again.

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Old blog posts can be updated and re-published with a new time stamp. This tactic normally boosts a post’s SEO performance.

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Evergreen content should be kept up-to-date and can be placed more prominently in the navigation in order to boost its SEO performance.

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Popular content can be repurposed and published in different formats. Try trading high-end file formats for shares (pay with a share).

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Use your best content marketing techniques to turn your old content into an amazing new website.

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Make sure that your new content satisfies search intent even better than your old content.

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For content with backlinks, replace “search intent” with “click intent”.

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Let’s talk about PDFs. There are several good reasons for not wanting PDFs in search engine indexes.

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● are not mobile-friendly● are not easily trackable with web analytics tools● do not allow the user to navigate to other pages

PDFs

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My recommendation for a relaunch is to replace all

indexed PDFs with equivalent HTML pages.

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Of course, you should still offer PDFs (let users pay for them with a share, if you like), but don’t make them indexable by search engines.

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Don’t forget to redirect your old PDF URLs to the new HTML pages.

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What about images? You might have the urge to use entirely new images on your new website. Keep the ones that are performing well.

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Find a way to integrate your important images into the new website and try to put them in the same context.

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If you want to make sure to keep your image SEO performance after the relaunch, don’t change the image sizes or file names.

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This is a good foundation for your relaunch and you have taken an important step towards saving your

SEO performance.

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Thank you.

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Encore:

7 more SEO tips for website relaunches.

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Redirect every old URL that no longer exists to its new equivalent. Set up direct redirects (avoid redirect chains).

1

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Don’t change your URLs if you don’t have to. URL changes often lead to visibility losses, even if redirected.

2

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Pay attention to your internal linking. A page that loses lots of incoming internal links can also lose visibility and traffic.

3

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Not on https yet?

Now is the time.

4

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Allocate SEO and IT resources for the days and weeks after the relaunch. You will need them for troubleshooting.

5

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Domain switches are always a big risk for your SEO performance. Be prepared for temporary losses.

6

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Reach out to webmasters that link to your content to let them know about URL changes. This is also good promotion for your new website.

7

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About meEoghan Henn

● Co-founder of searchVIU● Based in Galicia, Spain● Very important: “Eoghan” is

pronounced like “Owen”

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About my company

● Website relaunch SEO tool● Automatic 301 redirects● Traffic loss prevention● https://www.searchviu.com/

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Get in contact● twitter.com/rebelytics● eoghan@searchviu.com● linkedin.com/in/eoghanhenn

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