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We’ve already discussed what you need to think about before you even begin your website redesign project, now we’re going to discuss what SEO elements you need to keep in mind once you start the process. Once again we turned to our well versed team of HubSpot Partners to gain insight into how they approach the process.
Don’t Lose Sight of Your Old Site
Sure, your website might need a redesign, but that doesn’t mean everything you currently have is terrible. Partner Tony Meister of NetSolutions Group says “the biggest mistake…would be to leave out 301 redirects consequently sacrificing all the work that was done to get the rankings. On that end, another mistake would be to neglect [thinking] about navigation structure and how the [old] site effectively leverages SEO in the subpage hierarchical navigation.”
Even if you do decide to completely redo the navigation, Tony’s first point holds true. Your old site hopefully had some SEO rankings that you, at some point, invested time (either in content creation, keyword research or more) to get. Make sure everything is done correctly in order to not waste the time you’ve already spent on it.
Make Sure SEO is Always Being Evaluated
Yes, SEO is not the end all to be all when you are redesigning your site. However, that doesn’t mean that it should be overlooked in favor of design, content, etc. Top Line Results’ Todd Hockenberry states, “SEO is [often] an afterthought and not the primary driver that it should be.” While SEO might not be as visually appealing as a great website header or logo, think about which one is more likely to bring leads to your site and invest your time wisely.
The SEO Scoop
Sure there are some people who get downright giddy when they talk about SEO. You may or may not be one of those folks. But even if you aren’t, any good website designed with inbound marketing in mind takes into account SEO strategies. No matter how gorgeous your new site looks, if visitors can’t find you online, no one is going to be able to appreciate your hard work and you certainly won’t see the benefits.
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