Websites tend to have a limited lifespan and need to be redesigned every 3 to 5 years. In this fast-paced world, businesses can’t afford to maintain a website with dated designs and technologies. But a redesign carries its own set of risks as it is easy to lose track of SEO in the process. Here’s a look at some of the most common SEO mistakes you need to avoid to maintain your lead:

1. Don’t Mess with the Structure

Modern consumers love unique and exciting things, but they’re also creatures of habit. They expect websites to have specific structure and logic; their overall user experience depends on this. For example, most users expect the logo to lead them back to the homepage and the prominent services or products to be in the most visible menus. They also expect the menus to be right under the company logo. Users instinctively scroll to the bottom of the page if they want company information or contact information.

It is crucial to retain a sound, logical website structure during a redesign. If you experiment too much with the structure and layout, it will affect user experience and alienate your audience. As user experience is a search engine’s priority, this kind of change will also impact your website ranking.

2. Too Many Links Leading Out

According to Google, link building is one of the three most important SEO strategies. The internet giant takes note of all of the internal, inbound, outbound links on your website, and it is vital to maintain a balance while creating links. A few good-quality links will improve the value of the content and provide users with more information. If you have too many links, it can affect user experience and cause visitors to leave the website.

To avoid this, make sure all the outbound links open in separate windows. Include two to three relevant links on every page. Avoid exact match anchors for the links and use words that describe that are present in the links instead. This will help with SEO and improve user experience.

3. Image and Graphics

Images and graphics are some of the most important aspects of a website. They appeal to the users and convey a great deal of information. However, if you don’t use them strategically, they can have a significant impact on your website performance. Optimize the images and make sure they are of good quality.

Poor quality images like blurry photographs or amateur graphics leave a poor impression on users. They can reduce session times and increase the bounce rate. Google’s RankBrain algorithm will immediately pick up that your website isn’t providing a good user experience, which will lower your ranking.

If the images aren’t optimized, they will add more weight to the website file size, and that will have an impact on its upload speed. Modern users expect a website to load within 2-3 seconds and will abandon it if the process takes too long. This will also have an impact on your ranking.

You also need to make sure your redesigned website has SSL certification and good quality content. A well-planned redesign can be the boost your business needs to bring in more customers, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of SEO. If your redesign and search engine optimization go hand-in-hand, you’ll have a great website.

As one of the top web design company in Phoenix, we are passionate about making it easier for businesses just like you to get found online. Get in touch with us for a free consultation for your website redesign project.