In general, companies redesign their websites every two or three years. A website redesign can help a company improve its search ranking, attract more customers, and improve website usability. However, if a website redesign is badly executed, it can have terrible consequences for a business, such as a decrease in website traffic, which results in revenue loss. Companies that want to redesign their websites need to ensure that they're not negatively impacting their search rankings with that redesign. 

Website audit

One of the first things that companies need to do before they redesign their websites is to perform a website audit of the existing website. The reason for this is to figure out if there are any elements of the existing website that are still driving traffic, sales, and leads. Companies should ensure that any valuable pages on their old website aren't lost in the redesigning process. With the audit, companies can also figure out if there are any elements on their websites that aren't working, or if there are any elements contributing to a negative user experience. Any elements that aren't working well that are identified in an audit should be addressed during the redesign process so that they aren't carried over from the old website to the new one. Some of the common issues that might exist on an old website include missing or duplicate links, missing or duplicate meta titles and tags, and duplicate descriptions. 

Temporary URL

Companies shouldn't be making any website changes on their current URL, and should instead be setting up a temporary URL where they can test out the new website design without impacting the current one. With a temporary URL companies can make all the changes, tweaks, and edits they want to without impacting the website that's currently used by customers. When the company creates a temporary website, it should include a no-index tag in the code so the website won't be indexed by search engine crawlers. 

Making changes

Once the aforementioned steps are complete, companies can start making website changes without worrying that they're affecting their SEO ranking. During every step of the website redesign process, companies should be considering their SEO efforts. To avoid creating any SEO problems, companies should take the time to plan their website redesign beforehand, and consult with an SEO professional. That means the company should be reviewing links from other websites and setting up 404 pages and 301 redirects in advance to save time.

About the Author: Mike Paffmann is CEO of Virgo PR, a leading PR agency.