If you're working with the leftovers because the old website was successful, congratulations and take warning. Chances are the last webhead did a great job in her optimization efforts. You will be able to reuse a lot of the old content. After the re-launch you'll be credited for a successful transition and given a hearty pat-on-the-back. You don't want to mess up by redesigning the website and flushing all your traffic down the toilet. Your SEO goal in the redesign: maintain or better the search rankings.
I have worked on a number of websites which had great search engine traffic, but looked like a design from the IT Department--need I say more? Everybody in the company knew it was time for a visual overhaul (except the IT people, of course), but those in charge were afraid that a redesign would torpedo their search engine traffic.
Let's remember that search engine results are largely based on header information, content, website structure, and inbound links. Search engine results have nothing to do with great and not-so-great web design. Simply put, if we maintain these key factors, we'll maintain our search results. The easiest way to maintain your search rankings is to copy and paste the title tag information, meta-information, and content into the new web pages. It's never as easy as copy and paste, but if you can, do it. Text, headers, like <h1> tags, can always be formatted to match the new design, plus images can be added without impacting the Keyword Density (KW) of the winning web page.
Can you change anything on the web page? Well, I usually do. I can always find ways to better a web page, but that's me. If you're not confident that you can further optimize the page, then don't. In fact, it's a good strategy to put all your old information into a new web design, then upon its re-indexing, check to see how the website's rankings were affected. If you've maintained your rankings, then you can breathe a sigh of relief. Those changes you thought you could add to better your rankings can now be added for the next indexing.
Now, the last scenario assumes that every page will be copied over to the new design. This scenario is pretty unlikely. Chances are you have a solid homepage, products and/or services page which you can apply the above advice to. But what about those sub-pages that never got indexed?
- Are the pages behind graphic links, Flash animations, dHTML menu systems, long query-strings?
- Is there a text link means to find those web pages that are more than 3 clicks from the homepage?
If you answered yes to either of these questions, then you have some rethinking to do. On the bright side, if you've ensured nobody is linked to these web pages you can rename these web pages to be targeted keywords (i.e.: ski-coats.htm, cell-phones.htm) instead of, say, sc.htm or cp.htm. Ensure nobody has linked to these pages before you change the names.
If you're using graphic links, Flash navigation, DHTML menu systems, query-strings, or the web pages are deep in the site, you’ll need to rethink your navigation. As you probably know, search engine spiders cannot follow the links in these types of situations. Rework the navigation to be text-based or create a sitemap.
Next: Sitemaps as Search Engine Food >>
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