This document provides tips for preparing a website for redesign from an SEO perspective. It recommends researching keywords, identifying high-traffic content, and maintaining internal links. It also advises taking screenshots of search results and analytics data for comparison after launch. While traditional analytics can show some pre/post comparisons, things like page-level traffic and paths cannot be directly compared if URLs change. The document stresses monitoring search results post-launch and being prepared to intervene if snippets do not make sense.

1. Sanity
Through a
Redesign!!!
Barbara Coll
SF 2014
@webmama

2. @webmama
Top Reasons for Redesign
and #1 Effect on
Measurement, Visibility and Sanity
New SEO Company =
Tactical changes too
many to mention in this
small box
New CEO/CMO = New
brand agency, new web
design
Repositioning of
Company/products =
New content, new
keywords
Company Name Change
/Acquisition = Domain Name
Change. Every URL Changes

3. @webmama
Prepare for Redesign (1)
Keyword discovery research – what keywords
define the company
Which content drives traffic into site (review
landing pages) and set content/SEO strategy to
maintain that content
Look at Page Authority (moz.com) and don’t kill
pages with high page authority

4. @webmama
Keyword Category Domination
Company = VMware
Keyword = virtualization

5. @webmama
Instances of Keyword/Content
http://www.vmware.com/products/
http://www.vmware.com/virtualization/ *
http://www.vmware.com/virtualization/virtualizatio
n-basics/what-is-virtualization.html *
http://www.vmware.com/products/desktop-
virtualization.html *
* URLs/Filenames the same as pre-redesign

6. @webmama
Internal Content Links Maintained
Footers
Imagery
Main Nav
Video

7. @webmama
Prepare for Redesign (2)
The Tedious Part
WebMaster Tools – Queries, Keywords, Clicks -
TAKE SCREENSHOTS!
What do search results look like today! TAKE
SCREENSHOTS!
As much as I hate to say it – run ranking reports
Set up redirect file for .htaccess

8. @webmama

9. @webmama

10. @webmama

11. @webmama@webmama
Little Things
Error Page in place?
Turned on the tracking code (since it
was probably off on the beta site)?
Filtered out the design/development
team (Search company too) from the
analytics?
Connected Google analytics and
Google Webmaster tools and have
the same person looking at both

12. @webmama
Right about Now
Spot check for redirect errors – click on organic
search results
Home page change? 3 hours
Sitelinks? 1-3 days
Old and new URLs at same time – yup – some overlap
DNS propagation – 4-5 days across world
Major ranking changes – 2 weeks
Launch
2-weeks

13. @webmama
What can you compare from
previous site?

14. @webmama
Organic Search Traffic
Comparing Pre-Post Launch
Traditional Analytics
Full site
Visits
Unique Visitors
Time on site
Bounce rate
Traffic to pages where URL has NOT changed
Questionable
Number of Pages Viewed/visit
Form completions

15. @webmama
Organic Search Traffic
Comparing Pre-Post Launch
 Queries, Keywords, Clicks

16. @webmama
What CAN’T you compare from
previous site?

17. @webmama
Organic Search Traffic
What you CAN’T Compare
Content by page (unless you kept the URLs the
same) (ie. Visits to company/mgt/ceo would need to
be mapped to company/management/ceo)
# of Pages visited
Path through site
Top content
Landing pages
Questionable
 Consumption of resources (whitepapers, etc)

18. @webmama@webmama
Go back and revisit your screenshots
of search results prior to redesign.
- Did it work?
- Do the snippets make sense?
Question – when do you intervene?

19. @webmama
Visual
Search
Turns Up
Lots of Things

20. Barbara Coll
@webmama
#emetrics