These days everybody has an opinion on SEO, and it doesn’t seem to matter whether you run an SEO agency, work as a website developer or own the local butchers, everyone thinks that they’re opinion on search engine optimisation is the right one.
So, we don’t want to get into any debates. The EU referendum this isn’t. Instead, we want to provide you with our SEO tip of the week, which, we hope, will enable your website to perform more effectively on Google in the future.
SEO Tip of the Week – Add 301 Redirects:
If you want to redesign your website but you’re worried about losing your organic rankings on Google then fear not, as we have the perfect solution for you.
To retain your existing organic rankings, or at least minimise any positional decreases suffered, you need to place 301 redirects on all URLs that are no longer going to appear on your new website. So, for example, if your Products page URL is changing from ‘www.website.co.uk/products-for-sale.html’ to become ‘www.website.co.uk/products.html’ then a 301 redirect would need to be placed on the first URL. This will inform Google, and the other search engines, that this URL no longer exists and the content now appears on the new URL. As long as the content that appeared on the original URL remains the same on the new page, then your organic rankings shouldn’t be impacted too greatly once the new site has been launched.
This is an area where many website design companies lose points, as they tend to focus on making the new website as glamorous as possible without thinking about the SEO consequences that may occur once it has been made live.
So, make a note of all the URLs that appear on your current website and find out what the relevant new URLs will be once the redesigned site has launched. This will ensure that you don’t miss placing the 301 redirects on important pages within your site, ensuring that your Google presence is retained going forward.
