10 SEO Mistakes To Avoid During Your Next Website Redesign
Website redesign and improvement is a major part of any modern company’s strategy to reach a wider audience, generate more leads, and conduct more business. While many companies shift their attention to their website’s aesthetic aspects in order to become more user-friendly, there are less-glamorous facets of improving your website. A lot of emphasis has been placed on SEO (Search Engine Optimization) over the past few years. Although the way SEO is approached is constantly changing, it remains an integral part of attracting customers to your business. After all, your company’s website may blow your competitors out of the water, but if no one can find your website, it doesn’t matter.
Not Considering SEO From the Start
One of the biggest and most common mistakes made during a website redesign is to not consider SEO from the start. While it can be easy to only address the obvious aspects of website redesign, SEO needs to be a major focus of your redesign. Jeff Ferguson, CEO of Fang Digital Marketing, says one of the most common SEO mistakes he sees marketing teams make is not involving the SEO team in the early stages of development. “All too often when we’re brought in for SEO work on a redesign, it’s often late in the process, such as when the site is being coded or even totally complete,” Jeff says. “The advice that usually needs to be passed on at this point will most likely cost the company much more in design, coding, and more.”
Failing to Identify and Include Commonly Searched Keywords
Another common SEO mistake is failing to identify and include commonly searched keywords. Keywords can keep websites focused, and focusing on one term per page is the best way to provide value to viewers, says Samantha Winchell, SEO analyst at New Breed Marketing. These days, having too many keywords can be a problem for your website as well. If Google recognizes that you are obviously overusing or jamming keywords into your site where they don’t belong, your search engine rankings and credibility can take a major blow. Instead, Google wants websites to publish high-quality information and content naturally filled with keywords. Google’s own advice on the issue is to “Write pages that clearly and accurately describe your topic. Think about the words users would type to find your pages and include those words on your site.”
Forgetting to Add Analytics Tracking
Another mishap commonly committed during SEO redesigns is forgetting to add analytics tracking to your site. In order to properly benchmark your redesigned website, using analytics software is the only way to accurately track data on the information you release onto the web. Tracking a new website designed to have a higher lead-conversion rate is difficult without any previous website tracking. Installing an analytics code also enables you to see if your chosen keywords are working or if your URL structure makes it easier for visitors to navigate through your site.
Search Engine Optimization is an efficient and cost-effective way to ensure that your website is being discovered by your target market and constantly gains new clients. To learn more on how to effectively utilize SEO, click below to download our free guide, “10 SEO Mistakes to Avoid During Your Next Website Redesign.”
