How to plan a website to maximize SEO success

Many redesigned web sites fail to enhance SEO, typically damaging current rankings and creating challenges for Web optimization groups making an attempt to get well misplaced site visitors. This may severely have an effect on enterprise visibility, lead technology and gross sales.

I’ve been handed many a model new web site and requested to “Web optimization it” when untold injury has been achieved and important effort and time should be spent simply to get site visitors ranges again the place they had been earlier than the redesign. 

Many articles assist with website SEO and how to retain SEO traffic during a redesign. There are additionally useful books and frameworks for web site planning.

But, seemingly no useful resource combines a smart strategy to planning a brand new website with the retention and enchancment of Web optimization. 

This text will define find out how to plan a brand new web site successfully to retain current site visitors and create a platform to enhance your Web optimization. 

To make following alongside simpler, you’ll be able to fill out the steps within the template under:

Web site planning and Web optimization 

To make sure your new web site retains and improves your Web optimization, it’s useful to make sure you have a clearly outlined SEO strategy and you’ve got articulated this in a easy SEO plan. 

The worst factor in any web site design mission is when sudden issues or adjustments arrive throughout growth. 

A well-developed plan that has enter from all stakeholders helps guarantee much less of this. Extra importantly, if the shopper adjustments their thoughts or the scope creeps (the scope all the time creeps), you might have the doc to indicate the unique scope and justify the mandatory charge will increase. 

I want I had a greenback for each time we had been requested to assessment a brand new website that was virtually completed – solely to seek out that Web optimization hadn’t been thought-about, placing its success in danger.

We just lately labored on a six-figure mission for a enterprise that thrived on natural site visitors. The mission would basically destroy all of the hard-earned Web optimization. 

This took a number of months and possibly one other six figures in PPC spend (to exchange what was free Web optimization site visitors from an SEO vs. PPC perspective), in addition to additional Web optimization time and redevelopment. You wish to keep away from that if in any respect potential. 

We’ve got additionally seen different websites that had so comprehensively broken Web optimization site visitors that the one smart strategy was to roll again to the earlier website. 

Suffice it to say that guaranteeing you keep Web optimization site visitors and set the scene for enhancements is just not one thing you’ll be able to depart to likelihood. 

The strategy laid out right here combines a reasonably normal strategy to web site planning, which, achieved effectively, will save a lot time, cash and ache, with the sort of jobs wanted to retain current Web optimization site visitors whereas constructing a furtive platform for additional Web optimization growth. 

The output of this course of ought to be a doc that both acts as the inspiration of the web site temporary or is built-in into a conventional temporary. 

Be aware: The place the Web optimization temporary and web site temporary are separate entities, I all the time advocate reviewing the ultimate web site temporary to make sure the Web optimization temporary has been included earlier than the mission kicks off. 

There are 5 key steps to work by to create your Web optimization-friendly web site blueprint:

1. Present rankings and site visitors 

Your should perceive your site visitors and the place it comes from.

To do that, spend a while in Google Analytics and Google Search Console to determine:

• Excessive-ranking key phrases.
• Excessive-traffic key phrases.
• Excessive-traffic content material.
• Excessive-opportunity pages.
• Excessive-opportunity key phrases.

Your purpose is to obviously doc what works at the moment. These should be included within the new website.

If high-traffic content material is eliminated, not accurately optimized, or misplaced within the new website’s hierarchy, then you might be inviting issues. 

Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a treasure trove of SEO information and will provide you with the straight dope in your rankings and site visitors. 

Right here, you’ll see high-opportunity key phrases and pages with a lot of impressions however not many clicks. 

• Go to Search Console
• Efficiency > Search Outcomes

The primary data you might be on the lookout for is within the queries and pages tabs. You’ll be able to order this by clicks (site visitors) and impressions (which is a chance). 

Work by this data and doc your findings within the template. 

Crawl information

Crawl your web site and save a replica of the crawl (Screaming Frog is a cheap or free approach of doing this underneath 500 pages).

This may assist you to verify hyperlinks to the web page and evaluate with the brand new website if (and when) issues come up. 

Web optimization instruments

You can even use any Web optimization instruments for rank monitoring. 

Nonetheless, I want Search Console and Google Analytics for this as they provide you actual information and perception, not the extrapolated information the everyday Web optimization instruments present, which might typically be wildly inaccurate and deceptive. 

Dig deeper: Website redesign SEO checklist: Retaining and improving SEO

2. Web optimization and web site targets 

Objectives are essential to any mission. Beginning with clear targets helps you perceive your vacation spot, making it simpler to seek out the fitting path ahead.

Objectives give you a device for assessing all choices all through the mission.

Will doing one thing assist us hit our targets? If not, don’t do it. In that case, go for it! 

You’ll have targets for the web site mission general, ideally these will likely be hierarchical. For example, we could have one tremendous purpose that states the purpose of the brand new web site is to generate extra leads. 

It’s possible you’ll then have sub-goals similar to to enhance Web optimization and enhance conversion charges that work in service of the grasp purpose. 

Keep in mind to make your SEO goals specific and measurable, so SMART targets are useful right here. 

General, you might want a hierarchy of targets right here that covers:

• Web site Purpose: Generate extra leads/gross sales.
• Web optimization Purpose 1: Rank our service pages extra extremely.
• Web optimization Purpose 2: Rank our higher funnel advertising content material extremely. 

You may additionally discover it helpful to have a look at belongings you wish to keep away from with the brand new website. Figuring out what you might be aiming at and what you might be operating away from could be simply as useful, if no more so. 

• Anti-goal: Keep away from having a website that’s basically no totally different from our rivals. 

Doc your targets within the web site plan template and transfer on. 

3. Viewers and buyer segments

Fastidiously outline your target market(s) together with some issues concerning your rivals. 

Keep in mind, in advertising, focusing on everyone seems to be focusing on nobody. 

That’s not to say you’ll be able to’t goal a number of audiences, however you do want to present some consideration to every viewers and issue this into the construction and segmentation of your new website.

We wish to rigorously take into account the targets, issues and jobs of our target market to make sure our enterprise targets, web site targets and the targets of the folks we serve are all finely aligned. 

Viewers questions

We wish to begin by merely figuring out the totally different audiences: males, girls, college students, Gen X, Millennials, and so on. 

For every viewers:

• Viewers identify.
• Demographics (age, intercourse, location).
• What’s the drawback or purpose of the target market?
• The place do they hang around or discover data on-line?

The data you collect right here will assist you in the case of structuring your website to help the person wants of every viewers (which, in flip, makes optimizing for every viewers a lot simpler). 

To discover every buyer section in additional depth, you should use the SEO Value Proposition Template and SCAMPER to grasp your clients and determine the content material it’s essential to hit your targets. 

Keep in mind that Google needs you to concentrate on creating helpful, people-first content. To do that, it’s essential to perceive your folks (viewers) and guarantee you might be writing for them. 

This course of feeds into your Web optimization like no different, so spend the time entering into the minds of your viewers segments. Your Web optimization will thanks for it.  

Be aware all of this down within the web site plan template and transfer on. 

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4. Construction and sitemap

A sitemap supplies a easy overview of the brand new website and could be cross-referenced with the prevailing targets. 

For example, the brand new sitemap ought to embody high-traffic pages on the present website that drive enterprise efficiency. 

Sitemaps assist collect suggestions from all stakeholders and facilitate tough conversations throughout the planning phases. Addressing these points early can stop issues in a while with supply, timelines and budgets.

I’m a giant fan of the concept it is best to actually thrash issues out at this level and good concepts get strengthened and stay, whereas unhealthy concepts can die right here – slightly than in pricey growth. 

Creating your sitemap

You wish to create a easy bullet level sitemap within the first occasion.

• Residence 
• About Us
• Class A
• Class B
• Assets
• Contact

I like to recommend penning this all down in a spreadsheet so you might have readability and numbering for all pages (which will likely be helpful within the subsequent steps).

You should utilize your favourite drawing device to create your sitemap. Draw.io has a helpful set of templates, together with numerous maps, that you should use for website mapping (all of that are saved to Google Docs).

A visible sitemap could be helpful for the key classes and sections of the positioning and might support in getting suggestions from stakeholders.  

The important thing takeaway right here is that we wish to create a sitemap that’s segmented by our goal audiences and serves the overarching advertising targets. 

If our Web optimization targets are to retain site visitors and create an optimized construction, then we will assess that right here. 

Key items of content material which have been recognized ought to be recreated on the brand new website inside an optimized construction that units the scene for development. 

Keep in mind, the hierarchy right here will inform you of your website’s folder construction, which helps present context for every doc. 

This, in flip, helps you construction your key phrases from high-level broad key phrases to extra particular classes and longer-tail product/service key phrases. The construction is essential, so spend time right here till you might be blissful. 

5. Web page scoping

The following step of the planning course of is to find out what content material will likely be on every web page.

Primarily based on the extent of element you wish to use right here, you’ll be able to both create columns in your spreadsheet sitemap that you simply created beforehand or go into extra element.

Sometimes, for every web page, we must always embody:

• Purpose of the web page.
• Performance / Options (e.g., types).
• Content material (photographs, textual content, video and so on).
• Web optimization (Notes, Web page Title, Meta Description).
• Notes.

The Web optimization facet right here is pretty apparent, and if we now have a high-performing web page at the moment, we wish to guarantee the principle content material is recreated. 

There’s little level in including a web page and altering issues radically – decrease the variables wherever potential. 

We wish to look at the web page’s purpose and be sure that its performance and content material help it. 

Some instance targets for pages are:

• Generate publicity from Web optimization (to feed remarketing).
• Generate leads.
• Funnel customers to product pages. 

Work by every web page detailing the purpose for that web page after which define the content material that helps that and replace the web site plan template. 

6. Web optimization specifics

The planning is vital, however we should doc a couple of Web optimization specifics to make sure this construct facet will likely be dealt with accurately.

• Preserve the outdated website dwell on a brief URL if potential.
• Create a listing of redirections from the outdated pages to the brand new ones.
• Migrate content material, web page titles and meta descriptions for high-performing pages.
• Replace exterior backlinks the place potential.
• Monitor efficiency after launch (rankings, site visitors, impressions).

Factoring in these 5 areas will guarantee the principle Web optimization factors are lined.

6. Your web site plan 

At this level, it is best to have a complete however concise plan outlining what is required in your new website. 

The plan ought to cowl:

• Present rankings and site visitors.
• Objectives for the mission.
• Buyer segments.
• Web site construction and sitemap.
• Web page scoping.
• Web optimization specifics (redirects, and so on.).

Most individuals don’t do that. They create an excellent skinny temporary and depart it to the net builders. 

However the net builders don’t know what you are promoting, so you must put within the work to make sure the brand new website retains and improves your Web optimization (whereas additionally hitting the seemingly myriad of different targets that trickle down from administration to advertising). 

Whereas it might look like a further step, planning will prevent time, cash and ache whereas enhancing your general outcomes – a win-win. 

In a nutshell, you’ll get higher outcomes by doing the analysis and planning work. 

Launch and past

The ultimate elements to contemplate are the monitoring of the launch and what your advertising and SEO KPIs are to measure results. 

We all the time count on some turbulence, however conserving a detailed eye on the Search Console and your KPIs will assist you spot points and squash them shortly. 

Web optimization-friendly web site planning to retain and enhance site visitors

Most web sites may very well be higher deliberate.

In case you observe the straightforward steps right here, you’ll have achieved extra pre-design planning than 99% of different web site tasks, which can assist you be a part of the 1% of firms that get all the outcomes.

Make sure you perceive what works at the moment and the place you wish to go. Weave that into the planning to your new website and put together to fly excessive.