How to redesign a site without messing up your SEO

Hi Bill,

That's is a really good question. And the answer is yes, but only if you take care to keep certain elements the same. You might even be able to improve you SEO in the process.

First, and foremost, you need to keep your URL structure intact for existing content, or use 301 Permanent Redirects to mitigate the damage.

If your website design was done at anytime during the past 5 years, and done by a professional, then it should be easy. Nearly all professional developers will have separated your content from your presentation. This is done by using Semantically Correct HTML along with Cascading Style Sheets. You can safely update your CSS file without touching the content.

Keep in mind there are important design principles that have an influence on SEO, particularly in the size, weight, color and emphasis on certain elements that contain your keywords. When you add or change photos be sure to include relevant keywords in alt text where appropriate.

If you are using a CMS, like Wordpress, you will generally be safe as long as your new WP template uses the same framework as your current WP template.

use same urls FOR ALL PAGES and use same title and description meta tags. No hurt to your ranking after changing the design.. Keep in mind that faster loading pages rank high .. So check your website score using yslow(Yahoo) and Page speed(Google) Try to score atleast B grade

What if your switching from .html pages to .php pages? This would speed up the site if you have a structure like header.php and footer.php but the url would change from index.html to index.php.

Would this screw up your SEO?

Hello:

Yeah... I agree. You could easily improve rankings if you on page optimize better. Google likes change and new content. Use keywords in your title, text, pic files, alt text, etc. Put the keywords in your URL if possible. If you delete a page, try to 301 redirect it to a similar page. Another option is to use a good 404 error redirect to your home page which you should be doing anyway.

Keep URL's the same as old website while you are going redesigning your website