SEO and Web page redesign

[Alext333]

Hi All,

I'm getting my webpage redesigned and the company is also contracted for 5 months of SEO.

However, they have said they have stopped SEO because altering the website will effect the SEO, its better to wait for the site to be resigned first.

Does this make sense? Or are they bluffing?

Thank you in advance for any feedback on this.

 

[iboxsecurity]

Altering a site - depending on what/how its altered may affect SEO. i.e. page structure, content, links will affect SEO yes.

 

[Faevilangel]

I would agree with them, hold off on the SEO until the new site is done as many things can change in a site redesign including structure, content, page names and how to edit things on the new site.

Did you get the SEO companies opinion before getting the redesign done, as they should have been able to have an input as any changes, how small, can affect the SEO, and you're paying for them so get advice on things like this.

 

[jamhot]

this is such a thing as on page seo. If they change this then the major search engines will try to reinterpret the pages again. once that has been established it will be time to seo off page elements such as backlinks ect

 

[Ecler]

In the case of a website redesign it all depends on how much work the redesign entails: are you just changing the layout of the pages or are you creating a completely new website with new URLs...

In any case I don't think it can hurt to continue optimisation of your current site if you're going to target the same keywords going forward. Google will have to index the new pages, but if your domain stays the same then the link popularity of the old pages will be transferred to the new site.
What your SEO agency should do for you is provide you with a website transition plan and SEO best practices. For example if you're going to change the URLs, then all of the old ones should be individually 301 redirected to the new ones...

Hope this helps

Etienne

 

[nicknell]

It is totally depend on website structure, content,then it will effect.

 

[darren atkinson]

To be honest, for most sites the biggest thing they can do to help with their SEO campaign is building links. I wouldn't advise that you stop the link building as the value of links grows with age.

It's not difficult to build links into the site whilst undergoing a transition of this type, all it needs is a bit of simple planning upfront to ensure that page names don't change, if they can't do this then simply tell them to carry on building links to your root domain name (homepage) it will be more beneficial for you in the longer term.

 

[webgeek]

If you're changing information architecture, like URL nesting, landing page URL's etc, then it's a consideration. Don't wait to start SEO, but just remember to make a roadmap of exisiting page structure and where it should point in the new site structure, and use .htaccess 301 redirects to point from old to new.

You will lose very little by doing the above.

The alternative, of wait, design, site build, then start link building - means that you're losing tons of time in gaining rankings, which is something that requires time to achieve.

IMHO, most SEO battles take 9-12 months, with some taking 18-24 months. The clock doesn't start until your linkbuilding begins. Do you want to win the race in 9 months or much, much later?

 

[JElder]

I'd agree with Darren. It's generally not worth doing too much with on-age stuff, but external work can still continue.

If you are not sure what the new URLs will be, just build all the links to point to the home page for the time being. Most of our clients we start link building while we are working on the new site.