In this final part of our short series of posts about website redesign considerations we cover the final stages of the new website process.  If you missed either of the first two instalments please visit our archive section.

Search Engine Optimisation

As you are going to re-design your website you should also review how well the site is optimised for the search engines:

Review the keywords and keyword phrases that your pages are optimised for. Use keyword research tools to find out which keywords are being searched for and are likely to be the most appropriate ones for your new pages. Also look at your website analytics to see which keywords have been used by people to find your old website.

Include the keywords in page file names to make the page URLs search engine-friendly.

If you change your website page structure you must set up ‘301 redirects’ with your hosting company so that any old pages that have been bookmarked are correctly redirected to the appropriate page in the new website.

Update the xml sitemap and robots.txt files.

Update the Page Title and META tags (at least the description tag) for each page. Each page should have unique META data.

All the website images should be optimised with appropriate keywords in the ‘alternative text’ (ALT) tag.

If you use website analytics make sure to add the analytics tracking code to your new pages in the redesigned website.

If you used webmaster tools (Google or Bing), check that your site ownership is still verified (check to see that the specified tag, file, record, or code is present on your site).

3. Before you launch . . .

Before you upload the redesigned site directly to the main hosting server, check through it thoroughly for:  Broken links, orphaned pages, missing images, spelling errors, ALTs and META tags – any errors found should be fixed prior to the launch of the website.

Check that all the functionality works, e.g. does the contact form work, do any sign up fields work, do the auto-responders work and does the online order system work as it should?  Only when you have satisfied yourself that everything is as it should be can you press the launch button.

If you would like to learn more about website re-design considerations please leave a comment below or visit WSI IMS – WSI Digital Marketing in  Surrey, Sussex, Kent & the South East of England.