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Build a Bridge to Your New Website with SEO
- 1. Building a Bridge to Your New Website Made in Milwaukee Tyler Einberger Senior Organic Search Analyst January 2019 Happy Hour @ Momentic Marketing - January 24th, 2019
- 2. Building a Bridge to Your New Website with SEO! Made in Milwaukee Tyler Einberger Senior Organic Search Analyst January 2019 Happy Hour @ Momentic Marketing - January 24th, 2019
- 3. 3 Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com
- 4. 4 Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com Welcome!
- 5. 5 Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com OLD WEBSITE OR NO WEBSITE NEW (AMAZING) WEBSITE THE BRIDGE
- 6. (Solid Bridge) Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com6
- 7. 7 MomenticMarketing.com Made in Milwaukee Benefits of Incorporating SEO Strategies 1. Learn More About Your Audience
- 8. 8 MomenticMarketing.com Made in Milwaukee Benefits of Incorporating SEO Strategies 1. Learn More About Your Audience 2. Ensure Users Find You
- 9. 9 MomenticMarketing.com Made in Milwaukee Benefits of Incorporating SEO Strategies 1. Learn More About Your Audience 2. Ensure Users Find You 3. Maximize ROI
- 10. 10 TYPICAL PROCESS OF WEBSITE REDESIGN (WITHOUT SEO) Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com
- 11. Branding 11 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com
- 12. Branding Sitemap 12 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP
- 13. 13 Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com OLD WEBSITE OR NO WEBSITE NEW (AMAZING) WEBSITE THE BRIDGE
- 14. 14 Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com OLD WEBSITE OR NO WEBSITE NEW (AMAZING) WEBSITE THE BRIDGE
- 15. Branding Sitemap 15 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP
- 16. Branding Sitemap Wireframes 16 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES
- 17. Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development 17 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT
- 18. Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development Technical Build 18 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD
- 19. Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development Technical Build Content Import 19 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT
- 20. Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development Technical Build Content Import Review 20 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT 10. REVIEW
- 21. Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development Technical Build Content Import Review Launch 21 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT 11. LAUNCH 10. REVIEW
- 22. Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development Technical Build Content Import Review Launch Post-Launch Advertising 22 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT 11. LAUNCH 13. POST-LAUNCH ADVERTISING 10. REVIEW
- 23. 23 Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com OLD WEBSITE OR NO WEBSITE NEW (AMAZING) WEBSITE OUR BRIDGE (...SO FAR)
- 24. 24 LET’S BRIDGE THE GAPS (WITH SEO!) Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com
- 25. 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 25 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT 11. LAUNCH 13. POST-LAUNCH ADVERTISING 2. KEYWORD RESEARCH 10. REVIEW
- 26. 26 KEYWORD RESEARCH Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com And It Helps You Answer… 1. What Are Your Users Interested In? 2. How Are They Searching For Them? 3. What Pages Should Exist on Your Website? 4. Is Your Wireframe Fulfilling Your Users’ Needs? Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development Technical Build Content Import Launch Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising It’s Really Exciting!
- 27. 27 KEYWORD RESEARCH Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com Where Do I Get Data? 1. Google Analytics 2. Google Search Console 3. Google AdWords (If you’ve ran ads in the past) 4. Competitors 5. Keyword Suggestion Tools (SEMrush, Keywords Everywhere) 6. Google Trends Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development Technical Build Content Import Launch Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising
- 28. 28 KEYWORD RESEARCH Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com What Do I Do With the Data? 1. Prioritize by Primary and Secondary Topics 2. Map Primary Topics to Specific Pages Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development Technical Build Content Import Launch Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising
- 29. 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 29 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT 11. LAUNCH 13. POST-LAUNCH ADVERTISING 2. KEYWORD RESEARCH 5. CONTENT PLANNING 10. REVIEW
- 30. 30 CONTENT PLANNING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com Sitemap Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development Technical Build Content Import Launch Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising Keyword Research Wireframes Content Planning
- 31. 31 CONTENT PLANNING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com How Do I Plan For Content? 1. List of pages from sitemap 2. Choose a primary topic for each page 3. Map closely-related secondary topics to pages 4. Plan out the structure & other important elements Note: include PRIMARY and SECONDARY topics in Meta Titles, Meta Descriptions, URLs, H1 tags, image tags and body copy. 5. Determine a target word count 6. Use wireframe to determine internal linking 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising
- 32. 32 CONTENT PLANNING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com Sitemap - List of pages Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development Technical Build Content Import Launch Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising Keyword Research - Primary Topics - Secondary Topics Wireframes - Internal linking Content Planning Content Development
- 33. 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 33 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT 11. LAUNCH 13. POST-LAUNCH ADVERTISING 2. KEYWORD RESEARCH 5. CONTENT PLANNING 10. REVIEW
- 34. 34
- 35. 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 9. Redirects, Redirects! 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 35 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT 11. LAUNCH 13. POST-LAUNCH ADVERTISING 2. KEYWORD RESEARCH 5. CONTENT PLANNING 9. REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS!10. REVIEW
- 36. 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 9. Redirects, Redirects! 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 36 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT 11. LAUNCH 13. POST-LAUNCH ADVERTISING 2. KEYWORD RESEARCH 5. CONTENT PLANNING 9. REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS!
- 37. 37 REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS! Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com Super Important - Notice the red box above? - Only for redesigns Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development Technical Build Content Import Launch Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 9. Redirects, Redirects! 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising - 1:1 Benefits - Ensures users visit the right page - Transfers website credibility Watch Out For - Bulk redirects to the homepage (or another page) - Temporary redirects - Redirect chains - HTTP --> HTTPS & WWW <--> Non-WWW
- 38. 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 9. Redirects, Redirects! 10. Review/Pre-Launch Audit 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 38 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT 11. LAUNCH 13. POST-LAUNCH ADVERTISING 2. KEYWORD RESEARCH 5. CONTENT PLANNING 9. REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS! PRE-LAUNCH AUDIT 10. REVIEW
- 39. 39 PRE-LAUNCH AUDIT Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com Be On Look Out For - Internal Redirects - 404 Errors Make Sure - XML Sitemap is Set Up Correctly - Images Aren’t Too Big (compressor.io) Set Up - Google Analytics Account - Google Tag Manager Account It’s worth it to do this stuff before the site launches! Branding Sitemap Wireframes Content Development Technical Build Content Import Launch Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 9. Redirects, Redirects! 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 9. Redirects, Redirects! 10. Review/Pre-Launch Audit 11. Launch 13. Post-Launch Advertising
- 40. - It’s Exciting! - The World can see it 40 Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com ALMOST time to celebrate! Launch Day
- 41. 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 9. Redirects, Redirects! 10. Review/Pre-Launch Audit 11. Launch 12. Post Launch Push 13. Post-Launch Advertising 41 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT 11. LAUNCH 13. POST-LAUNCH ADVERTISING 2. KEYWORD RESEARCH 5. CONTENT PLANNING 9. REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS! 12. POST-LAUNCH PUSH 10. REVIEW PRE-LAUNCH AUDIT
- 42. 42 POST-LAUNCH PUSH Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com Things to Check/Do: - Robots.txt file - Sitespeed and Mobile Friendly Tests - Submit Sitemaps in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools - Set Up Events in Google Tag Manager - Set Up Goal Tracking in Google Analytics - Monitor the Indexation Status of Website - Double Check Internal Links 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 9. Redirects, Redirects! 10. Review/Pre-Launch Audit 11. Launch 12. Post Launch Push 13. Post-Launch Advertising
- 43. 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 9. Redirects, Redirects! 10. Review/Pre-Launch Audit 11. Launch 12. Post Launch Push 13. Post-Launch Advertising 14. Links/Local SEO 43 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT 11. LAUNCH 13. POST-LAUNCH ADVERTISING 2. KEYWORD RESEARCH 5. CONTENT PLANNING 9. REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS! 12. POST-LAUNCH PUSH 14. LINKS/LOCAL SEO 10. REVIEW PRE-LAUNCH AUDIT
- 44. 44 LINKS/LOCAL SEO Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com Things to Do: - Set up Google My Business - Set up / update social profiles - Get existing links updated (SEMrush) - Create a link-earning strategy - Build relationships - Always create great new content (and market it) 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 9. Redirects, Redirects! 10. Review/Pre-Launch Audit 11. Launch 12. Post Launch Push 13. Post-Launch Advertising 14. Links/Local SEO
- 45. 1. Branding 2. Keyword Research 3. Sitemap 4. Wireframes 5. Content Planning 6. Content Development 7. Technical Build 8. Content Import 9. Redirects, Redirects! 10. Review/Pre-Launch Audit 11. Launch 12. Post Launch Push 13. Post-Launch Advertising 14. Links/Local SEO 45 1. BRANDING Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 3. SITEMAP 4. WIREFRAMES 6. CONTENT DEVELOPMENT 7. TECHNICAL BUILD 8. CONTENT IMPORT 11. LAUNCH 13. POST-LAUNCH ADVERTISING 2. KEYWORD RESEARCH 5. CONTENT PLANNING 9. REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS, REDIRECTS! 12. POST-LAUNCH PUSH 14. LINKS/LOCAL SEO 10. REVIEW PRE-LAUNCH AUDIT
- 46. SEO Strategies (Recap & Benefits) 46 Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com 1. Keyword Research - Makes Content Development a Breeze A) Understand What/How Users Are Searching B) Informs Sitemap Development A) Ensures Your Users Find Their Way B) Transfers “Credibility” - Easier to Launch a Clean Website - Peace of Mind A) Helps Users Find You B) Gets Your Website to Page 1 2. Content Planning 3. Redirects 4. Pre-Launch Audit 5. Post-Launch Push 6. Links/Local SEO
- 47. 47 MomenticMarketing.com Made in Milwaukee Top 3 Benefits of Incorporating SEO Strategies 1. Learn More About Your Audience 2. Ensure Users Find You 3. Maximize ROI
- 48. 48 Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com THE BRIDGE OLD WEBSITE OR NO WEBSITE NEW (AMAZING) WEBSITE
- 49. 49 Thanks to Our Sponsors! Made in Milwaukee MomenticMarketing.com
- 50. 50 MomenticMarketing.com Made in Milwaukee Questions? info@momenticmarketing.com
Editor's Notes
- [click]
- [Thank Ben] Momentic is an SEO-centric agency. And we’ve been contacted by a good number of potential clients AFTER their new websites have launched. One of the first things we do is look at their Google Analytics data – and it’s very sad when their organic traffic looks like this:
- It’s sad because they’ve spent a lot of money, time and effort building a beautiful new site, but it’s not getting the exposure they’ve hoped for. If you’re wondering what the little annotation is, that’s when this website went live with their redesign.
- This is why we invited you here today. We wanted to put out a general PSA on how to use SEO strategies during a website redesign to help bridge the gap from your old website (or no website) to your new website. It’s so much easier to launch a clean, SEO-friendly website than to go back and clean it up afterward. I’m going to use a bridge as a metaphor for the process of a redesign or new website build, because without following the steps of the process we’ll be talking about, the path to your new website will be treacherous and uncertain…. Okay, so
- each step of the process will represent 1 of 14 slats needed to build a solid bridge.
- First, I will briefly outline the typical process of a website redesign without SEO strategies and then I’ll show you how to seamlessly incorporate specific SEO strategies into your redesign to:
- 1) Learn more about what your target audience is looking for
- 2) Make sure users find their way to your new website
- 3) And to maximize the investment of building a new website
- Let’s dig into the typical process of redesigning a website without incorporating SEO strategies.
- As one of the most important parts of marketing your business, branding takes place before everything else and all marketing strategies must first align with the branding you’ve established. This may have already been done if you are redesigning your website, but it’s always the first step. I’m not a branding expert, so this is where I stop talking about it.
- Before I go any further, I’d like to call out the gaps you’ll see in our bridge as we go through the process of a website redesign WITHOUT SEO strategies. These will get filled in later when we start to incorporate SEO strategies. You’ll also see that the list on the screen resembles the bridge graphic from a few slides ago...
- [click]
- And here’s where we’re at so far.
- So, creating a sitemap is something you or your designer may do. It helps you visualize the information architecture & structure of your website. This is an important step in that it helps you figure out the pages that are necessary on your new website.
- Once you’ve finalized the structure of your new website, you’ll likely put together a wireframe in efforts to streamline your users’ journeys.
- Next, you’ll start creating content for the pages you’ve finalized in the sitemap phase.
- All this while, behind the scenes your web developers have been working hard on building the website.
- Once the website has been built, content starts getting uploaded and the website. This is an exciting time for you because all of your hard work starts taking shape into something tangible!
- Next, you’ll review your website to make sure everything looks good before it goes live. This one’s a half-plank and you’ll find out why in a few minutes.
- Once all the small details are ironed out, the website goes live.
- After the site goes live, you work on post-launch advertising, including traditional media, social channels, paid ads, etc.
- As you can see, there are multiple places along our bridge where our users can fall off. We’re going to fill these gaps with SEO strategies to ensure you get the maximum benefit of building a new website.
- So, let’s get to it and bridge the gaps with 5 ½ SEO strategies.
- The first gap is filled by keyword research.
- Keyword Research is probably the strategy our clients get the most excited about. It tells you exactly what topics your users are interested in (and how they’re searching on them). In addition to assisting other SEO strategies that we’ll discuss later; keyword research will help you make decisions about the what pages should exist on the website (it informs the sitemap phase) It can also help you fill gaps in your wireframes.
- You can get data from Google Analytics, Google Search Console and Google AdWords. In fact, that’s usually the first place we start. After that, it’s a good idea to see what your competitors are discussing and targeting on their websites. And to make sure you get all of the available data, make sure you check out keyword suggestion tools (like SEMrush and Keywords Everywhere) and Google Trends. Like this and all of the other strategies we’ll discuss, there’s so much more to it. Feel free to ask questions during the Q and A in a bit. If you’re building a website from scratch, unfortunately you’re going to be limited to the data sources below the line.
- Once you have the data from all of the available sources, the first step is to prioritize them by sorting them into primary and secondary topics. We’ll talk more about this in a minute. The second step is to map the primary topics to specific pages. This helps make the sitemap and wireframe steps more data-driven. By the way, before any part of the website starts getting built, make sure you lock down your staging server. You don’t want search engines crawling and indexing those URLs.
- The next slat on the bridge is content planning...
- You have a sitemap, keyword research and the wireframes in your back pocket, so now it’s a good idea to plan what shape the content will take. Each of these will help inform the content planning process.
- I’ll briefly go over what our content planning process usually looks like. First, you’ll start with a list of all the pages on your website. Use your sitemap for this. Next, you’ll choose a primary topic/keyword for each page based on the data you’ve collected and prioritized in the keyword research phase. Now, you’ll reference your keyword research again to see what additional topics (related to the primary topic of each page) should exist on each page. For example, if you have a page on your website about oranges, it might be a good idea to discuss orange trees, Florida oranges, California oranges and so on. Additionally, we like to search the primary topic on Google to see what subtopics other websites are discussing on their pages. After you determine all of the secondary topics that will exist on each page, use them to help plan out the content’s structure. Are some topics more relevant and more important than others? If so, those should exist closer to the top of the page. A good rule of thumb is to write website content like a newspaper article – with the most important information first. Note that we usually recommend that the primary topic is used in the Meta Title, Meta Descriptions, H1 Tag, throughout the body copy and in image ALT tags if possible. We hear questions about how long content should be all the time. The best way to decide how long your content should be is to search the primary topic on Google to see how long the top-ranking content is. The best way to the top of search engines is to write better (and more in depth) content than competitors. Lastly, you’ll want to reference your wireframe to determine what internal pages you need to link to from each page. Generally, in-text links carry more weight (than navigation or footer links) for search engines because they are unique references to internal pages.
- Let’s summarize the content planning process. Your sitemap will help you list out all of the pages you’ll need content for. Your keyword research will help you determine the primary and secondary topics for each of your pages. And your wireframes will help you plan out your internal linking strategy between pages on your website. This process helps make the content development phase more straightforward.
- Now, let pause and check out our process so far. We have over half a solid bridge! So, after the content is imported in step 8, you’ll probably want to move on to the website review……..But hold on...
- I know, super dramatic. 1978 movie, Convoy about CB radios and the woes of being a trucker in the SW. Redirects are so important and they will be put in place to literally bridge users from your old content to your new content. So, after your new content is imported, you’ll want to focus on planning and implementing redirects. Redirects hold incredible power. And if they aren’t correctly implemented, your website’s traffic may end up looking like that… truck
- If you’re building a new website from scratch, you don’t have to worry about this one. More times than not, URLs change during a website redesign, so 1-to-1 permanent redirects are one of the most important aspects to shore up before launch. Your old URLs should have a 1 to 1 counterpart on the new website, so set up permanent redirects to map the old URL to the new URL. Some benefits of correctly implemented redirects include: One. They’ll help users land on the correct page if they click a link, bookmark or search engine result that references an old URL. And Two. Redirects help transfer the credibility your website has built up over the years. 2 of the factors of how search engines determine credibility is, ONE the age of your website and TWO the quality and quantity of links from other websites pointing to yours. What redirects do is tell search engines that “hey, this new page over here replaces this old page I used to have over here”. Some things to watch out for include: bulk redirects to the homepage or another page. These can be considered “soft 404” errors and search engines will know that you’re not providing the best experience for your users. Google has said if you redirect pages that don’t have a 1:1 relationship, it will treat them as 404s anyway. Also, be on the lookout for temporary redirects, as these won’t send the right signals to search engines. Watch out for redirect chains. Redirect chains are URLs that pass through two or more redirects before resolving at the final URL. It’s bad user experience and it’s against best practices. Lastly, make sure all “variations” of your URLs point to the version you’re using. There are at least 4 versions of every URL: www, non-www, http, and https. In today’s world, every new website should launch on a secure server, so make sure the http variations permanently redirect there. As far as WWW and non-WWW, there’s no preference from an SEO point-of-view, just make sure the variation you’re not using is permanently redirected to the version you are using.
- Okay, so now the developers have finished building the website, your new content has been imported and redirects have been installed. It’s time to move on to the site review and pre-launch audit. You’ve probably been waiting in anticipation to find out why the “review” and “pre-launch audit” steps are half planks on our “bridge graphic”. The reason for this is that they’ll essentially happen at the same time.
- In addition to your website review, here are a few things to be on the lookout for: Internal Redirects – the most common culprit is when old content is imported to the website. Make sure you check all links on the website: including ones that exist in body copy. A wonderful paid tool we use here is called Screaming Frog However, there are some free Browser extensions out there. Linking to pages that don’t exist – or 404 errors. If you do come across some of these, I’d suggest looking back at your redirect list just to make sure you have all old URLs accounted for. You’ll want to make sure your XML sitemap(s) are set up correctly. [EXPLAIN WHAT AN XML SITEMAP IS] You’ll want to make sure your XML sitemap references all of the URLs you want indexed and doesn’t reference URLs you don’t want indexed by search engines. Make sure your images are only as big as you need them. I always recommend compressing them as well - before they’re uploaded into the CMS. Compressor.io is a tool I like a lot. If it’s not done already, get your Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager Accounts set up. It’s much easier to launch a clean website than to go back and clean it up after launch. We find it normally takes just a couple days to identify the issues above and fix them.
- After you’ve fixed the issues you identified in the Review and Pre-Launch Audit phase, you launch the website. You’re very excited to see all of the hard work turn into something the whole world can see and you really want to celebrate. Wait. Not quite yet. Almost! There are some Post-Launch things to take care of first.
- It’s a good idea to check to make sure that the website launched as you expected it to. We’re calling this phase the “Post Launch Push”
- Some things you should check the new live site for include: Making sure your robots.txt file is updated to allow search engines to find and crawl the site. [EXPLAIN WHAT A ROBOTS.TXT FILE IS] Next, run a quick SiteSpeed and Mobile Usability report. Google has good tools for these. Use Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to submit the sitemap locations to Search Engines. Set up event tracking in Google Tag Manager and goal tracking in Google Analytics Sixth, monitor Google’s index to see if the changes to your pages get indexed. Lastly, double check all internal links to make sure they are pointing where they should be.
- The last phase to bridge the gap from your old website to your new website is ensuring links from other websites are pointing to the right version of your website. Additionally, high-quality links are what’s going to get your website to page one of Google.
- Set up your GMB if you have a storefront. Set up/update social profiles Research your own link profile (I use SEMrush) to see if there are any strong links that need to be updated. If so, reach out to the people that run those sites. Look at competitor link profiles to look for strategies & opportunities. Build an outreach strategy from this. I use SEMrush for this as well. Once you’ve put together an outreach strategy, build relationships with the people that run the blogs, industry influencing websites, etc. that’d you want a link from. Create new, high-quality content regularly. You can’t get good links without good content! And to spend time marketing it. Often times when we hit the publish button, and we feel we’re done with the content. BUT you should spend as much time marketing it as you do writing it.
- Let’s zoom out to see our whole process now.
- Now let’s recap the SEO strategies we’ve covered. First was Keyword Research. It helps you understand what users are searching for and how they’re searching for it. It also helps make the sitemap development more straightforward. Next was Content Planning. It uses the sitemap, wireframes and keyword research. The goal of content planning is to make content development a breeze. Third was Redirects. They are really important so that users find their way if they try to access an old URL. They also ensure your new site gets the historical “credit” that the old website did. Fourth was the Pre-Launch Audit. This is important to do because it’s so much easier to launch a clean website than to go back and fix issues later. Next was the “Post-Launch Push”. This is important to do because you’ll want to make sure everything launched as expected. Last was links and local SEO. The first benefit of this is to offer an additional way for users to find you. The second benefit is that it can help build trust with search engines - ultimately helping your site rank higher for the queries you want. So there’s A LOT of benefits listed there. Let’s choose the 3 best benefits of them.
- 1) Learn more about what your target audience is looking for 2) You’ll make sure users find their way to your new website 3) And you’ll maximize the investment of building a new website
- SEO is really important to include when you’re redesigning or building a new website. I really hope this helps on your next website redesign or build. [Thanks]
- Hey! Make sure you click to the next slide :)
- Top 3 Strategies: Redirects Keyword Research Robots.txt File Paid Tools: SCREAMING FROG - $99/year SEMrush - $99/month, however there’s a free. As with any tool, you need to know how to use it correctly. Spend some time with it to learn it if you’re serious. Tension between Design and SEO? Balance, however we’ve used testing approach before. Not good Equivalent Pages? 410 is best practice.