Question

Should you wait a specific amount of time to do SEO after you do a website redesign?  

Answer 1

The client was using godaddy SEO and wanted me to keep all her existing SEO. Now she wants to stop using godaddy and wants me to do it.  

Comments

1) GoDaddy doesn't do SEO. 2) Do you know how to do SEO?  

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@boatload godaddy was doing her SEO. She was paying them $600 a month. Not sure how they do it but they were ranking her. I do basic SEO on page, I’d like to learn more.  

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@lamar Wow she was getting ripped off. GoDaddy's SEO is garbage. I see they have increased their prices drastically though. I wouldn't recommend learning SEO on a real business website. Build your own sites and learn that way before you start messing with people's livelihoods.  

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@boatload lol. Yeah that’s what I told her. Yeah not to worry. I know enough not to mess it up and I don’t charge what you pros charge so I’m not messing with anyone’s livelihood.  

Answer 2

No. SEO should be baked into the web design.  

Answer 3

Diego, all your on-site stuff should be done while doing the re-design.  

Answer 4

Client didn’t pay for that. Just a website redesign.  

Answer 5

I think sometimes it depends. Of course, SEO should be thought of at every step of the way, but depending of your niche and the local aspects of your business, sometimes you don't need to put "as much" effort in SEO for some terms and some contents. It could be a good choice, sometimes, to do a basic work at first, let settle the keywords and see which of them we prioritize, depending on the competition and the actual ranking of our website, so to not put all our resources to optimize for terms for which we "instinctively" already rank for.  

Answer 6

You should be incorporating SEO WHILE you’re designing your site

Comments

@laufer yes I understand this but the client didn’t want this at the time.  

Answer 7

If you've got stucked in a 2004 - 2009 loop, and by SEO you mean buying PBN baclinks, yes, you should wait an hour or two.  

Answer 8

We've been brought in as SEO tech lead with agencies on the redesign /rebrands because they will possibly lose all the "link juice" you have pending how the design fits into the search engine algorithms or the other new number of things that may come up with the redesign or re brand. The new platform for the new redesign. For example; ruby instead of Wordpress, HTML instead of Wordpress, a new layer of js, or CSS, modules, widgets, plugins, blah. blah. New redesign new images, the new weight of images and loading of new programming under the hood. We've seen many disaster signals because SEO was not needed in their new launch. Oops!  

Comments

Indeed, someone can just come in and fix it later, right? :P

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@vasodilator Yeah man! I mean it is just a few buttons :)

Answer 9

Baked In SEO

Answer 10

If you didn’t do SEO while building the site you should start over.  

Comments

@loewi164 exactly. So should I wait until her site is naturally crawled so I have a comparison of before and after.  

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@lamar yes yes yes yes yes. you need to do all your "on page SEO" url optimization, 301 redirects, meta titles and descriptions, sitemap optimization, robots. txt optimization. Sumbmit sitemap to GSC Crawl homepage Do a site health audit in Ahrefs or semrush Wait to see what is indexed and what isnt. That step on one getting indexed. You need to segment the termSEO. Onpage optimization Load speed optimization Crawablity optimization CTR optimization of meta data Fix site errors that prevent or pain indexing and user experience Content marketing Search engine marketing

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@hora77577 thanks for all the info . The question is. How long should I wait before I start the on page SEO. Should I give it a week or two so I have a comparison?  

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@lamar on page SEO should be done when a site is being built. if it hasn't been done then right away. Focus first on meta titles and descriptions. Control what is being indexed such as categories and tags and custom post types. What should be no index follow Speed optimization User experience optimization Content optimization title tags keyword optimization

Answer 11

Yes - minus 6 months.  

Comments

Sent you a message @vanda :)

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@meretricious not cool dude. I don't want your course. Please don't spam me

Answer 12

Best would be to have an seo migration plan that is built into the staging site before the new site goes live.  

Answer 13

Before the site is launched and a solid migration plan

Answer 14

@lamar No begin right away.  

Answer 15

SEO > web build > SEO.  

Answer 16

You should build it into the design before it even goes to programming. Once it's live then start building links as Google sees that as more natural (links going to a blank or coming soon page. not good)

Answer 17

Guess this thread means there’s more work for SEOs. #ranklossmitigation #websitemigration #whytheheckwouldanyonerebuildasitewithoutseobestpracticesin2020omgggggg

Answer 18

On page takes up to a few days to fix. Links take months or even years. Always build links

Answer 19

Before the redesign starts!  

Answer 20

Ok so all you need to make sure is that you don't change the URLs. Keep them the same and you won't lose any ranking as long as the content matches.  

Comments

@torque2 thanks. That’s what I did. Same content just different layout.  

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@lamar Made sure URLs didn't change?  

Answer 21

Thanks everyone for your thoughts on this. It’s much appreciated. I think people are not understanding the question. The website is already done and live with the existing SEO that the client did. It’s been kept at her request because she didn’t want me to do SEO at the start of the redesign. Now she wants me to do SEO. The question is. should I wait 1-2 weeks to see what her analytics are now to compare it to the SEO changes I make?  

Comments

Um if you can get a good comparison in 1-2 weeks, you're an SEO god.  

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@torque2 ok so how long do you recommend I tell her to wait for me to start the SEO?  

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@lamar No I'm not saying you should wait. You should start immediately. What I'm saying is that if you start work immediately, if you see any results in 1-2 weeks you're a beast.  

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@torque2 Ok thanks that what I wanted to know. I didn't tell her anything about when she would see results. I was just wondering for myself if it was better to wait a couple weeks to start doing SEO so she might see a difference in her SEO compared to mine.  

Answer 22

When you say “redesign” what do you actually mean? What changes are you making? Is it purely aesthetic? Are you changing the CMS? Why are you redesigning the site? What are the objectives? Increase conversions?  

Comments

The client had a crappy looking site. So I made it look nice. She wanted to keep her SEO that she did herself so I did that. The site is complete and redesigned and live. Now she wants me to do her SEO so we haven't even discussed any goals yet.  

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Ok so it sounds like it was updated for design reasons, which is fine. In answer to your question above Diego, SEO done right should always be (as I said above) SEO > web build > SEO. That means performing keyword research, assessing search behavior, reverse engineering competitors and mapping out site structure, and key elements, before you even begin thinking about design. Most people unfortunately get it wrong, and this is something i hear from business owners all the time when they call me enquiring about SEO "John, we've just finished building our site, were now ready to start SEO" and when I look at the site its an absolute mess. Telling a business owner that they've just wasted $15, 000 and we need to pull the site apart and start over isnt a great conversation to have. I always say, building a site first then thinking about SEO is like building a house then asking an architect to draw up plans - its totally backwards. Another thing that should have been considered (which Im sure you're probably well aware of) is having an indepth understanding of - a) the clients target audience b) the message c) site objectives (leads, sales, signups, downloads, optins etc) Once you have a good understanding of these things - the design should wrap around that as well. Again a lot of business owners get lost in the trivial stuff - "Make the logo look nice" "Put a bowl of fruit on the homepage" "Show two elderly people holding hands on the beach" Anyway, I think you get my point. I havent read all the comments above and Im sure there might be a few people saying "wait" "dont change the URl structure" etc, but most of that is nonsense. If you're thinking about SEO, you should be thinking about doing whatever you need to in order to get results. 99% of the time that means pulling stuff apart and putting it back together so that it works. And that doesnt mean "undoing" any of the clients work, it simply means enhancing it. By the way, that concerns me a bit when you say "She wanted to keep her SEO that she did herself".  

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@meretricious I hear you. They always want the SEO after. Perhaps I didn't do a good job of convincing her. but she was happy with GoDaddy SEO? paying $600 a month for well over a year? Finally, she says she wants me to do the SEO now. Do you teach the assessing search behavior, reverse engineering competitors and mapping out site structure in your courses?  

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@lamar yes I do. I would be cautious with the GoDaddy stuff. If it’s anything like they’re other services I’d be concerned.  

Answer 23

When you say "do her seo" and "kept the SEO she did" what exactly do you mean?  

Comments

She used All in one SEO and put in a bunch of junk. Keyword stuffing. Meta descriptions and Titles etc. When I do her SEO I'll do keyword research and all that other jazz. Basic local SEO