After you plan your website redesign, you’ll want to ensure that the act of redesigning your website and going through the transition phase of the site redesign run as smoothly as possible.  We cannot emphasize the importance of planning your website redesign enough.  This is critical if you are thinking of maintaining your presence in the search engines.  Without planning, you can very quickly lose all of your visibility in the search engines.  Believe me, we have seen this happen over and over.  Not planning out your redesign can have an adverse impact on your online future.

So as you move into the transition phase of your redesign,  you need to be kept informed of what is taking place, what’s been acompished and what items still need to be addressed.  You’ll want to have some control over the pace at which the design is happening.  Furthermore you will want to pay attention to detail and ensure that elements of the redesign are not being overlooked or forgotten. 

This reminds me of a story from a few years ago.

Once upon a time, there was a successful Website that decided it needed a new look. Over the last few years this Website had been working with an SEO company who had helped many Search Engine visitors find their way to the Website. Unfortunately, the Website did not tell the SEO Company about its plans before putting its trust into a Design Company.

After the Website had been working with the Design Company for several months, the new look was finished and the Website quickly uploaded it to the internet. But, when the Website took a hard look at its new design it was horrified to discover that it was no longer very usable for its two distinct target audiences. To make matters even worse, the Search Engines were now having a great deal of difficulty in finding and understanding content in the new look.

Fortunately, the Website realized that its old friend the SEO Company could help out and it asked its SEO Company to see what it could do to fix the problems.

The SEO Company sprang into action. It alerted the Website to the technical issues that the new design presented and the technical fixes that could be put into place until the Website was able to get a new design up, for the Website was unable to revert to its original design.

The Website now had to find another Design Company  but this time the Website made it VERY clear to its new designers that they had to work closely with the SEO Company, making sure to follow all of its guidelines and suggestions.

The Usability experts of the SEO Company gathered together to help the Website talk to the two distinct types of visitors it was there to inform. They prepared a report for the Website, showing it the need for two very different paths one for each of its two visitor targets - and the need to have two different sets of keywords and content to appeal to each of the main visitor groups. The Usability experts also showed the Website how to make its navigation, internal linking and new internal search more user-friendly and successful.

After this, the Website, the new designers and the old SEO firm all rolled up their sleeves and set about fixing the Website.

* So, what were the SEO questions that the Website should have asked its designers in the first place?

• How will your design assist us meeting our marketing and corporate objectives? (Of course if the Design Company has not asked you what your objectives are  it will be very hard for them to answer this question.)
   

• How will the new design aid us in reaching our two main target audiences? (Or one, or three, or however main target audiences your website has.)
   

• How do you plan on ensuring that this Website will be found on the major Search Engines? (This will give you an immediate indication of the organic search savvyness of the Design Company  especially if you forward their answer to your SEO Company for review.)
   

• What SEM friendly features do your web designers offer? (Once again, your SEO Company will be able to review the answer to this and will tell you if the designer is organic search savvy or not.)
   

• Are you comfortable working with an SEO Company during the design of this Website?
   

• Do you understand that if you do not follow the suggestions and guidelines of the SEO Company you will not be paid? (OK, this is a little over the top  but after all, even SEO firms can dream.)

Well that was a story from three years ago and you know, to this day similar stories are continuing to happen all across the Web.  The key takeaways from the story are:

• Take your time with the planning stage of your redesign
• Consider SEO and if you are working with an SEO firm, bring them in at the beginning of the redesign planning stage
• Consider your target and your website users.  These are the people who are ultimately going to decide if your websie redesign is a success.  It’s one thing if a user cannot find your site in the search engines, it’s another thing if they can find your site but they do not engage with it.

Be in control of your website redesign.  Do not let your design company tell you to do this or to do that.  For that matter do not necessarily let your SEO firm tell you to do this or do that.  Educate your team on what the goals are for your site.  If you trust your SEO/online marketing team, bring them in early to provide feedback and recommendations.  Most importanlty take your time and consider the needs of your visitors/customers.