12 SEO mistakes when relaunching a website

Relaunching a website is a critical undertaking that can have far-reaching effects on the visibility and user experience of an online presence. While renewal has the potential to improve technical performance and update content, there are numerous pitfalls lurking in the process. From indexing to internal linking to mobile optimization – the list of SEO-relevant aspects that need to be taken into account is long. This article highlights the twelve most common SEO mistakes that can occur when relaunching a website and offers practical solutions to avoid them. The aim is to create awareness of the complexity of the relaunch process and to lay the foundation for a successful website overhaul.

1. Indexing error

Incorrect indexing of pages when relaunching a website can have negative consequences, both for search engine optimization and for the user experience.

• Loss of search engine rankings: If pages that were ranked high in search results before the relaunch are not indexed correctly, this may result in a loss of visibility in search engines. This, in turn, can result in a decrease in organic traffic.
• Duplicate Content: Incorrect changes can lead to duplicate content issues when both old and new URLs are picked up by search engines. This can affect SEO performance because search engines cannot tell which version of the page is more relevant or up-to-date.
• Impairment of website structure: Proper indexing is critical to presenting the website structure to search engines. Failure to do so can impact search engines’ ability to effectively crawl the site and highlight relevant pages in search results.

To avoid or resolve these problems, the following measures are recommended:

• Plan carefully before relaunching: Ensure that all old URLs are properly redirected to the corresponding new URLs to minimize loss of SEO value.
• Monitor crawl errors: Use tools like Google Search Console to identify and resolve errors while crawling the site.
• Update Sitemap: Make sure the sitemap is up to date and submitted correctly to search engines to make it easier to index the new pages.
• Check content: Check content for duplicates and ensure new pages are unique and relevant to promote good search rankings.

 

2. Missing 301 redirects

When relaunching a website, 301 redirects are an important step that is often overlooked. The absence of these redirects can lead to duplicate content as both the old and new versions of the website remain accessible. This causes competition between the two versions, which can negatively impact search engine rankings. Canonical tags serve as a temporary solution; they signal the preferred page to the search engines. The 301 redirects provide a more effective solution by alerting search engines that the original content has been permanently moved to a new location. The advantage of this is that the new site can benefit from the old site’s rankings and backlinks, allowing for a seamless transfer of link authority. Another problem is deleting old pages without setting up redirects, which results in a 404 status code. As a result, any backlinks pointing to the old site lose their value and do not contribute to the authority and ranking of the new site. 301 redirects keep the connection between the old and new pages and successfully pass on link authority.

3. Keyword optimization

A website relaunch is an excellent opportunity to rethink and optimize your keyword strategy. However, it is not uncommon for this opportunity to be missed by removing the keywords for which there are already good search engine rankings from the content of the newly designed page. Such an approach carries the risk of losing valuable rankings. To combat this, it is crucial to consider comprehensive keyword research as an integral part of the relaunch process. The goal should be to identify which terms are important to the target group and how they can be effectively integrated into the new page content. This not only helps maintain visibility in search results, but also improves it.

4. Incorrect redirects

When relaunching a website, setting up redirects correctly is essential to avoid loss of rankings. Incorrect redirects, such as incorrect status codes or inappropriate destination URLs, can affect your online presence.

• Understanding status codes: A 301 status code signals a permanent change and is suitable for most website relaunches because it informs search engines that the old page has been permanently replaced by a new one. A 302 status code, on the other hand, indicates a temporary change and should only be used in specific situations.
• Targeted redirects: In order to maintain visibility, it is important not to redirect old pages to the homepage, but to new pages with appropriate content. This helps maintain page relevance and ranking.
• Avoiding redirect chains: Direct redirects from old to new pages are more efficient than redirect chains, which can drain crawl budgets and reduce loading speed. Careful planning and implementation of redirects contributes significantly to the success of a website relaunch.

5. Meta snippets

Unused meta snippets are a common cause of loss of rankings after a website relaunch. If crucial keywords no longer appear in the page titles or the meta descriptions are missing, this can significantly reduce the findability of the pages despite correct indexing. Even if the meta information may not have been optimally designed before the website was revised and optimization is only planned afterwards, it is essential to at least adopt it in its original form. It becomes particularly problematic if the meta snippets are completely missing after the relaunch or are identical across all pages. The page title, as a significant ranking factor, plays a crucial role in visibility in search results. It is therefore essential to ensure that the meta data on the new website is filled out correctly and completely. Careful use of these snippets will not only help with ranking, but will also improve the user experience by providing clear and concise information about the content of the page.

6. Neglecting the content

Content is the heart of every SEO strategy. However, a website relaunch carries the risk of neglecting content, which can include removing high-quality content, changing content that is already ranking well, or failing to create new, targeted content. To avoid such mistakes, conducting a content audit is essential. This process helps ensure that existing, high-quality content is maintained and new content is developed that meets both user needs and the requirements of effective search engine optimization.

7. Empty content and placeholders

A website relaunch not only serves to update old content and adapt the page structure, but also to integrate new content. It often happens that placeholder pages or texts are used that still need to be filled with content. It is crucial that all content is complete and carefully maintained before the new website goes live. Posting a lot of blank pages online, which may only have an H1 heading, or pages that are filled with only “lorem ipsum” text, can affect the performance of the entire website. Such pages offer no added value for the user and are classified by search engines as “thin content”. In order to prevent ranking losses, it is essential to take enough time to maintain all content adequately and comprehensively. This ensures that the website is not only valuable in terms of content, but also search engine friendly.

8. Internal links

Internal linking structure is a critical factor in a website’s SEO performance. Pages with a high number of internal links are usually rated as more important by search engines than those that are only sparsely linked. A relaunch can cause subpages that were previously well integrated into the network of internal links to lose their connection, especially if they are removed from the main menu. A significant reduction in internal links may affect the visibility and performance of these pages. While making adjustments to website structure during a relaunch makes sense, it is crucial to be aware of the impact on link relevance and therefore SEO performance. Before the revised website goes live, it should therefore be checked whether all essential content is still accessible via the navigation or whether an alternative internal link has been created for previously linked content. Careful handling of the internal linking structure helps to minimize potential losses in search engine rankings.

9. Canonical links

Incorrect canonicals are a common problem with website relaunches. Although intended to solve duplicate content problems, they can exacerbate the situation if used improperly. A common error is that URLs of the test environment are still entered in the canonical tags. When the new website is published, these should be replaced with the final URLs. Otherwise, the canonical tags could point to test environment pages that are no longer accessible or redirect to the final URLs. Search engines like Google could still crawl these bad URLs and potentially include them in the index. It is therefore essential to carefully check when the new website goes live whether the URLs in the source code - especially canonicals and meta-robots instructions - have been correctly updated to the final link targets. Correct configuration of canonical links is crucial to effectively avoid duplicate content and ensure the SEO performance of the website.

10. Problems with SSL certificate

When switching to HTTPS or moving domains to another server, the correct integration and release of the SSL certificate is crucial. A missing or incorrectly configured SSL certificate can cause significant problems, especially if it is not deployed in time for the new website to go live. Without a valid SSL certificate, a website cannot be delivered securely over the HTTPS protocol, resulting in warning messages in the browser for users. Such error messages can deter visitors and undermine confidence in the website’s security. Search engine crawlers also rate the lack of an SSL certificate negatively, which can lead to losses in visibility and rankings. To avoid such problems, it is essential to carefully plan and implement SSL certificate integration when moving servers or switching to HTTPS. Ensures that the certificate is not only included but also shared correctly to ensure a secure and trusted connection for all website visitors and crawlers.

11. Analysis before the relaunch

A critical mistake often made when relaunching a website is failing to conduct pre- and post-measurements of SEO performance. A thorough SEO analysis before relaunching the site serves to establish a performance baseline against which subsequent results can be measured. After the relaunch, a new analysis allows the impact of the changes made to be assessed. Without these comparative measurements, there is no basis to evaluate the success of the relaunch or to identify which areas of the website may need further optimization. Such analyzes are essential to ensure that the goals pursued by the relaunch are achieved and the overall performance of the website is improved.

12. Test phase

A comprehensive testing phase before a website relaunch officially goes live is essential to ensure the site is free of errors that could impact SEO performance. This phase is designed to check the website for a variety of potential issues, including broken links, 404 errors, duplicate content, and mobile optimization difficulties. By omitting such a test phase, you risk that these errors remain undetected and are only noticed after the go-live. Not only can this negatively impact the user experience, but it can also have a significant impact on the website’s ranking in search engine results. Carefully reviewing and correcting these issues during the testing phase will help secure the website’s SEO performance and ensure optimal results after relaunch.

Conclusion

A website relaunch goes beyond aesthetic upgrades and represents an opportunity to fundamentally improve SEO performance. These SEO mistakes show the complexity of the challenges associated with a relaunch. By paying attention to these sources of error and implementing proven SEO strategies, you can not only ensure the website’s visibility in search engines, but also optimize the user experience. Careful planning, conducting comprehensive tests and continuously monitoring SEO metrics are essential to ensure the long-term success of the relaunch. We would be happy to support you with this Relaunch your website, please contact us for a free initial consultation.