undefined
Skip to content
Moz logo Menu open Menu close
  • Products
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Pro Home
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Home
    • STAT
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Home
    • Compare SEO Products
    • Moz Data
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis
    • Keyword Explorer
    • Link Explorer
    • Competitive Research
    • MozBar
    • More Free SEO Tools
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO
    • SEO Learning Center
    • Moz Academy
    • SEO Q&A
    • Webinars, Whitepapers, & Guides
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Digital Marketers
    • Agency Solutions
    • Enterprise Solutions
    • Small Business Solutions
    • The Moz Story
    • New Releases
  • Log in
  • Log out
  • Products
    • Moz Pro

      Your all-in-one suite of SEO essentials.

    • Moz Local

      Raise your local SEO visibility with complete local SEO management.

    • STAT

      SERP tracking and analytics for enterprise SEO experts.

    • Moz API

      Power your SEO with our index of over 44 trillion links.

    • Compare SEO Products

      See which Moz SEO solution best meets your business needs.

    • Moz Data

      Power your SEO strategy & AI models with custom data solutions.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Free SEO Tools
    • Domain Analysis

      Get top competitive SEO metrics like DA, top pages and more.

    • Keyword Explorer

      Find traffic-driving keywords with our 1.25 billion+ keyword index.

    • Link Explorer

      Explore over 40 trillion links for powerful backlink data.

    • Competitive Research

      Uncover valuable insights on your organic search competitors.

    • MozBar

      See top SEO metrics for free as you browse the web.

    • More Free SEO Tools

      Explore all the free SEO tools Moz has to offer.

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic
    Moz Pro

    NEW Keyword Suggestions by Topic

    Learn more
  • Learn SEO
    • Beginner's Guide to SEO

      The #1 most popular introduction to SEO, trusted by millions.

    • SEO Learning Center

      Broaden your knowledge with SEO resources for all skill levels.

    • On-Demand Webinars

      Learn modern SEO best practices from industry experts.

    • How-To Guides

      Step-by-step guides to search success from the authority on SEO.

    • Moz Academy

      Upskill and get certified with on-demand courses & certifications.

    • MozCon

      Save on Early Bird tickets and join us in London or New York City

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints
    Moz API

    Unlock flexible pricing & new endpoints

    Find your plan
  • Blog
  • Why Moz
    • Digital Marketers

      Simplify SEO tasks to save time and grow your traffic.

    • Small Business Solutions

      Uncover insights to make smarter marketing decisions in less time.

    • Agency Solutions

      Earn & keep valuable clients with unparalleled data & insights.

    • Enterprise Solutions

      Gain a competitive edge in the ever-changing world of search.

    • The Moz Story

      Moz was the first & remains the most trusted SEO company.

    • New Releases

      Get the scoop on the latest and greatest from Moz.

    Surface actionable competitive intel
    New Feature

    Surface actionable competitive intel

    Learn More
  • Log in
    • Moz Pro
    • Moz Local
    • Moz Local Dashboard
    • Moz API
    • Moz API Dashboard
    • Moz Academy
  • Avatar
    • Moz Home
    • Notifications
    • Account & Billing
    • Manage Users
    • Community Profile
    • My Q&A
    • My Videos
    • Log Out

The Moz Q&A Forum

  • Forum
  • Questions
  • Users
  • Ask the Community

Welcome to the Q&A Forum

Browse the forum for helpful insights and fresh discussions about all things SEO.

  1. Home
  2. Digital Marketing
  3. Web Design
  4. Website Redesign - Will it hurt SERP?

Moz Q&A is closed.

After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

Website Redesign - Will it hurt SERP?

Web Design
6
8
3.4k
Loading More Posts
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as question
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with question management privileges can see it.
  • howardd
    howardd last edited by May 8, 2013, 1:30 AM

    Hi - I am planning to redesign my blog and I was wondering if this will affect my rankings?

    The new website template (custom designed) is much more user and seo friendly. The content, url structure, internal linking structure, meta tags, and site structure will remain exactly the same, but the visual design will be different (new sidebar widgets, and slightly different layout on inner pages).

    The current website is ranking very well (mostly top 5), has a healthy backlink profile, strong social media presence, and great traffic.

    I have heard that switching to a new template will dramatically hurt the rankings. Is this true? Are there any exceptions? Any ways I can prevent the rankings from dropping?

    Would really appreciate your input. Thanks in advance.

    Howard

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
    • howardd
      howardd @Webrevolve last edited by May 9, 2013, 1:20 PM May 9, 2013, 1:20 PM

      Matthew, much appreciated.

      Thankfully I don't need to worry about redirects since it's just a transition to a new template. About 90% of the other elements will remain intact.

      Checking webmaster tools after the transition sounds really helpful.

      ps. Thanks to everyone for your great responses!

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
      • howardd
        howardd @MattAntonino last edited by May 9, 2013, 1:14 PM May 9, 2013, 1:14 PM

        Thanks for the detailed answer. This, in itself, could make a great article 🙂

        After reviewing the items you mentioned, I actually realized some of the things I had neglected.

        Apparently after transferring all the content to the demo website, some of the elements had changed, including: date of the posts, H tags, Authors, and few of the meta tags. So glad I caught your response in time to fix those issues.

        For the most part, the new site is an improved version of the current site so if the rankings drop, I'll be surprised.

        After I make the transition, I'll let you know the results. Hopefully this could make a good case scenario for the community.

        Thanks again!

        Howard

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Webrevolve
          Webrevolve last edited by May 8, 2013, 7:19 AM May 8, 2013, 7:19 AM

          I think you have a good approach to this, and so, all things being the same, a refresh of the site should not hurt.

          You mention that "content, url structure, internal linking structure" will all remain the same - if this is true and you keep everything in this bracket 'as-is' then you should be fine.

          The most common reason rankings are lost when implementing a new site is re-directs, or the lack a redirect strategy to be more clear.

          As your site structure / url structure is going to remain in-tack, then you wont really need to consider mass redirects.

          However, here is what I would do just in case:

          Before Launch:

          Create a report of top linked to pages using Open Site Explore

          Create a report of top content from the last few months from Google Analytics

          Map all the URLs from the current site, use screaming from or something

          After Launch:

          Submit XML sitemap to webmaster tool

          Review and improve on-page content

          Monitor traffic in Google analytics, view top content for the period after launch and compare to the report you created prior to launch

          Monitor and fix crawl errors in webmaster tools if any

          Attract new links

          Submit new XML sitemap (two weeks post launch)

          Keep developing great content

          howardd 1 Reply Last reply May 9, 2013, 1:20 PM Reply Quote 1
          • DennisSeymour
            DennisSeymour last edited by May 8, 2013, 5:03 AM May 8, 2013, 5:03 AM

            keep it simple. The work and how much your rankings will change (usually just temporary) will be dependent on what you focus to work on and how big the site is

            Just do things one at a time.

            • Make sure you fix all errors ASAP (images, internal links etc)
            • Redirect the old urls to the new urls
            • Make sure the speed of loading is the same of faster.
            • Basically, just do things quickly and optimise.

            Run screaming frog after and fix all the remaining errors. Youll probably see more errors in webmaster tools once your site gets recrawled but those will probably be easy fixes.

            Remember, just focus and get it done ASAP and youll be fine.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
            • MattAntonino
              MattAntonino last edited by May 21, 2013, 5:29 PM May 8, 2013, 3:48 AM

              This is a tough question to answer.  Technically yes, your SERPs will probably change. Hurt?  That's hard to say.

              I'm going to list a few reasons your SERs may change. I don't want to argue with everyone about which factors matter, etc. but these are some potential reasons your rankings may change (and other SEOs may disagree on which of these actually matter. I'm including them for the sake of completeness and to show that there are MANY reasons a site change will bounce your rankings.)


              These are just some things that may change:

              1) Site speed. You could be faster (better design, fewer big images) or you could be slower (that would hurt your rankings.)

              2) Site structure. If you had a Wordpress site for instance that used to list all your post titles as H2 and your subheadings as H3 and now all your titles are H3, that is likely to at least somewhat affect your structure and yes, you may see some SERP changes.

              3) Code / text ratio/density whatever you want to call it.  Most SEOs will tell you very straightforwardly that "keyword density" is dead. And yet we've tested that this is a moderation thing. If you have a word too many times, you get penalized.  Too few and it's just assumed to be one word among many, not a topic.  The hint is to fall somewhere between say oh I dunno, 2 and 30 for most pages, right?  Now, I've done a test that suggested if the word was on the page say 15 times and that was 2% of the whole page text, it wouldn't be penalized.  Same word, same 15 times, and reduce the extraneous code so it's 10%?  Gets penalized every time.   So while on page keyword density is dead, MY (albeit flawed) study told me that changing code tremendously could affect your keywords if you tend to be on the higher (penalty) end.

              **4) Validation.  **Again, I'm being controversial and I understand many SEOs disagree with this one.  However, you're asking what "may" hurt - and if your site was 100% valid before (or close) and it has a lot of errors now, that would (in my opinion) affect your SEO.

              5) Page Age.  Hurt or help - it's hard to say.  Google normally prefers fresh content so you may actually see some improvements on this.  However, when Google has "seasoned in" your pages and you change them, they aren't always 100% awesome at getting your rank exactly the same after any sort of change or even date update.  (We had a news site for awhile that had ranking issues because older articles would get their "last edited" date updated frequently and Google would often drop older, successful URLs back 3-4 pages when we updated. It made no sense but ... ya, Google.)

              6) Page layout.  Google quality guideliens say that "the page layout on the highest quality pages makes the main content immediately visible."  If your update makes more or less content show up "above the fold" as it were, you may see SERP changes for better or worse.

              7) Breadcrumbs and Navigation.  If your old theme had poor (or amazing) navigation and the new one is opposite, you could see SERP movement for sure. Google loves its breadcrumbs. If you had them and removed them, you could fall a bit.  If you didn't have them and you do now, you could rise.  Breadcrumbs signal good user experience and Google rewards that.

              😎 Mobile optimization.  If the old site wasn't responsive/mobile friendly and the new one is, that could affect your mobile SERPs (and possibly your desktop ones ... depending on how its implemented.)

              9) Analytics. I've posited before that Google must use some data from Analytics - time on site, pages per visit, bounce rate, etc.  .They seem to correlate VERY strongly with my "most visited pages" and those with the highest rank.  I would suggest that if your user experience dramatically improves, your SERPs may as well.

              10) Schema.  You said the structure is essentially remaining the same but if the new one allows for review stars, authorshop markup, photo schema or whatnot, that could improve SERP position.

              howardd 1 Reply Last reply May 9, 2013, 1:14 PM Reply Quote 3
              • JCurrier
                JCurrier @FedeEinhorn last edited by May 8, 2013, 3:19 AM May 8, 2013, 3:19 AM

                Google will have to spider the site before any loss in rankings due to design, right? So, if there is a drop in rankings, it won't necessarily be recovered in a re-index.

                But, so long as there are no errors and the site remains the same structurally and content wise, there shouldn't necessarily be any issue. Even if there are no errors with the new theme as far as SEO goes, if the new design affects the load speed, this could affect the ranking of your page.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • FedeEinhorn
                  FedeEinhorn last edited by May 8, 2013, 1:56 AM May 8, 2013, 1:56 AM

                  That is only truth if the new theme that you are going to use has errors. If it has been SEO'ed and all the content will be the same, you may some rankings decline until Google spiders the new site and re index it. But that shouldn't take very long.

                  You need to think on the users first, will the users love the new site? If they will, then Google will follow, don't worry about that.

                  JCurrier 1 Reply Last reply May 8, 2013, 3:19 AM Reply Quote 1
                  • 1 / 1
                  1 out of 8
                  • First post
                    1/8
                    Last post

                  Got a burning SEO question?

                  Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.


                  Start my free trial


                  Browse Questions

                  Explore more categories

                  • Moz Tools

                    Chat with the community about the Moz tools.

                  • SEO Tactics

                    Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers

                  • Community

                    Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!

                  • Digital Marketing

                    Chat about tactics outside of SEO

                  • Research & Trends

                    Dive into research and trends in the search industry.

                  • Support

                    Connect on product support and feature requests.

                  • See all categories

                  Related Questions

                  • calvinkj

                    Does changing content and design of the website gonna affect my all the backlinks i have made till now

                    i have been working on my link profile for a month now, after learning about 5 step moz methodology i have decided that i would like to change all of the content of my site and taylor it to what my customers need, am i gonna loose all the domain authority if make changes? if it gonna affect, hows that  gonna come out

                    Web Design | Dec 12, 2023, 4:17 PM | calvinkj
                    0
                  • NachoRetta

                    Spanish website indexed in English, redirect to spanish or english version if i do a new website design?

                    Hi MOZ users, i have this problem. We have a website in Spanish Language but Google crawls it on English (it is not important the reasons). We re made the entire website and now we are planning the move. The new website will have different language versions, english, spanish and portuguese. Somebody tells me that we have to redirect the old urls (crawled on english) to the new english versions, not to the spanish (the real language of the firsts). Example: URL1 Language: Spanish - Crawled on English --> redirect to Language English version. the other option will be redirect to the spanish new version, which the visitor is waiting to find. URL1 Language: Spanish - Crawled on English --> redirect to Language Spanish version. What do you think? Which is the better option?

                    Web Design | Nov 25, 2015, 2:03 PM | NachoRetta
                    0
                  • Rebeca1

                    Website title next to a post title-how to remove it?

                    I just have checked on some of the keyword I am ranking for and found in the serp that next to the post I have also the site name. But I thought that I have remove it. Does somebody know how to remove it? perhaps I did not do it correctly. I am also using yoast seo plugin but I do not have it set there to show the site name after posts name. Can somebody help me to fix this please? I have also attached an image from the serp where is behind the post title also Villas Diani-the site name Thank you very much! Iris O1oj4W0.jpg

                    Web Design | Oct 17, 2013, 9:34 AM | Rebeca1
                    0
                  • Tiberiu

                    Does Google penalize duplicate website design?

                    Hello, We are very close to launching five new websites, all in the same business sector. Because we would like to keep our brand intact, we are looking to use the same design on all five websites. My question is, will Google penalize the sites if they have the same design? Thank you! Best regards,
                    Tiberiu

                    Web Design | Mar 21, 2013, 11:20 AM | Tiberiu
                    0
                  • 1SMG

                    3 Brands, 3 Services, 3 Different Websites Right?

                    My client was told that having 1 website for 3 different brands/services is better than having 3 websites. I need your help to prove my value to a new client.  This client has worked with Reach Local on PPC for some time and when they first got started the Reach Local Markering Consultant told this cleint that they needed to have one site for better SEO purposes. The client was told that Google ranks websites higher if they have more paid traffic going to them.  I've been doing this for long enough to realize this does not help ranking, at least not enough to make a difference. Keep in mind this is for 3 different companies.  One company does plumbing, another electrical and the last one does air conditioning.  They also have  4 locations but only two locations have mutliple services opperating out of them.  I understand these 2 location will not have there own Google+ Local / Places listing.  Using the same address for 2 different business and expecting a first page ranking is just not possible. Right now when you visit the clients website you see a logo that rotates with a banner section that follows the logo rotation.  First you see the AC Company and then the Plumbing etc.  I see this as confusing to the end user and it is more work to get it ranked for SEO.  I recommended that we build 3 speerate websites for each service and just list out all the addresses that the company services on the contact page.  I would also design inside the footer links to the other services for branding purposes. Please share your thoughts on how you would handle this if you were doing the SEO for your own 3 different business services. I really appreicate any input/insight to this.  Thank you so much in advance!!!!

                    Web Design | Feb 20, 2013, 7:53 AM | 1SMG
                    0
                  • awalker84

                    Need to rebuild client's flash website

                    I am working with their web designer and need to figure out a way to rebuild their site which is currently all in flash. I was wondering if there was a way to do this without spending a ton of time in completely re-doing the site from scratch.

                    Web Design | Jul 24, 2012, 5:08 AM | awalker84
                    0
                  • RankSurge

                    Does anyone think the <figcaption>attribute from HTML5 will have any influence for image search?</figcaption>

                    There is a <figure>element that is supposed to provide better descriptions of image on the web in HTML5 - do you think that will replace the importance of the "Alt" tag? Link to figcaption description </figure>

                    Web Design | Feb 15, 2012, 4:02 PM | RankSurge
                    2
                  • eseyo

                    Site-wide footer links or single "website credits" page?

                    I see that you have already answered this question before back in 2007 (http://www.seomoz.org/qa/view/2163), but wanted to ask your current opinion on the same question: Should I add a site-wide footer link to my client websites pointing to my website, or should I create a "website credits" page on my clients site, add this to the footer and then link from within this page out to my website?

                    Web Design | Apr 14, 2011, 11:21 AM | eseyo
                    0

                  Get started with Moz Pro!

                  Unlock the power of advanced SEO tools and data-driven insights.

                  Start my free trial
                  Products
                  • Moz Pro
                  • Moz Local
                  • Moz API
                  • Moz Data
                  • STAT
                  • Product Updates
                  Moz Solutions
                  • SMB Solutions
                  • Agency Solutions
                  • Enterprise Solutions
                  Free SEO Tools
                  • Domain Authority Checker
                  • Link Explorer
                  • Keyword Explorer
                  • Competitive Research
                  • Brand Authority Checker
                  • Local Citation Checker
                  • MozBar Extension
                  • MozCast
                  Resources
                  • Blog
                  • SEO Learning Center
                  • Help Hub
                  • Beginner's Guide to SEO
                  • How-to Guides
                  • Moz Academy
                  • API Docs
                  About Moz
                  • About
                  • Team
                  • Careers
                  • Contact
                  Why Moz
                  • Case Studies
                  • Testimonials
                  Get Involved
                  • Become an Affiliate
                  • MozCon
                  • Webinars
                  • Practical Marketer Series
                  • MozPod
                  Connect with us

                  Contact the Help team

                  Join our newsletter
                  Moz logo
                  © 2021 - 2025 SEOMoz, Inc., a Ziff Davis company. All rights reserved. Moz is a registered trademark of SEOMoz, Inc.
                  • Accessibility
                  • Terms of Use
                  • Privacy

                  Looks like your connection to Moz was lost, please wait while we try to reconnect.