SEO Best Practices During a Website Launch
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The document provides a comprehensive guide on maintaining SEO during website projects, highlighting the importance of SEO best practices in website relaunches to avoid significant traffic losses. It outlines the timeline for integrating SEO into the web development process, along with detailed launch support checklists to ensure optimal performance and visibility post-launch. Additionally, it addresses common pitfalls and offers recommendations for tools and strategies to support SEO efforts effectively.
SEO Best Practices During a Website Launch
- 1. Protecting Your SEO During a Website Project www.V9Digital.com
- 2. YES We will send a recording + a copy of the slides to all registered webinar attendees, so you don’t have to take crazy notes :)
- 3. Another Note We can’t predict every situation you *might* be in (CMS, length of website launch, domain consolidation, etc.) - so please ask us questions throughout!
- 4. Hello, We are a Denver-based digital marketing agency that has had the opportunity to help brands & marketers grow organically for almost two decades. SOCIAL MEDIA SEO CONTENT ANALYTICS
- 6. SEO During a Website Launch Why this has consistently been one of the top reasons we get new clients for the last decade…
- 7. Google Hates Relaunches Without SEO Best Practices This Ecomm brand went from 4 million organic users to 2 million after a relaunch - this represented MILLIONS in lost revenue This is when they finally hired us.
- 8. Google Sandboxes a lot of New Websites This ecomm site with 50+ products launched here (all unique content) Google finally started indexing the website here
- 9. Google’s Real Fussy About Website Launches In Short
- 10. How SEO Fits into the Process Where does SEO fit in the traditional website launch timeline?
- 11. The Typical Website Process How SEO Fits Into the Process RFP & Firm Selection Content Structure & Review Wireframes Design Dev Site Launch & Testing
- 12. When to add SEO…Ok But Not Great How SEO Fits Into the Process RFP & Firm Selection Content Structure & Review Wireframes Design Dev Site Launch & Testing Dev Site Crawl 2-4 weeks ahead of launch
- 13. …Better (at least 60 days from launch) How SEO Fits Into the Process RFP & Firm Selection Content Structure & Review Wireframes Design Dev Site Launch & Testing Dev Site Crawl 2-4 weeks ahead of launch SEO gives input on Wireframes & Design +
- 14. …Best How SEO Fits Into the Process RFP & Firm Selection Content Structure & Review Wireframes Design Dev Site Launch & Testing Dev Site Crawl 2-4 weeks ahead of launch SEO gives input on Wireframes & Design + SEO involved on scope & content strategy & architecture +
- 15. Really Not Ideal How SEO Fits Into the Process RFP & Firm Selection Content Structure & Review Wireframes Design Dev Site Launch & Testing Crap! Our SEO tanked, let’s get someone to figure out why
- 16. Annnnd….Don’t Bother How SEO Fits Into the Process RFP & Firm Selection Content Structure & Review Wireframes Design Dev Site Launch & Testing Crap! Our SEO tanked, let’s ignore it for now Hey it’s been a year since the website launched, let’s do the post-launch SEO stuff now
- 17. Let’s get to the guts of it! Launch Support Checklist
- 18. A Lot of Text On Slides Is Forthcoming… Fair Warning
- 19. Launch Support Template Gift For you! https://www.v9digital.com/ launch-checklist/
- 20. Include into Your Scope Launch Support Checklist - SEO basics (metadata optimization, etc) - Blog / resource section (even if it stays in draft for now) - 301 redirect mapping - Sitespeed/performance optimization (e.g. minified scripts) - SEO Plugins (e.g. SEO by Yoast for Wordpress) - Site security best practices - Plenty of support the week of launch for troubleshooting & fixes
- 21. Before you Sign the Contract… Launch Support Checklist - Have a clear understanding of who is responsible for content strategy and new content development - Account for 4+ weeks for dev site reviews and feedback - Try to avoid a custom CMS over more standard technology like Wordpress, Hubspot, Shopify, Big Commerce etc. unless there is a compelling technological need - Ask about their SEO background, ask for a site you can checkout for how SEO went through the launch.
- 22. During the Redesign Process Launch Support Checklist Review new content architecture to ensure old content isn’t lost and new content isn’t too similar to existing Ensure design allows for text on pages Ensure there is a full & clear navigation ○ Don’t let critical content get buried URLs are clean, straightforward & don’t change unless necessary Technical SEO crawl of the dev site
- 23. Pre-Launch (7-21 Days Before) Launch Support Checklist Full crawl of current site for backups (URLs, titles, metas) Title and meta description check on the new site Google Analytics installed on new site (<24hrs prior to launch) Copy of Robots.txt file Copy of any existing redirects Copy of existing alt image tags Copy of existing structured data Page speed insights check of major page
- 24. Day Of Launch Launch Support Checklist Check robots.txt for index blocking Check for no-index Run full crawl of new site (compare to old) Check title tag/metas Manually check a few redirects Check for Google Analytics properly tracking If applicable, submit new sitemap in GSC Annotate new site launch in Google Analytics Page speed insights check of major pages Pause paid traffic sources until migration is complete, update ad destination URLs before relaunching Make sure the dev site isn't live or indexed
- 25. Post Launch (4 Weeks After) Launch Support Checklist GSC monitoring for drops in impressions/clicks GSC monitor for drop/increase in indexed pages Monitor for rankings drops Monitor for traffic drops Full crawl to monitor for any changes For domain migration, fill out GSC change of address form
- 26. AKA, please don’t do these Pitfalls We’ve Seen
- 27. Rush from Dev Site V1 to Launch Pitfalls 2 Weeks Is Not Enough Time
- 28. Using a boatload of modules & plugins Pitfalls
- 29. Indexing the Dev Site Pitfalls
- 30. Pitfalls Indexing the Dev Site Also No-Indexing the New Site
- 31. 301 Redirects That only Point to the Homepage Pitfalls
- 33. Missing SEO basics (page titles, meta descriptions, image alt text) Pitfalls
- 34. Over reliance on a simple, free or cheap crawling tool Pitfalls
- 35. Using Headers as Design Elements vs Content Hierarchy Pitfalls
- 36. A Bunch of iFrames Pitfalls
- 37. Clean / REALLY simple navigation Pitfalls Homepage - All our Services (1 page) - About Us - Contact
- 38. Doing all dev reviews on a desktop vs. mobile device Pitfalls
- 39. Forgetting an XML sitemap & robots.txt Pitfalls
- 40. Things that have come up more in our more recent launch support projects Newer Stuff
- 41. Angular & Headless CMS Newer Stuff - Moving the source of source code - Efficient and fast performance - Challenge: Reviewing code where code no longer exists.
- 42. GA4 Tracking Newer Stuff ● Use Google Tag Manager ● Troubleshoot week of launch to ensure it’s on all pages ● Plan to re-setup key events ● Test in the development environment if possible
- 43. AI Content Newer Stuff ● Yes you can use AI to help think up and craft content. ● No, it’s not a good idea to let AI take the wheel and just write all of your content.
- 44. Tools That Can Help Parting Gift! ● Semrush - tracking rankings & a simple crawl ● Sitebulb- bigger tech SEO crawl ● Free SEO GPT, Bramework (for stuff like meta data) https://chatgpt.com/g/g-iXjKAAIkY-bramework-seo-booster ALSO ● Google Tag Manager / Google Search Console / GA4
- 45. Contact Us NEXT STEPS (303) 955-5228 hello@v9digital.com www.v9digital.com