Better rankings & more sales through perfect content for your target group
A website relaunch offers the opportunity to optimize the design and functionality of a site.
But without targeted SEO measures, there is a risk of ranking losses and traffic losses. For this reason, you should always get someone with SEO experience on board for the relaunch.
Because you can really ruin a lot if you do the relaunch wrong. Really a lot.
In this article, you will learn the key steps and measures to relaunch your website in an SEO-friendly way and position it successfully in the long term.
An SEO relaunch includes the revision of a website, taking into account important SEO aspects, in order to secure or improve visibility and ranking in search engines such as Google.
Unlike a general relaunch, an SEO relaunch focuses on avoiding potential ranking losses and maintaining existing rankings through targeted SEO measures.
A well-planned SEO relaunch helps companies to minimize the risk of traffic losses and ranking losses that can occur due to careless changes to the website structure, URL changes or altered content.
With a clear SEO relaunch process, companies can ensure that all SEO requirements are met and that the new website positions itself successfully with search engines.
While a general website relaunch primarily optimizes the structure, design or user-friendliness, an SEO relaunch is specifically about maintaining and improving SEO performance.
An SEO relaunch takes into account technical SEO aspects such as 301 redirects and the URL structure, as well as content-related points such as the optimization of important content and well thought-out internal linking.
This process requires careful planning, as without targeted SEO checklists there is a risk that old rankings will be lost and the search engine ranking of the new site will deteriorate. The SEO relaunch therefore ensures that existing rankings and traffic are not unnecessarily jeopardized.
The decision as to whether the new website is launched on a new domain or the existing domain, perhaps also due to a change of content management system, is decisive for the SEO success of the website relaunch.
Moving to a new domain increases the risk of ranking losses and presents SEO managers with the challenge of transferring the existing SEO signals as well as possible.
However, if the domain remains, it is important to plan all changes in structure, content and internal linking carefully so that the search engines can continue to index and evaluate the website correctly.
Before the actual SEO relaunch process begins, it is important to set clear SEO goals. These goals could include maintaining existing rankings, avoiding ranking losses and optimizing visibility for new search terms.
To ensure that all relevant SEO requirements and measures are taken into account, all key stakeholders should be involved from the outset, including the SEO team, content managers and the IT department.
This collaboration is crucial in order to develop a coherent strategy that sustainably strengthens SEO performance.
A successful SEO relaunch requires detailed planning and the right resources. This includes a comprehensive project plan that covers all SEO-relevant steps such as content audits, URL changes and 301 redirects.
It is advisable to allow sufficient time for technical implementation and testing before going live in order to minimize subsequent adjustments.
The availability of the most important resources and responsible parties should also be ensured throughout the entire process so that all measures can be implemented on time.
The analysis of the existing website forms the foundation for a successful SEO relaunch. This involves analyzing the current rankings, traffic sources and important content of the website.
This inventory helps to identify valuable SEO signals such as popular content, frequently linked pages and organic traffic that need to be retained during the relaunch.
As an SEO tool, Google Search Console can provide important insights to evaluate the performance of the old website and ensure that nothing of value is overlooked.
Take a look at the traffic of the last 6 months. Export these pages and pages that receive no traffic and few impressions should be checked again individually.
A comprehensive content audit is the first step in checking the existing content for its SEO effectiveness. This involves analyzing all existing pages in terms of their ranking, relevance and traffic.
The aim is to identify valuable content that should be retained or optimized during the relaunch. Content that has little or no relevance can be revised or removed to make the website clearer and more focused.
In this step, it is a good idea to do a thorough clean-up of your content. Just make sure that deleted posts are properly redirected - more on this later.
Based on the results of the audit, a content strategy is developed that focuses on the needs of the target group and the search intention of the users.
A clear, well thought-out navigation structure is crucial for the user-friendliness and SEO performance of the website.
During the relaunch, it should be ensured that the navigation structure highlights SEO-relevant content and optimizes click depth. Particularly valuable pages should be positioned as close as possible to the homepage to increase their visibility.
At the same time, the internal linking should be checked and adapted. In the best case scenario, these internal linking structures are also moved.
Well thought-out internal linking ensures that both users and search engine bots can search the website efficiently and find all important content.
The keyword and topic strategy is an essential part of strategic SEO planning. As part of the SEO relaunch, detailed keyword research should be carried out to identify the best search terms for the target group.
It is important both to retain existing keywords that achieve good rankings and to exploit new potential. This strategy should then be incorporated into content planning so that the relevant topics are covered holistically.
A solid topic strategy helps to increase the visibility of the website for central keywords and to comprehensively serve relevant search queries.
To ensure that the new website ranks well in search engines after the relaunch, the pages must be crawled and indexed optimally. First, the robots.txt should be configured to ensure that all relevant pages are captured by search engines.
Content that should not appear in the index can also be excluded here. Another important step is the creation of an XML sitemap, which lists all indexable pages of the website.
This sitemap should be submitted to Google Search Console to help Google quickly capture and index the new page structure.
It is also advisable to check the noindex tags on the website so that only SEO-relevant content is included in the index. It is also important to set canonical tags correctly to avoid duplicate content and to clearly show Google which version of a page should be indexed.
Another essential step in technical SEO optimization is checking and improving the technical foundations. This includes loading time optimization, as slow loading times impair the user experience and can have a negative impact on rankings.
The new website should be optimized so that it loads quickly and is user-friendly on both desktop and mobile devices.
Mobile optimization is particularly important, as Google now uses the mobile-first index and gives priority to the mobile version of a website.
The internal link structure and redirects must also be technically flawless. 301 redirects are required to permanently redirect old URLs that have been changed to the new URLs and thus preserve the existing SEO signals.
A clean source code and the implementation of structured data help search engines to better understand the content and increase the chances of rich snippets in the search results.
A well-planned relaunch is key to ensuring that existing rankings and traffic are maintained. For URL changes, 301 redirects are essential to ensure that both users and search engines are redirected to the correct page.
These permanent redirects transfer the SEO values (also known as "link juice") from the old to the new URLs and thus help to avoid ranking losses.
A website relaunch involves many risks, but well-planned redirects ensure that the transition goes smoothly and everything works properly on the new site.
CMS platforms such as WordPress, often with plugins such as Yoast SEO, can support the management of redirects.
Before the new site goes live, all redirects should be thoroughly tested to ensure that the user experience and search engine optimization (SEO) remain optimal.
A detailed mapping file is crucial for organizing the structure and redirects for the relaunch. This file contains a mapping of the old URLs to the new ones and serves as a plan for the implementation of the redirects.
It helps to transfer the SEO signals to the relevant pages and prevent ranking losses.
Practical tip: Create the mapping file in a spreadsheet program such as Excel. List the old URLs, the new URLs and add a column for comments - this way you can manage everything clearly.
This file is particularly important for extensive website relaunches or company websites with many pages. It also serves as documentation later if adjustments are necessary.
By carefully preparing the redirects and a well-structured mapping file, you can ensure that the relaunch does not lead to traffic or ranking losses and that the new website remains successful with the search engines.
Before the relaunch of the new website goes live, it is essential to carry out the final SEO checks in the developer environment. This includes ensuring that the URL structure is consistent and SEO-friendly.
Check that all important content has been transferred correctly and that indexability is not impaired by technical errors such as incorrect robots.txt settings. The redirects must also be thoroughly tested to ensure that all relevant URLs from the old website lead cleanly to the new page.
These steps help to avoid unexpected SEO problems and optimize the visibility of the website right from the start.
Another important step before the relaunch is to set up and test the tracking and analysis tools. Properly configured tracking allows you to monitor the performance of the new website and measure the impact of the relaunch.
Google Analytics and the Google Search Console are essential for monitoring organic traffic, rankings and crawling performance. This ensures that any changes in user behavior or visibility are detected quickly after the launch.
A clean setup makes it possible to seamlessly analyze the performance of the new website in comparison to the old website and to react quickly to potential problems.
So, the launch is done. Take a deep breath, right? Not quite yet! Now that the new website is live, an equally important phase of the SEO relaunch begins: monitoring and optimization. This is where you make sure that everything is going as planned and that no unexpected SEO problems arise.
First of all, it is important that search engines can crawl and index the new website without any problems. You can manually initiate a crawl via the Google Search Console so that Google can quickly pick up the changes. Check whether the new URL structure is crawled and indexed as intended.
Make sure that no unwanted pages get into the index and that all important URLs are crawled properly. If you have used canonicals or hreflang tags, check that these are also configured correctly to avoid misunderstandings with Google.
After the launch, it is crucial to keep an eye on the SEO key figures. This is where tracking comes into play: track the development of rankings, organic traffic and page performance in Google Analytics and the Google Search Console.
It can happen that there are fluctuations in visibility after the relaunch. This is often normal, but should remain within reasonable limits.
If certain pages receive less traffic or lose rankings, this may indicate technical errors, a need to adjust internal linking or other SEO issues.
In short: the work continues after the launch. Targeted monitoring and quick adjustments ensure SEO success and prevent potential problems from affecting the performance of the new website in the long term.
An SEO relaunch can offer many opportunities, but can also present some pitfalls that can have a negative impact on the visibility and ranking of the website. Here are typical mistakes that often happen - and tips on how you can avoid them.
A common mistake when relaunching is the lack of 301 redirects for changed URLs. If URLs are moved without redirects, users and search engines suddenly find empty pages (404 errors), which not only affects the user experience but also leads to the loss of valuable rankings. A new URL structure that is not linked to the old one can also lead to ranking losses.
Another problem is that not all content from the old website is transferred correctly. It often happens that important pages are forgotten or are weighted differently in the new structure. This can lead to well-ranking content suddenly no longer being findable or becoming less relevant, which affects the rankings.
The settings for indexing and crawling are also occasionally overlooked. If, for example, noindex tags or robots.txt entries are configured incorrectly, important pages remain invisible to search engines - a fatal mistake for SEO visibility.
A well-executed SEO relaunch requires planning, but by avoiding these typical mistakes you will ensure that the transition to the new site goes smoothly and that visibility is secured in the long term.
A website relaunch offers the opportunity to optimize the design and functionality of a site.
But without targeted SEO measures, there is a risk of ranking losses and traffic losses. For this reason, you should always get someone with SEO experience on board for the relaunch.
Because you can really ruin a lot if you do the relaunch wrong. Really a lot.
In this article, you will learn the key steps and measures to relaunch your website in an SEO-friendly way and position it successfully in the long term.
An SEO relaunch includes the revision of a website, taking into account important SEO aspects, in order to secure or improve visibility and ranking in search engines such as Google.
Unlike a general relaunch, an SEO relaunch focuses on avoiding potential ranking losses and maintaining existing rankings through targeted SEO measures.
A well-planned SEO relaunch helps companies to minimize the risk of traffic losses and ranking losses that can occur due to careless changes to the website structure, URL changes or altered content.
With a clear SEO relaunch process, companies can ensure that all SEO requirements are met and that the new website positions itself successfully with search engines.
While a general website relaunch primarily optimizes the structure, design or user-friendliness, an SEO relaunch is specifically about maintaining and improving SEO performance.
An SEO relaunch takes into account technical SEO aspects such as 301 redirects and the URL structure, as well as content-related points such as the optimization of important content and well thought-out internal linking.
This process requires careful planning, as without targeted SEO checklists there is a risk that old rankings will be lost and the search engine ranking of the new site will deteriorate. The SEO relaunch therefore ensures that existing rankings and traffic are not unnecessarily jeopardized.
The decision as to whether the new website is launched on a new domain or the existing domain, perhaps also due to a change of content management system, is decisive for the SEO success of the website relaunch.
Moving to a new domain increases the risk of ranking losses and presents SEO managers with the challenge of transferring the existing SEO signals as well as possible.
However, if the domain remains, it is important to plan all changes in structure, content and internal linking carefully so that the search engines can continue to index and evaluate the website correctly.
Before the actual SEO relaunch process begins, it is important to set clear SEO goals. These goals could include maintaining existing rankings, avoiding ranking losses and optimizing visibility for new search terms.
To ensure that all relevant SEO requirements and measures are taken into account, all key stakeholders should be involved from the outset, including the SEO team, content managers and the IT department.
This collaboration is crucial in order to develop a coherent strategy that sustainably strengthens SEO performance.
A successful SEO relaunch requires detailed planning and the right resources. This includes a comprehensive project plan that covers all SEO-relevant steps such as content audits, URL changes and 301 redirects.
It is advisable to allow sufficient time for technical implementation and testing before going live in order to minimize subsequent adjustments.
The availability of the most important resources and responsible parties should also be ensured throughout the entire process so that all measures can be implemented on time.
The analysis of the existing website forms the foundation for a successful SEO relaunch. This involves analyzing the current rankings, traffic sources and important content of the website.
This inventory helps to identify valuable SEO signals such as popular content, frequently linked pages and organic traffic that need to be retained during the relaunch.
As an SEO tool, Google Search Console can provide important insights to evaluate the performance of the old website and ensure that nothing of value is overlooked.
Take a look at the traffic of the last 6 months. Export these pages and pages that receive no traffic and few impressions should be checked again individually.
A comprehensive content audit is the first step in checking the existing content for its SEO effectiveness. This involves analyzing all existing pages in terms of their ranking, relevance and traffic.
The aim is to identify valuable content that should be retained or optimized during the relaunch. Content that has little or no relevance can be revised or removed to make the website clearer and more focused.
In this step, it is a good idea to do a thorough clean-up of your content. Just make sure that deleted posts are properly redirected - more on this later.
Based on the results of the audit, a content strategy is developed that focuses on the needs of the target group and the search intention of the users.
A clear, well thought-out navigation structure is crucial for the user-friendliness and SEO performance of the website.
During the relaunch, it should be ensured that the navigation structure highlights SEO-relevant content and optimizes click depth. Particularly valuable pages should be positioned as close as possible to the homepage to increase their visibility.
At the same time, the internal linking should be checked and adapted. In the best case scenario, these internal linking structures are also moved.
Well thought-out internal linking ensures that both users and search engine bots can search the website efficiently and find all important content.
The keyword and topic strategy is an essential part of strategic SEO planning. As part of the SEO relaunch, detailed keyword research should be carried out to identify the best search terms for the target group.
It is important both to retain existing keywords that achieve good rankings and to exploit new potential. This strategy should then be incorporated into content planning so that the relevant topics are covered holistically.
A solid topic strategy helps to increase the visibility of the website for central keywords and to comprehensively serve relevant search queries.
To ensure that the new website ranks well in search engines after the relaunch, the pages must be crawled and indexed optimally. First, the robots.txt should be configured to ensure that all relevant pages are captured by search engines.
Content that should not appear in the index can also be excluded here. Another important step is the creation of an XML sitemap, which lists all indexable pages of the website.
This sitemap should be submitted to Google Search Console to help Google quickly capture and index the new page structure.
It is also advisable to check the noindex tags on the website so that only SEO-relevant content is included in the index. It is also important to set canonical tags correctly to avoid duplicate content and to clearly show Google which version of a page should be indexed.
Another essential step in technical SEO optimization is checking and improving the technical foundations. This includes loading time optimization, as slow loading times impair the user experience and can have a negative impact on rankings.
The new website should be optimized so that it loads quickly and is user-friendly on both desktop and mobile devices.
Mobile optimization is particularly important, as Google now uses the mobile-first index and gives priority to the mobile version of a website.
The internal link structure and redirects must also be technically flawless. 301 redirects are required to permanently redirect old URLs that have been changed to the new URLs and thus preserve the existing SEO signals.
A clean source code and the implementation of structured data help search engines to better understand the content and increase the chances of rich snippets in the search results.
A well-planned relaunch is key to ensuring that existing rankings and traffic are maintained. For URL changes, 301 redirects are essential to ensure that both users and search engines are redirected to the correct page.
These permanent redirects transfer the SEO values (also known as "link juice") from the old to the new URLs and thus help to avoid ranking losses.
A website relaunch involves many risks, but well-planned redirects ensure that the transition goes smoothly and everything works properly on the new site.
CMS platforms such as WordPress, often with plugins such as Yoast SEO, can support the management of redirects.
Before the new site goes live, all redirects should be thoroughly tested to ensure that the user experience and search engine optimization (SEO) remain optimal.
A detailed mapping file is crucial for organizing the structure and redirects for the relaunch. This file contains a mapping of the old URLs to the new ones and serves as a plan for the implementation of the redirects.
It helps to transfer the SEO signals to the relevant pages and prevent ranking losses.
Practical tip: Create the mapping file in a spreadsheet program such as Excel. List the old URLs, the new URLs and add a column for comments - this way you can manage everything clearly.
This file is particularly important for extensive website relaunches or company websites with many pages. It also serves as documentation later if adjustments are necessary.
By carefully preparing the redirects and a well-structured mapping file, you can ensure that the relaunch does not lead to traffic or ranking losses and that the new website remains successful with the search engines.
Before the relaunch of the new website goes live, it is essential to carry out the final SEO checks in the developer environment. This includes ensuring that the URL structure is consistent and SEO-friendly.
Check that all important content has been transferred correctly and that indexability is not impaired by technical errors such as incorrect robots.txt settings. The redirects must also be thoroughly tested to ensure that all relevant URLs from the old website lead cleanly to the new page.
These steps help to avoid unexpected SEO problems and optimize the visibility of the website right from the start.
Another important step before the relaunch is to set up and test the tracking and analysis tools. Properly configured tracking allows you to monitor the performance of the new website and measure the impact of the relaunch.
Google Analytics and the Google Search Console are essential for monitoring organic traffic, rankings and crawling performance. This ensures that any changes in user behavior or visibility are detected quickly after the launch.
A clean setup makes it possible to seamlessly analyze the performance of the new website in comparison to the old website and to react quickly to potential problems.
So, the launch is done. Take a deep breath, right? Not quite yet! Now that the new website is live, an equally important phase of the SEO relaunch begins: monitoring and optimization. This is where you make sure that everything is going as planned and that no unexpected SEO problems arise.
First of all, it is important that search engines can crawl and index the new website without any problems. You can manually initiate a crawl via the Google Search Console so that Google can quickly pick up the changes. Check whether the new URL structure is crawled and indexed as intended.
Make sure that no unwanted pages get into the index and that all important URLs are crawled properly. If you have used canonicals or hreflang tags, check that these are also configured correctly to avoid misunderstandings with Google.
After the launch, it is crucial to keep an eye on the SEO key figures. This is where tracking comes into play: track the development of rankings, organic traffic and page performance in Google Analytics and the Google Search Console.
It can happen that there are fluctuations in visibility after the relaunch. This is often normal, but should remain within reasonable limits.
If certain pages receive less traffic or lose rankings, this may indicate technical errors, a need to adjust internal linking or other SEO issues.
In short: the work continues after the launch. Targeted monitoring and quick adjustments ensure SEO success and prevent potential problems from affecting the performance of the new website in the long term.
An SEO relaunch can offer many opportunities, but can also present some pitfalls that can have a negative impact on the visibility and ranking of the website. Here are typical mistakes that often happen - and tips on how you can avoid them.
A common mistake when relaunching is the lack of 301 redirects for changed URLs. If URLs are moved without redirects, users and search engines suddenly find empty pages (404 errors), which not only affects the user experience but also leads to the loss of valuable rankings. A new URL structure that is not linked to the old one can also lead to ranking losses.
Another problem is that not all content from the old website is transferred correctly. It often happens that important pages are forgotten or are weighted differently in the new structure. This can lead to well-ranking content suddenly no longer being findable or becoming less relevant, which affects the rankings.
The settings for indexing and crawling are also occasionally overlooked. If, for example, noindex tags or robots.txt entries are configured incorrectly, important pages remain invisible to search engines - a fatal mistake for SEO visibility.
A well-executed SEO relaunch requires planning, but by avoiding these typical mistakes you will ensure that the transition to the new site goes smoothly and that visibility is secured in the long term.
SEO and content marketing are his passion. When he's not checking the latest rankings, he's probably playing sport.
Better rankings & more sales through perfect content for your target group
SEO and content marketing are his passion. When he's not checking the latest rankings, he's probably playing sport.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
%2520(3).png)
%2520(4).png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
%2520(7).png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
%2520(6).png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
