The ORIGINAL

Search Marketing Event#SESMiami

SEO Sanity During a RedesignA process to help you avoid disaster

Michael GracenSeaWorld Parks & Entertainment

SEO, SEM & Digital Manager

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Download the checklist:

bit.ly/seoredesign

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Pre-Launch

Launch Day

Post-Launch

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Pre-Launch

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

NEVER take your

live website down

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Keep new pages

from being found

(before their time)

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Set up a

‘sandbox’

development

environment

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Block Googlebot’s

crawl access from

dev environment

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Password protect

OR

Noindex, Nofollow

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Noindex, Nofollow<META NAME="ROBOTS"

CONTENT="NOINDEX, NOFOLLOW">

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Minimize outside

variables if possible

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Switch servers

2-4 weeks before

or after redesign

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Crawl existing site

with Screaming

Frog SEO Spider

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Review page

titles and

descriptions

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Save to Excel

2 copies

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Great time to

optimize and

remove dupe

content

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Keep existing URL

structure as much

as possible

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

301 redirect URLs

on page by page

basis

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Do NOT use 302

redirects, always

use 301

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

OK to consolidate

pages, but don’t

orphan anything

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Don’t delete…

update content

or redirect to

relevant page

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Unless…

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

OK to 404 pages

that have tons of

crappy incoming

links

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Great time to

review your

backlink profile

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Download from

GWT, Ahrefs,

Majestic, OSE

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

CAREFULLY use

Google disavow

tool to remove

crappy links

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Create an

awesome 404

error page

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Add Google

Analytics code

to track and

find errors

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Use Screaming

Frog to create

new XML

sitemap

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Make sure

ONLY new

URLs are

included

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Add rel=canonical

to ensure Google

indexes correct

page version

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Sanity check

robots.txt for any

‘gotchas’

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Google now wants

access to CSS

and Javascript

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Sanity check

tracking codes:

GA, GWT, BWT,

ad tracking, etc.

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Launch Day

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Add annotation

in GA for a ‘line

in the sand’

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Remove all instances

of Noindex, Nofollow

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Remove robots.txt

exclusions

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Push your new

301 redirects live

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Submit new

XML sitemap

in GWT

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Fetch new

URLs in GWT

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Submit new

XML sitemap

in BWT

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Post-Launch

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Site:command

Number of

indexed pages?

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Is traffic

remaining

steady?

Whoa!

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Are rankings

remaining

steady?

Ouch!

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

GWT/BWT

Crawl issues?

Index status?

Ack!

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Takeaway #1

Don’t confuse Google.

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Takeaway #2

301 redirects are the critical

piece of the puzzle.

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Takeaway #3

Watch analytics like a hawk

post-launch.

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Download the checklist:

bit.ly/seoredesign

@mikegracen

#SESMiami

Thank you!