Over and over companies choose to redesign their website to make it look better, perform better or simply join the next generation…
The problem lies in the lack of planning. Many companies are pushed with a deadline, with little direction and an inability to see the “BIG” picture or the small details that have given years of unknown success.
Let’s take for example, a company’s old beaten down static html website that was done by the boss’ nephew who is a computer genius. There is nothing wrong with this per se, it was a good website, had some pages that describe the company and the company goals fairly well. But it needed an overhaul. So, the logical step in many minds is to go out and find the coolest, most advanced technology that will make my website dance with fast moving graphical video charm, right?
Again, there isn’t anything necessarily wrong with this approach unless the charm compromises the power of your well established linking structure and your future SEO success! Which in many cases, companies will switch from basic html to fancy flying Flash, not taking into consideration that Flash alone is damaging to their SEO efforts. Or in another scenario, going to a fully functional content management system and overlooking the steps to maintain your current SEO success and again future SEO success.
Sure, in time they may see their traffic come back up after the dip, but why not plan, prepare and succeed immediately. With proper planning, thorough site audit, in-depth SEO analysis and a well organized implementation strategy, you can succeed without seeing a dip in traffic, leads and/or sales. In fact, you should see an increase!