When is the best time to engage SEO?

At WebEagles, we have assisted with many website launches over the years, and clients come to us at different stages in the process for a variety of requests. Each project is different; however, we do see some similarities, and the number one mistake we see during website redesigns is involving Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) too late in the launch process.

Website redesigns happen in four stages:

1. Planning and design
2. Staging site
3. Launch
4. Post-launch

While all four stages require their own attention to detail, the earlier you involve SEO, the better. In fact, to ensure the smoothest launch possible, it is important to include SEO during your planning and design process.

Regardless whether you are launching a brand-new website, or if you are currently redesigning an existing website, the short answer to the question “When is the best time to engage SEO?”, will always be the same – before it launches.

At WebEagles, a lot of new businesses have engaged us over the years when the transition has been poorly managed, resulting is a loss of traffic. Lost traffic from a site redesign can become extremely costly and can take months to recover. Even if any issues have been identified and fixed immediately, it can take time for search engines to crawl and index the fixes. In the meantime, your competitors will start ranking higher for the keywords that you were on page one of Google for.

So, how can you build a website with SEO in mind?

Often, clients will involve our SEO team a few weeks before a site redesign. The thought behind this process is that the user experience (UX) designers and developers will be guided and supported by SEO so that there should not be any issues regarding content and indexing.

We have witnessed in the past times when SEO hasn’t been involved in the redesign process, there have been major technical and content issues that take a lot of time (and money) to fix.

So, to avoid costly mistakes in the future, the best time to engage with SEO in the redesign process is during the initial planning and design stages. You will have peace of mind that your SEO experts are working with the design and development teams to ensure that everything is aligned.

At WebEagles, we always involve SEO from the start of the redesign process with the intent to maintain past efforts and to set up our clients’ new site for even more success. However, it is important to remember that work of SEO is never complete – ongoing maintenance following the launch will ensure that new websites get the attention from search engines, and the traffic it deserves.

Are you looking to maintain an effective SEO strategy during the relaunch of your website? Contact us today on 1300 123 808, and one of our SEO experts will be able to answer any of your questions.