The launch of a new website is an exciting time.

One thing that shouldn’t get lost in all of the excitement is the hard work that you have put in to your old site.  Many, if not hopefully all of your pages will be indexed in Google and in an ideal world also ranking well.  If you have been paying money on SEO (search engine optimisation) or indeed have been doing this yourself then you will want to make sure that this isn’t all lost when your new site launches.

What you should be doing at the launch of a new website is letting Google know that the page that it has ranked in search results is no longer there and signpost it to the new corresponding page.

For example if a url for your page is www.yourbrand.co.uk/latest-news and on your new site it is www.yourbrand.co.uk/blog then you will want to let Google know that the content from the old url can be found on the new url.

The best way of doing this is from a server side 301 redirect.  These are instructions to Google that you will need to place on the root directory of your website.  Once you have these in place you will be making sure that you are not losing too much of the search engine authority that page has built up over time.

Google has more information on the implementation of server side redirects at:

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/93633?hl=en

By putting them in place you’ll be giving your new site the best possible search engine start in life and ensure that all of your hard work isn’t lost.

For more information on how we can help improve your search engine rankings or manage the launch of a new website please give us a call or email hello@mihidigital.co.uk