When SEO is treated as an afterthought during a website overhaul, the consequences can follow you for months. We’ve seen it happen to companies who invested heavily in a beautiful new website, only to watch their search visibility quietly erode because the technical groundwork was never laid. The good news is that a website redesign is actually one of the best opportunities you have to build SEO in from the start as long as it isn’t an afterthought.
Here’s how we do just that:
Start with an SEO Audit
Before we change anything, we establish what’s working and not working. This is one of the most overlooked steps in the redesign process, and skipping it can become an expensive oversight.
Your existing site, even if it is outdated or underperforming, likely has pages that rank for something. They may be small wins, but they are wins nonetheless. Things like URL structures that have built up authority over time, content that has been indexed and referenced elsewhere, backlinks pointing to specific pages establish a foundation for your SEO during a rebuild. If we change URLs, remove pages or restructure content without accounting for any of this, you essentially start from scratch from an SEO perspective.
An SEO audit at the start of every website project covers a few key areas. We look at which pages are currently driving organic traffic. We identify which keywords you already rank for, where your backlinks are pointing and whether any of your pages have domain authority that’s worth protecting. We also flag any existing technical problems, like broken links, slow load speeds or indexing issues, so we can resolve them during the redesign rather than carry them forward.
All of these things ensure we are protecting any SEO equity you have so we can continue to build on top of it.
URL Structure
Your URLs matter more than you might think.
Search engines treat each webpage URL as its own entity. Over time, a URL accumulates authority based on how people link to it, how often it gets clicked, how long visitors stay on it and dozens of other signals. When a URL changes without a proper redirect in place, all of that authority disappears and the page essentially resets.
URL mapping is something we do during the website strategy phase. We document every page on your current website and plan what happens to each one in the new build. Some pages carry over with the same URL and some move to a new address and need a 301 redirect, which tells search engines to transfer the authority from the old location to the new one. Some pages get consolidated, removed or replaced entirely.
The 301 redirect is a must when changing URLs. Think of a 301 redirect like forwarding your mail when you move homes. You want anything sent to the old address to end up at the new one. Missing this crucial step is one of the most common reasons companies see dramatic traffic drops after a launch, and it’s completely avoidable.
Site Architecture Built Around How Your Clients Actually Search
Site architecture refers to the way your pages are organized and connected to each other. It affects how search engines crawl and understand your site as well as how how visitors navigate through it.
A well-structured site makes it easy for Google to understand what each page is about and how all the pages are related to each other. It also makes it easier for a first-time visitor to find what they need quickly and efficiently.
When we’re building out your site structure, we think carefully about navigation, page hierarchy and which pages need to rank for which topic areas. If you are a commercial real estate firm, you likely need separate pages for each service area, rather than everything listed on a single services page. If you’re an engineering firm, detailed project pages that go deeper than a general portfolio perform better in search.
Internal linking, or how your pages connect to each other, is also an important part of how we structure a website. Pages that get linked to frequently from within your own site tend to carry more weight in search results, and we intentionally build those connections.
Page should both be built around what you want to communicate, as well as what your ideal clients are actually searching for.
SEO Keyword Research
Keyword research is something that should be done before content creation begins. You need to understand how your ideal clients are describing their problems and what they are entering into both search engines and AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, etc) when they’re looking for what you offer. Those inquiries shape the words on your website pages, the headings and subheadings, and the topics you should cover in depth. That research feeds directly into page structure, meta titles and descriptions, headings, subheadings and copy across your website. When done early in the redesign process, it shapes the entire build.
For the firms and professional services companies we work with, the best keyword targets are often not the broadest, most competitive terms. They are more specific phrases that reflect real buyer intent. Someone searching for commercial construction project management Charlotte, NC is closer to being a client than someone generically searching for construction company. There’s a much better shot at ranking for a specific phrase, and the person searching it often further along in their decision-making process.
Copy Written with Search Intent in Mind
Once we know what keywords each page is targeting, content gets built around a primary topic. This is where a lot of websites can go sideways during a redesign. Pages get written to sound good rather than to answer specific questions. If content is vague, covers too much, or is so focused on selling, then it never actually tells the visitor anything useful.
Search engines and AI tools are trying to match search queries with content that genuinely answers the query. If someone searches how to choose an engineering firm for a complex project and lands on a page that is mostly a list of services and a phone number, that’s really not a great match. However, a page that walks through the considerations, demonstrates real expertise and helps someone make a decision by guiding them to the next step provides a much better user experience.
This doesn’t mean your service pages need to be long or overly wordy. It simply means they should clearly communicate what you do, who you do it for, what makes your firm the right choice and what someone should do next. Your content should reflect genuine depth of knowledge in your field.
Meta titles and descriptions are also a part of this work. These are the things that show up in search results, and play a valid role in whether someone clicks through to your site. Each website page gets a unique and descriptive meta title that includes the primary keyword and clearly describes what the page is about.
The Technical Side
There’s a whole category of SEO that lives “under the hood” of a website and a redesign is the exact time to ensure it’s right.
Your site speed matters. A website that looks great but loads slowly has a real problem. Google has been factoring page load performance into their rankings for years, and slow websites can lose visitors before they ever read a word. During a build, we ensure images are compressed, your code is clean, caching is configured and hosting is performant.
We also make sure your site is properly set up for search engines to crawl it. That means a correctly configured sitemap, a robots.txt file that directs the search engine and AI bots what to index, and a clean URL structure without duplicate content issues. Schema markup, which is structured data that help search engines understand what your pages are about, gets added during the build and improves how your results are displayed.
On the mobile side, every website we build is fully responsive and tested across multiple devices. Google indexes the mobile version of your site first, and if that experience is broken or degraded, your rankings will reflect it.
This work is foundational to our strategic process, and makes the difference between a site that gains traction in search and one that fizzles out.
Analytics and Search Console
At MJC, we are big proponents of “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Before a site goes live, measurement tools like Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Google Search Console are configured and verified as part of our process.
Google Analytics tells us who is visiting your site, where they came from, what they did when they got there, and whether any of it is converting into business or leads. Google Search Console informs us how your site is performing in search, which queries are driving impressions and clicks, which pages are indexed and whether there are any technical issues that need to be addressed.
If you’re migrating from an existing website, this also helps us establish a baseline before launch. We take a snapshot of your current traffic, top-performing pages and keyword rankings to establish your benchmark. That way if something shifts after launch, we know what it looked like before to understand what changed and assess why.
Your Website Launch is the Foundation
The thing about SEO is that the work doesn’t stop at launch, it’s only just beginning.
A new website, even one that’s well-optimized, isn’t going to rank for competitive terms as soon as it launches. Search authority builds over the long-term and comes from consistently publishing valuable content, earning backlinks from reputable sites, accumulating positive engagement signals and continuing to refine your website based on real data.
A launch gives you is a clean foundation with no technical barriers, a well-structured site that Google can crawl and understand, and pages that are built to compete. From there, it’s all about consistency.
Ongoing relevant blog content helps you rank for the questions your clients are actually asking on an ongoing basis. It builds topical authority in your niches and gives other websites, as well as AI tools, something worth linking back to as a reference. This keeps your website active in a way that truly matters. We focus on exactly this in our Website Growth services. The foundation we establish during a custom website build is vital, but it’s the ongoing work that compounds over time.
If you’re getting ready for a website redesign, one of the most important thing you can do is make sure SEO is part of the conversation before the work begins rather than an afterthought at launch. When we take on a website redesign project, SEO is built into the process from the very beginning. We audit what you have, plan the structure around what your clients are searching for, handle the technical work and make sure you go live with everything solidly in place
If you want to understand where your current site stands before starting that conversation, our website audit is a good first step. It gives you a clear picture of what you have, what needs to change and where the opportunities are.
