Hey hey Reader,

Last week, something happened that almost never happens in my line of work.

Someone introduced me to a business owner right before they were about to migrate their website to a new platform.

Not after. Before.

This is so rare. Usually, people come to me after the damage is done.

Here's the typical scenario:

A business spends months obsessing over their website redesign. Design, layout, copy, positioning. They work with developers and designers who make everything look perfect.

But nobody on the team thinks about what happens to search visibility when they redesign their site, and worse, move all of their URLs.

Then they flip the switch, and the new site looks gorgeous, but...

Organic traffic tanks. 🗑️

All the link equity and authority they built up over years is gone. The new site is pretty but slow, and leads dry up.

Then they come looking for SEO help.

I'm always happy to help. But I wish they would have come to me before they made the change.

Prevention is 1,000 times easier than repair.

So if you're planning website changes this year, here's why you need an SEO specialist involved from the start:

You need a plan for every URL

If you're changing domains or restructuring your site, you need a redirect strategy for every single page.

Backlinks pointing to your old URLs carry SEO power. That's authority you built up over months or years through content, outreach, and reputation. Without proper 301 or 302 redirects, you lose it all.

Google sees your new pages as brand new. All that accumulated trust disappears, even if the pages are more or less identical.

An SEO specialist like moi maps out which old URLs need to redirect to which new URLs, preserving that link equity instead of flushing it down the drain.

This isn't optional. Without this kind of plan, you will basically be throwing out all of the hard work you've put in over the months or years and starting from scratch.

Technical performance can destroy a beautiful redesign

I've seen gorgeous redesigns tank organic traffic because nobody tested the technical side.

Site speed, mobile responsiveness, Core Web Vitals, image optimization, JavaScript bloat --- these technical factors directly impact rankings. A flashy new website means nothing if it loads like molasses or breaks on mobile devices.

An SEO specialist catches these issues before launch, not after your traffic has already disappeared. I always run speed tests, check mobile usability, and make sure the site architecture makes sense to search engines, not just human visitors, before any official changes are made.

A redesign is the perfect time for strategy review

If you're making big changes anyway, this is your chance to audit your entire content strategy.

Which pages need updating? What valuable content is missing? How should your site architecture flow to serve both users and search engines?

Are there keyword opportunities you've been ignoring? Old pages that need to be consolidated or expanded? New service pages that should exist?

A website redesign without a content strategy review is a massive missed opportunity. You're already doing the work, so you might as well do it right.

Someone needs to be watching the shop

Website migrations always have surprises. A page that didn't get redirected properly, a robots.txt file that accidentally blocks the whole site, broken internal links, missing metadata.

You need someone monitoring before, during, and after the change. Baseline measurements before the migration, testing during the process, close monitoring after launch.

When something goes wrong, you want to catch it in hours or days, not months.

If you're planning changes, let's talk before you start

If you're planning a website redesign, a platform migration, or a domain change this year, I'm begging you: get in touch with me before you begin.

We can build a plan that protects your SEO, improves your technical performance, and sets you up for growth instead of recovery.

Prevention is always easier than repair.

You can reply to this email or book a free strategy call with me here.

-- Liam

​The Search Evolution Strategy​ 👆 My gameplan for the new age of AI 🙋‍♂️ Did someone forward you this email? Subscribe here. ​Content Strategy & Consultation | Content & SEO Training​ ​Freelance Community​

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