Showit SEO Checklist: 12 Steps to Launching a Website Redesign That Ranks
Moving to Showit from another platform? Or redesigning a brand new website with new pages on Showit?
Launch your new website design without hurting the SEO progress you’ve already made by following my Showit SEO checklist and using the SEO Planning Worksheet as a guide.
Planning to Redesign Your Website with Showit?
If you’re planning to launch a new website design on Showit, use the worksheet I created for my SEO clients as a guide to organizing your new website pages and planning redirects.
Download the free SEO Planning Worksheet, then watch the video tutorial. I walk you through the process of organizing your existing pages, new pages, and the redirects that ensure user experience and SEO don’t take a hit from broken links.
Your Showit SEO Checklist for Launching a Showit Redesign
-
Create a List of Your Existing & New Pages
For a smooth transition to your new design, use Google Search Console to export a list of your indexed pages in the Performance report. Then make a separate list of the all the new page URLs you plan to publish. Include your blog category pages.
-
Add Necessary Redirects to the List of Current Pages
Retaining your SEO rankings is priority, which can heavily rely on proper redirects for pages that had already made SEO progress. In the “Action” column, select “301” if an existing page URL will change and need a redirect to the new page URL.
-
Update Your Blog URL Structure
New URL structure? Removing the date from the URL to clean it up? Decide how you want your blog URLs to look and add a note to set up that redirect in the Redirections plugin.
-
Resize & Compress Images
Export images from Lightroom with a max width of 1800. Compress with an app like JPEGMini or Squash.
-
Write Titles & Descriptions for Every Indexable Page
Write out unique page titles and descriptions for every main page with a unique main keyword phrase for each. Make sure the writing sounds natural and not so robotic.
-
Build a Site Structure w/Internal Links
This is easier than it sounds! Add links (that visitors actually notice) to relevant internal pages so visitors (and Google) can follow the links to find your best content.
-
Verify Google Analytics
Use Google Assistant Legacy tool (Google Chrome extension) to confirm the GA4 tag has been added properly.
-
Plan for a “Soft Launch”
Use the “Soft Launch” stage (minimum of 48 hours) to troubleshoot issues, get feedback from colleagues, and test it out yourself for the best user experience.
-
Plan to Launch Early in the Week
Avoid running into potential issues that will have to wait until Support is available by launching on a Monday or Tuesday. You don’t want to have to try Emergency Support on the weekend for an issue that could’ve been quickly fixed during the week.
-
Check for Broken Links
Even if you use my spreadsheet to plan redirects, you could still miss broken links. Run a broken link checker to avoid hurting your user experience or SEO rankings.
-
Get Feedback Before an Official Launch
Get feedback from 2-3 colleagues or ideal clients to fix issues or improve usability before officially launching.
-
Upload a Share Image
Add a social media Share image that will display when you share your website on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media that allows links.
-
Show Off Your New Website Design to the World!
It’s finally time to show off all the hard work you’ve poured into your new website! Make sure to share on social media in a way that visitors can easily follow the link to your site. This brings you plenty of social media traffic while your organic traffic is balancing back out or building up.
Get a video review of your website with recommendations for SEO and content that you can implement right away.