So, you’ve launched your new site and noticed a decline in traffic – every business owner’s and marketing manager’s worst nightmare. Depending on how long it’s been since you launched your new site, you may be able to regain or reverse this decline.
Here are 3 steps you can take to restore your SEO traffic after launching a new site:
Check redirects are in place and working correctly
This might be obvious to those in SEO, but it can be less clear to business owners or marketing professionals. Redirects are mechanisms that direct search engines and users from an old location to a new one.
For instance, if your old site is Site A and your new site is Site B, you need to set up redirects to guide traffic and search engines from Site A to Site B. This informs them that:
- Site A no longer exists
- Site B replaces Site A
When launching a new website, redirects might be incorrectly set up or fail due to misunderstandings or integration issues. If you’ve launched a new site without consulting an SEO expert, this could be the cause of your traffic decline. Even if a developer claims they know how to implement redirects, mistakes can still occur.
To verify your redirects are functioning properly, search for your website on Google using the query “site.mysite.com,” and click through the results to ensure you’re directed to the correct pages on the new site.
If you encounter errors, such as a 404 or 500 server error, this indicates that your redirects are not working correctly and need to be fixed promptly.
If you are unsure how to implement redirects, consult a reputable SEO expert with experience in creating redirect files and mapping to assist you in getting it right.
Analyse your historical top performing pages to see if they are still getting traffic
During a migration project, an expert seo migration agency will conduct a content mapping exercise to ensure that all pages and content driving traffic to the existing site are retained. If you’ve launched a new site and noticed a traffic loss, it might be because the new site’s structure, pages, layouts, or content are so different that Google no longer recognizes your site.
This is why an SEO expert will perform a content migration to ensure that critical elements from your existing website are preserved, allowing search engines to recognize and index your new site effectively.
If this process wasn’t followed, you can either attempt to handle it yourself or work with a technical seo agency. You’ll need a copy of the old website for reference. Ideally, you should have set it up in a staging environment or taken a backup. Use this backup to compare side-by-side with your new site, leveraging Google Analytics data to identify which pages drove the most traffic before the launch and to check if they are still performing well now.
Hire an SEO agency to conduct an SEO campaign
If it’s been more than 90 days since you launched your new site, regaining your traffic will likely require additional campaigning and investment. At this point, Google’s index has updated, and your website may have lost the authority and relevance it once had for the keywords you ranked for. Consequently, you might need to start from scratch.
In this situation, investing in an SEO campaign is essential to rebuild the authority and relevance your site previously had. This campaign should focus on leveraging any remaining heritage of your online business to restore and enhance your search engine visibility.
An expert SEO company will evaluate the technical structure and health of your website, the quality of your main landing pages, and your compliance with search engine guidelines. By addressing all these factors through a comprehensive and ongoing strategy, you can expect to see increased traffic to your site over a period of 6 to 12 months.
“The importance of checking and correctly implementing redirects to ensure seamless navigation from the old site to the new one is crucial for maintaining traffic. Similarly, analysing historical top-performing pages to confirm they are still driving traffic post-migration underscores the role of content mapping in preserving search engine visibility. Lastly, if traffic hasn’t recovered within 90 days, investing in a targeted SEO campaign is essential to rebuild lost authority and relevance, ultimately helping to restore and increase site traffic over time,” concludes Amo Sokhi, Managing Director of POLARIS.
