8 Website Assets You Need to Secure Before Your Redesign

The odds are you put a lot of effort into developing your website the first time, and you do not want all of that work to go to waste.

Before you devote all of your attention to your new website, do not lose track of all of the important assets onyour old webpage.

Be sure to account for all of your assets and secure them for transfer to the new website.

A website redesign is supposed to be a step forward, so do not set yourself back to square one by erasing the data from your current site.

Your Most Important Website Assets

Put simply, web assets are any items on your current website that are producing website traffic and allowing your site to rank in search engines.

1. General Content

Your content is the heart of your website, and the biggest contributor to your search engine rankings.  All of the high quality content that you have developed has given you extra pages, links, and keywords that all factor into search engine algorithms.  Be sure to secure all of this content prior to your website redesign to avoid losing all of your hard work.

Important content to account for and secure:

• Blog posts
• Page content

2. Premium Content

Your premium content is any of your information rich content that is usually featured on landing page CTA’s.  This content is usually much more in depth or interactive, and is your star player in generating leads.  Neglecting to transfer your premium content to your new website could lead to a lot of broken links and upset visitors.

Premium content includes:

• eBooks
• Videos
• White papers
• Webinars
• Infographics

3. 301 redirects

In order to make sure customers can access your content, you will need to create 301 redirects and account for old ones.  Using a 301 code simply tells the search engines that your webpage URL has moved permanently.

So your old link: company.com/aboutcompanyxyz

Has become: company.com/about

Without a 301 redirect, anybody that tries to click on a link to your old link will experience the dreaded 404 Page Not Found error.  That looks very bad on your company, and the odds are that visitor will not go out of their way to find the new page.

So when looking to redesign your new website, keep your website traffic happy.  Be sure to create 301 redirects to all of your other important website assets, and account for your old 301 redirects as well.

4. Inbound Links

Relating directly to your 301 redirects, you want to account for all of your inbound links prior to web redesign.  All of those links that you have in blog posts and other content, as well as inbound links from other sites need to be protected.  Use 301 redirects to secure all of your inbound links.

5. Keywords

In all the time your website has been operational, you should have been consistently using keywords.  All of your web pages and content have keywords in their URLs, page titles, meta tags, etc… that affect your SEO, and have hopefully ranked you higher over time.

6. Conversion Tools

Just as you want to keep track of all your content, you don’t want to forget about the pages that drive potential customers to that content.  Without your landing pages and CTA’s transferring to and functioning on your new website, your premium content will be rendered useless.

Conversion tools include:

• Landing pages
• Calls to action

7. Website Optimization Tools

If you have monitored your website using any analytics tools, you will have valuable information on your website’s visibility, traffic, conversion, etc….  This information needs to be accounted for to allow for comparisons and transitioning to monitor the new web design.

Website optimization tools that allow you to analyze your site’s visibility include:

• Google Analytics
• Google Webmaster Tools
• SEOmoz
• Traffic Travis
• Conductor
• RioSEO

8. Customer Reviews/Testimonials

People are much more likely to trust a business if there are positive reviews about that business.  It is important to transfer testimonials from your old website onto your new one to avoid looking like an inexperienced business.

What Happens if You Do Not Secure Your Website Assets?

If you forget to secure any of the aforementioned assets, you will lose them.  What happens then?  Easy, you lose your web presence.  All of that work that you put into developing content and improving your ranking on search engines will be set back to day one.  Redesigning your website is supposed to help generate more traffic and leads, so don’t create a nightmare for yourself by forgetting about your assets.

Checklist for securing your assets:

• Determine how many pages you have.
• Figure out which pages are most popular/powerful.
• Determine how many inbound links you have.
• Establish where these links are coming from.
• Look up what interior pages have inbound links.
• Figure out which inbound links are most popular/powerful.
• Determine what keywords you rank for before the move.

You have likely put a lot of time and effort into improving your SEO, so do not let those efforts go to waste.  Prior to performing a website redesign, you will need to account for all of your websites’ assets and ensure that they are not lost in your redesign process.  If you are at a loss for how to go about securing your web assets, consider hiring a professional to ensure a smooth transition.

Considering a Website Redesign?

If your site isn’t fully optimized for lead generation with dynamic content, attractive calls-to-action and landing pages, you’re not effectively engaging your audience. For more about redesigning your website, check out our newest ebook!