A common question from enquiries and clients.

My answer?

We don't know - however, when handled correctly, the launch of a new website normally sees a minimal initial impact on search ranking, and assuming your new website has had more work on SEO than the old one, we tend to see a quick rise back to or above your previous positions.

Any new website project involves mapping the pages and URL structure of an existing website.

Where it fits, we will maintain that URL structure.

Where it doesn't, we will pre-map URL redirects so that the chances of search engines or visitors finding a '404 Page Not Found' error are minimal (and for visitors, if this does happen, the 404 page has a clear button to take them back to the website home page).

The website sitemap URL is added to your robots.txt file so that search engine crawlers can find it, even if you haven't submitted it to them - it's also dynamic, so any new pages and content you add becomes part of the sitemap without you having to do anything.

Fundamentally, search engines play by their own rules - nobody can ever 100% guarantee you won't see a change.

However, what we do, amongst many other smaller elements in the background (such as adding schema markup, meta descriptions, page titles, and ALT tags), ensures the disruption will either be minimal or non-existent.

We will always recommend SEO research plays its part in any new website project - even just in planning the pages required, keywords to focus on, and the direction of the copywriting.

We will always recommend that you don't view SEO as a one-trick-pony.

Whether your competitors do more work than you and take over your rankings, or Google change their algorithms (which they do regularly), it is crucial to consider ongoing SEO and digital marketing as an essential element of a long-term strategy to grow your visibility and authority online.

It's also crucial that you select the metrics that dictate how successful this SEO work is.

It is up to us, in our creative agency, to ask you what is important to you, so we can tailor the work and reporting to give you clarity on the results and so you understand the data within.

(PS make sure your SEO agency or web designer doesn't ask you to pick the keywords you want to rank for - that's something they should be researching and presenting to you!)