Optimizing search during website redesigns

Understand how and why to plan ahead and optimize your new site for search engines

When you upgrade your website or change content management systems, be sure to consider the impact on your search results.

Plan ahead

Your search results will break if there are any changes to your site structure — and frustrate the public as they try to search on your new website. Plan ahead to avoid search result problems.

What are HTTP status codes?

When a user or bot visits a webpage, the server returns a three-digit status code. These codes help search engines like Search.gov understand how to proceed, such as indexing the content, trying again later, or handling an error. 

Common status codes include:

 

  • 200 OK when everything is working as expected
  • 301 Moved Permanently when the resource has moved to a new location
  • 404 Not Found when the resource does not exist
  • 503 Service Unavailable when the server cannot handle the request

To prevent searchers from seeing error messages, be sure to use 301 redirects to send them from the old page to the new page. 

Optimize for search engines

Create a robots.txt file and XML sitemap. 

  • A robots.txt file is a text file that instructs internet bots on how to crawl and index a website.
  • An XML sitemap is a XML file that lists the URLs on a website. Search engines use XML sitemaps as a roadmap to efficiently discover, crawl, and index content on a website.

Both are crucial for search engine optimization.

Also make sure to include a HTML page title and meta page description for every page of your website. These elements are important for accessibility and discoverability. 

  • HTML page titles are often used by search engines as the link to your web page from search results. They also appear at the top of a browser tab. They’re often the first item read by screen readers when visiting a web page.
  • The meta description will often appear in search results pages instead of a snippet of page content. The description, along with the HTML page title, helps a person decide whether or not to click a search result.

Update your search results page

Be sure to update the look and feel of your search results page to match your website’s new design.

Also, consider adding an alert on your search result page, such as “We recently updated Example.gov. If you are not seeing the content you expected, please check back soon for updated results.”

Tell search engines about your new content

Register for the commercial search engines’ webmaster tools, if you haven’t already done so. Use their search consoles to tell them about your new content.

Tips for Search.gov customers

If you use Search.gov, use the Admin Center to update your search results for a website redesign.

  • Update the design on your results page.
  • Fix the URLs for your domains, collection and best bets.
  • Add an alert by creating a search page alert.

Email the Search.gov team and ask them to index your new content.