Website redesign - Is ranking lost?

[schaak]

First post guys so forgive my ignorance...

My company website currently is ranked very well within Google, so im not complaining.

I am planning on a redesign of the site just to give it a facelift as it is looking a little outdated. What are the repercussions in doing this? Do I lose might site ranking and need to start climbing the ladder again?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[schaak]

Damn thats not good - anyway around this?

 

[schaak]

Thank you very much - thats really helpful!!

I'll make sure the developers follow these rules as closely as possible

 

[hkjeffchan]

Golden Rule: Make sure you "301 redirect" all the old link to the new link.
If you want to rewrite your content, think twice! Your site rank well for a reason! I suggest you to add all the old content as a "blog" page and "301 redirect" the old URL to the new blog link.
Hope this help!

 

[Absolution]

I don't think updated pages will harm the website's ranking at all; Google is far more concerned about content and updates than code (in this way a redesign might actually help the update factor). Just make sure the old links remain active, or go someplace that is still active.

 

[hosamdeen]

You will surely lose you ranking, I've tried it before. You either use 301 redirect as hkjeffchan suggested or you leave your site as it is and build a new site with different domain and then transfer visitors to it.

 

[johny.12]

I'll make sure the developers follow these rules as closely as possible Damn thats not good - anyway around this?

 

[plusoner]

if it is a synthetic update rather than a rebuild of the existing system so that links remain the same there shouldn't be any affect but if it is a new build and new content then yes you will take a hiding for the short term. you may need to do some link building and some social media promotions to build your rank back up again. you will climb back gradually.