Google: If You Redesign Your Site Your Rankings May Go Nuts

Jan 30, 2023 - 7:31 am 4 by

Google Waves

Gary Illyes from the Google Search Relations team posted another PSA on LinkedIn. This time he said, "when you redesign a site, its rankings in search engines may go nuts."

Yes, this is probably super obvious to most of you reading this site but Gary dives a bit deeper.

He said, "Among other things, search engines use the HTML of your pages to make sense of the content. If for example you break up paragraphs, remove H tags in favor of CSS styling, or add breaking tags (especially true for CJK languages), you change the HTML parsers' output, which in turn may change the site's rankings."

In short, when redesigning, sure - go ahead - make the site pretty. But changing the core HTML can result in ranking changes.

Gary recommends, "try to use semantically similar HTML when you redesign the site and avoid adding tags where you don't actually need them."

So if you can change the design but at the same time keep things in the HTML looking similar, that is your best bet. Change a lot without changing a lot - if that makes sense.

Forum discussion at LinkedIn.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 28, 2025

Mar 28, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Core Update Done, Will Site Recover, AI Mode Expands, Google Ads PMax Search Terms & More

Mar 28, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Maps

Google Local Knowledge Panel With Promotion Clipable Coupons

Mar 28, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Maps

Google AI Overviews Itinerary, Lens Tour Guide, Maps Screenshot & Track Prices

Mar 28, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google Ads

Google Tests Contactless Label In Place Of Curbside Pickup

Mar 28, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads WhatsApp Conversation Goals Get Diagnostics & More

Mar 28, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google: Don't Use Relative Paths In Your rel-canonical