Will ReDesigning my website negatively affect SEO?

[bonganig]

I currently have a one page website which lists all the company information on one page [domain name is www. bwd . co . za]. It uses javascript for navigation. My challenge is that the layout is outdated and I would like to update it with a high quality WordPress theme which will not be a one-pager.

Currently on Open Site Explorer the website has a domain authority of 30/100 and page authority of 41/100. I've worked hard to push the numbers to get to where they are hence I'm a bit concerned.

Will re-designing my website negatively affect SEO?

[Krankensigns.com]

It has been my experience, no.

But a few things I like to keep in mind:

if you have any SEO "juice" associated with your website, try to keep your page descriptions and key words as close to the previous iteration website as you can. This way when search engines troll your site you should keep your status for those keywords.

[EGOL]

Here are things that can ruin your rankings if done poorly...

1. changing your on-page optimization - this includes titles h1 h2 etc.

2. changing your URLs and not doing a redirect

3. changing your file/folder names in a way that makes them less relevant

4. changing your internal navigation in a way that reroutes linkjuice

5. using code that prevents spidering of internal links

Not directly related to SEO but still important

6. changing your page layout that obscures navigation, links to related items, access to important pages - these can increase your bounce rate

7. design changes that reduce mind-on-task in ways that kill your conversion rate

When you do a redesign you should not be fearing the loss of rankings.  Instead this is the time to do an SEO evaluation as part of the redesign.  This is an opportunity to move your rankings UP.

[zoicaremus]

Hi  Bongani,

Here are some extra resources that could help you understand better what happens when you do layout / website changes. This is a video by Matt Cutts posted a wile ago, it also includes some other things but it also mentions things related to the layout:

Will changing the code and layout of my pages while moving to new URLs affect their rankings?

Also, besides what EGOL said I would also add another thing:

8. Be very careful about the Wordpress theme you are going to use. It's a good thing you already mentioned that you want it high quality. Just to be sure - I would check for any embeded / hidden links. I had some unpleasent experiences even with "high quality ones".