A redesign should bring more customers, not fewer. Yet many businesses launch a beautiful new website and watch their Google visits drop by half within a month. The cause is almost never the design. It is addresses that changed without redirects, pages that disappeared, and titles that were rewritten without a plan. This checklist covers what to do before, during and after a redesign so your rankings come with you.
Before: record what already works
You cannot protect what you have not measured. Before any design work starts, take a snapshot of the current website.
- Every address on the site, from its sitemap and from Google Search Console.
- The pages that bring visits and the searches they appear for, from Search Console’s Performance report.
- Titles and descriptions of those pages, so you know what Google currently shows.
- Pages other websites link to; those links are worth keeping alive.
During: keep addresses, redirect the rest
The safest address is the one that does not change. Keep the address of every page that brings visits, even if its design changes completely. When a page must move or merge, add a permanent (301) redirect from the old address to the closest new page, not to the home page. Pages that never brought a visit and that Google never showed can simply be removed.
| Old page | What to do |
|---|---|
| Brings visits, still needed | Keep the same address |
| Brings visits, content moves | 301 redirect to the new page on the same topic |
| Several thin pages on one topic | Merge into one page, redirect the others to it |
| Never shown on Google, not needed | Remove |
Rewrite titles and descriptions carefully: keep the words people already find you with, and improve the rest. A new website should also be faster than the old one; speed affects both rankings and how many visitors stay.
Content: keep, improve, merge or cut
A redesign is the best moment to clean up content, but every page should be decided on purpose. Pages that bring visits keep their main topic and words; you can make them clearer, add photos and answer more questions. Several short pages about the same service often rank better as one complete page. Old news, empty category pages and duplicates can go.
Service pages deserve the most care. They are the pages people find when they are ready to buy, so each service should have its own page with a clear title, what is included, who it suits and how to get in touch. Our business website page shows the structure we use.
Speed and phones
Most visitors now arrive on a phone, often on mobile data. A redesign that adds heavy images, video backgrounds and many plugins can be slower than the site it replaces, and slower pages lose both rankings and customers. Measure the old site’s speed with Google PageSpeed Insights before you start, and make the new site beat it before launch.
Launch day: the five checks
- The new site is open to search engines (the draft site’s “hide from Google” setting is off).
- Every old address from your snapshot either works or redirects in one step.
- The new sitemap is submitted in Google Search Console.
- Each page has one main heading, its own title and description.
- Contact forms, phone and chat buttons work on a real phone.
After: watch the first four weeks
A small dip in the first days is normal while Google reads the new pages. Check Search Console weekly: pages reported as “not found”, visits to your top pages compared with your snapshot, and new pages being indexed. Fix any old address that shows up as “not found” with a redirect. After four to six weeks, visits should be back to where they were, and then above.
Keep the redirects in place for good. Other websites, old emails, printed brochures and bookmarks will keep sending people to your old addresses for years. A redirect costs nothing to keep and quietly passes those visitors, and the trust Google gave the old page, to the new one. Review the list once a year and remove only redirects that point to pages you have since deleted.
Questions about redesign and SEO
Does a redesign always hurt SEO?
No. Rankings drop when addresses break and content disappears. With kept addresses, correct redirects and a faster site, a redesign usually improves results.
Should we move to a new domain at the same time?
Only if you must. Changing the design and the domain together makes problems harder to find. If you need both, do them in two steps.
Can you redesign a website you did not build?
Yes. Our website redesign service starts with this snapshot of your current site, then keeps what works and renews the rest.
In short
- Record every address, top page and search before the redesign starts.
- Keep the addresses that bring visits; redirect moved pages to the closest new one.
- Check Search Console weekly for four weeks and fix every “not found” with a redirect.