A redesign is the most common way a business loses the search traffic it took years to earn. It is also entirely avoidable. This is the checklist we run on every build, including the one you are reading.
Before anything is designed
- Export every URL on the current site, from the sitemap and from Search Console, with impressions and clicks for the last twelve months.
- Record current rankings for the searches that produce enquiries.
- Save the title, description and main heading of every page that earns traffic.
- Note every inbound link you know about, because the pages they point at must keep working.
During design and build
- Map every old URL to exactly one new URL, or to a deliberate removal. No page is left to chance.
- Keep the pages that rank, even if they get a new design. Merge thin pages into one strong page rather than deleting them.
- Build one page per search intent. Two pages chasing the same phrase compete with each other.
- Set performance budgets: the new site should be faster than the old one on a phone, not just prettier on a laptop.
- Write the structured data, the titles and the descriptions as part of the build, not as an afterthought.
Before launch
- Test every redirect on the staging site, automatically, against the full list of old URLs.
- Check that the staging site is blocked from search engines and that the live site will not be.
- Confirm analytics, call tracking and conversion tracking fire on the new site.
- Submit the new sitemap the moment the site goes live.
The first month
Watch Search Console daily for crawl errors and for pages that drop out of the index. Compare clicks and impressions for the pages that mattered before. Some movement is normal for a few weeks; a sustained fall on an important page usually means a missing redirect, a changed heading or a blocked resource, all of which are fixable quickly if you are looking.
Questions people ask
How long does it take for rankings to settle after a redesign?
Two to eight weeks is typical when redirects are complete. Longer usually means something was missed.
Should we change the domain at the same time?
Only if you must. A domain change on top of a redesign doubles the risk. If both are needed, do the redesign first and the domain move a few months later.
Can we remove old pages that get no traffic?
Yes, deliberately: redirect them to the closest relevant page, or return a "gone" status if there is no equivalent. Never leave them as broken links.