A new design should help your business, not make you vanish from Google. Search traffic is often lost during redesigns because pages move, titles change and nobody sets up redirects. Use this checklist.
Before you start
- List every page on the current site and note which ones get visitors.
- Save your page titles, descriptions and main headings.
- Record your current rankings and traffic so you can compare afterwards.
During the rebuild
- Keep good URLs. If a page ranks, try not to change its address.
- Redirect what moves. Every old address that changes needs a permanent redirect to its new home.
- Keep the content that works. Do not delete pages that bring visitors.
- Carry over titles and descriptions unless you are improving them on purpose.
At launch
- Check that the new site is open to search engines.
- Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console.
- Test the site on a phone, and test every form.
After launch
Watch Search Console for crawl errors and compare traffic for the first few weeks. Small dips can be normal, but big drops mean something was missed.
Planning a redesign? See how we handle it.