Redesign Checklist: Keep, Fix and Redirect

To keep your search traffic through a redesign, do four things: find out which pages bring visitors now, keep the useful ones (at the same address where you can), map every old address to its closest new page with a permanent 301 redirect, and test all of it before launch. Most traffic loss after a redesign comes from forgotten pages and broken redirects, not from the new design. This checklist follows Google's own guidance on site moves.

Before you design anything: take inventory

You cannot protect what you have not listed. Build a spreadsheet of every address on the current site.

1. 1Crawl the site with a crawling tool, or export the page list from your platform.
2. 2Pull performance data. In Google Search Console, export pages by clicks and impressions. In your analytics, export pages by visits and by conversions (form sent, call tapped).
3. 3Check links from other sites. Google suggests drawing old addresses from your sitemaps, server logs, analytics, Search Console's links report and your CMS. Pages with outside links are worth more than they look.
4. 4Include files. Old PDFs, images and downloads that other pages link to count too.

Decide what to keep, fix, merge or retire

Mark each row in the sheet.

• Keep. The page earns traffic or leads. Keep its address if the new platform allows, and keep its main heading, text and answer. A redesign should change how the page looks, not strip the information that made it rank.
• Fix. The page gets impressions but weak clicks or conversions. Improve the title, the first paragraph, the call to action. Do it as part of the redesign or just after, and note it so you can compare later.
• Merge. Several thin pages on the same topic. Combine them into one stronger page and redirect the old ones to it.
• Retire. Pages with no traffic, no links and no purpose. It is fine to remove them. Redirect to the closest relevant page if one exists, or let them return 404 or 410. Google notes that content you are not moving should return 404 or 410.

Build the URL map

For every old address that will change or disappear, write the exact new address next to it. This is the most valuable document in the project.

• Send each old page to its closest equivalent. Google specifically warns against redirecting many pages to an unrelated page such as the homepage.
• Redirect each old address directly to its final destination. Avoid chains where A goes to B goes to C.
• Include the variants: with and without www, http and https, and trailing slashes.

Carry the SEO elements over

On the new pages, check:

• Title tags and meta descriptions for pages that rank.
• One clear main heading per page, with the same topic as before.
• Self-referencing canonical tags, which Google recommends on the new site.
• Internal links updated to the new addresses, so visitors and crawlers do not go through redirects.
• Image alt text, structured data and your business details (name, address, phone), as covered in local SEO for a Los Angeles service business.
• A new XML sitemap listing the new addresses.

Build and test on a staging site

Keep the staging site out of search with a password or a noindex tag, and write down that you must remove it. A leftover noindex is a classic launch-day mistake. Google's list for go-live says to remove any temporary noindex or robots.txt block and confirm canonicals point to the new addresses.

Test before launch:

• Forms deliver to a real inbox.
• Click-to-call and booking links work on a phone.
• Analytics and conversion tracking fire.
• Every row of the URL map redirects where it should. A spreadsheet of old addresses and a script or tool that checks the response is quicker than clicking.

Launch

• Pick a quiet week, not your busiest season. Google recommends moving during low-traffic periods and changing one thing at a time. If you can keep the same domain and platform address structure, do. Changing the domain, the design, the structure and the copy at once makes it impossible to tell what caused a drop.
• Use server-side 301 or 308 redirects. Squarespace, Shopify, WordPress and other platforms each have a place to enter them. Squarespace calls them URL mappings, and Shopify has URL redirects with a CSV import. Our Squarespace guide and Shopify guide mention the limits.
• Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.
• Use Change of Address only if the domain changes. Google says not to use it for http to https, www changes or path changes.

After launch

1. 1Check Search Console for crawl errors and the Pages (indexing) report in the first days.
2. 2Compare clicks and impressions for your top pages week by week against your before export. Expect movement for a few weeks. Google says medium-sized sites can take weeks to fully settle.
3. 3Fix broken internal links and any redirect that lands on the wrong page.
4. 4Update your Google Business Profile website link, social profiles and any ad destinations.
5. 5Keep the redirects. Google says to keep them for at least a year and as long as you can.

Common ways redesigns lose traffic

• Everything redirected to the homepage.
• The staging noindex left on.
• New page text rewritten so it no longer answers what people searched.
• URL changes made just for tidiness.
• Redirects skipped for old blog posts and PDFs.

If you are weighing whether to redesign at all, is your website holding you back is a good starting point, and the website checklist before you hire lists what to gather.

Want a person to look at it?

A redesign should come with a redirect map and a launch checklist as standard deliverables. If you want us to review your current site first, try the website check, or start a quote and tell us what you are changing and why.