Website redesign SEO checklist: how to rebuild without losing rankings

A redesign is the best chance you’ll get to fix a website that undersells your business. It’s also the easiest way to lose the search rankings you’ve built up over years. The difference is almost always preparation. Use this checklist before, during and after launch.

1. 1RecordCrawl, rankings, backlinks, baseline.
2. 2MapEvery old URL to its new home.
3. 3BuildContent, titles and structured data carried over.
4. 4LaunchUnblock, redirect, submit sitemaps.
5. 5WatchCoverage, 404s, rankings and leads.

Before you start: record what you have

You can’t protect what you haven’t measured. Before anyone designs anything:

• Crawl the current site. Use a crawler such as Screaming Frog to list every URL, page title, meta description and heading.
• Export your rankings and top pages. From Google Search Console, export the queries and pages that bring in clicks. These are the pages you can’t afford to lose.
• List your backlinks. Note which pages other sites link to. Those links carry authority you want to keep.
• Save your analytics baseline. Traffic, calls and form submissions by page, so you can compare after launch.

The pages that already rank are your most valuable assets in a redesign. Find them first, then design around them.

Plan the new structure around what works

A redesign often changes the site’s structure. That’s fine, as long as every valuable page has a clear home.

• Keep URLs where you can. If a page keeps its address, there’s nothing to redirect.
• Map every old URL to a new one. Build a spreadsheet: old URL in one column, its closest new equivalent in the other. No page should be left without a destination.
• Don’t merge or cut ranking pages casually. If a page ranks for a valuable search, keep its content (improved, not removed) on the new site.
• Keep the internal links. Pages that linked to each other before should still link after.

During the build

• Block the staging site from search engines, with a password or noindex, so the unfinished site isn’t indexed.
• Carry over titles, headings and content for ranking pages, improving them rather than starting from scratch.
• Add structured data (Organization, Service, BreadcrumbList and so on) so search engines understand the new pages from day one.
• Keep image alt text and add it where it was missing.
• Set canonical tags so each page points to its own preferred URL.

Launch day

This is where most redesign disasters happen, usually because of one forgotten setting.

Launch-day checklist

0 of 7 done

• Staging block removed: no noindex tags, robots.txt allows crawling
• 301 redirects live from the URL map
• Top pages and pages with backlinks tested: old URLs land on the right new page
• New XML sitemap submitted in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools
• Analytics recording from the first visit
• Call tracking and forms tested end to end
• Google Business Profile and key listings updated if URLs changed

After launch: watch and fix

Some movement in rankings after a redesign is normal while search engines re-crawl the site. What you’re watching for is problems that don’t settle.

• Check Search Console coverage for pages that aren’t indexed and for crawl errors.
• Watch for 404s and redirect any old URL you missed.
• Compare rankings and traffic with your baseline after two, four and eight weeks.
• Compare leads, not just traffic. The point of the redesign is more calls and quote requests; measure that.

For an example of a full rebuild, see how we rebuilt the Reliance Aircraft website around how airline and defense buyers choose a supplier.

Frequently asked questions

Will my rankings drop after a redesign?

Small fluctuations are common for a few weeks while search engines re-crawl the site. Large, lasting drops usually come from missing redirects, lost content or a site accidentally left blocked from indexing, all of which this checklist is designed to prevent.

Should I change my domain at the same time?

Avoid it if you can. A domain change adds another layer of risk. If you must, redirect every URL and use the change-of-address tool in Google Search Console.

How long before I can judge the new site?

Give it at least a couple of months, then compare rankings, traffic and leads with your pre-launch baseline.