A new website should bring in more customers, not fewer. Yet one of the most common problems after a redesign is a sudden drop in Google traffic. Pages disappear, links break and the rankings your old site built over years quietly vanish.
The good news: it’s preventable. On every redesign I build, I keep your existing URLs and SEO in place so your rankings carry over. Here’s the checklist behind that.
Before the redesign
1. Make a list of every page
Start by listing every page on your current website, including blog posts, service pages and any landing pages. Your sitemap (often at yoursite.com/sitemap.xml) is a good starting point. If Google Search Console is set up, it can show you which pages actually get traffic.
2. Find your most important pages
Not every page matters equally. Note which pages bring in the most visitors, which ones rank for valuable searches, and which ones other websites link to. These need the most care.
3. Save your current titles and descriptions
Each page has a title and meta description that Google often shows in search results. Save them. You may improve them later, but you shouldn’t lose them by accident.
During the redesign
4. Keep URLs the same whenever possible
This is the single biggest factor. If your services page lives at /services/, keep it at /services/ on the new site. Same address, same rankings.
5. Redirect anything that has to change
Sometimes a URL must change. When it does, set up a permanent (301) redirect from the old address to the new one. That tells Google the page moved and passes its value along. Never let important pages simply disappear and show an error.
6. Don’t throw away content that ranks
A cleaner design is great, but pages that rank well usually rank because of their content. Before you cut text, check whether that page brings in traffic. Improve it, reorganize it, but don’t delete it without a reason.
7. Carry over the technical basics
Make sure each page still has a clear title, a meta description, one main heading, image alt text and internal links to related pages. A good redesign is a chance to improve all of these.
At launch
8. Test everything before you switch
Check every page, form and link on desktop, tablet and mobile. Make sure the new site isn’t accidentally blocked from search engines. This is a surprisingly common mistake when a site moves from a staging area to live.
9. Submit your new sitemap
Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console so Google can find your updated pages quickly.
After launch
10. Watch for problems
For the first few weeks, keep an eye on Google Search Console for errors and pages that can’t be found, and fix any broken links or missing redirects right away. A small, temporary dip in traffic can happen while Google re-crawls a site, but a large or lasting drop usually means something was missed.
Redesign with confidence
A redesign is one of the best things you can do for your business, as long as it protects what your old site already earned. If you’re planning one, see how my process works or get in touch to talk it through.
