Know what brings traffic today
Before anything changes, export the list of pages that receive search traffic, links from other sites and enquiries. Search Console, analytics and a crawl of the current site together give a reliable picture. Keep this inventory: it is your baseline for comparison after launch.
Mark the pages that matter most. These are the ones whose content and addresses deserve the most care. A page that brings steady enquiries should not lose its main text just because the new design has less space for it.
Note what search engines see on these pages now: titles, headings, structured data, internal links. A redesign that removes them changes the page for search, even if the address stays the same.
Plan addresses and redirects
Keep addresses where you can. If they must change, prepare a redirect map: every old address with traffic, links or enquiries points to its closest new equivalent with a permanent redirect. Avoid sending everything to the home page; search engines treat that as a lost page.
Avoid chains, where one redirect leads to another. Point each old address straight to its final destination. Update internal links so that the site itself does not rely on redirects.
For larger changes, such as a new domain, merged sections or a new platform, treat the project as a website migration and plan SEO website migration support from the start. Our migration checklist lists what to test before and after the switch.
Launch and the weeks after
On launch day, check that the new site is open for indexing, that the sitemap contains the new addresses and that a sample of redirects works. Submit the sitemap and watch for crawl errors.
Some fluctuation in the first weeks is normal. Compare traffic and enquiries for the important pages with your baseline, not the whole site at once, so that you see where a problem comes from. Keep an eye on the 404 log: it shows addresses you missed in the redirect map.
Make sure enquiries are measured the same way before and after. If the tracking changes along with the design, your marketing analytics reports will show a drop or a rise that has nothing to do with visitors.
Redirect map: one row per old page
| Old URL | New URL | Traffic and enquiries | Status after launch |
|---|---|---|---|
| /services/old-name/ | /services/new-name/ | From Search Console and analytics | Opens with one redirect: check |
| /blog/old-article/ | /insights/new-article/ | From Search Console and analytics | Opens with one redirect: check |
Checklist: redesign and search
- Export pages with traffic, links and enquiries before any change.
- Keep important content and addresses where possible.
- Map every changed address to its closest new page.
- Remove redirect chains and update internal links.
- Check indexing settings and the sitemap on launch day.
- Compare key pages with the baseline and watch the 404 log.
Example: the missing service pages
After a redesign, a company merges five service pages into one long page and drops the old addresses. Visits from search to those services fall, because the new page answers none of the specific queries as well as the old pages did.
The team restores separate pages for the two services that brought most enquiries, redirects the other old addresses to the right sections and sees the pages return to search over the following weeks.
