Website redesign checklist: what a redesign must not lose
A redesign is judged on what it adds and fails on what it loses. The new design is the visible part of the work. The URLs, tracking and content the old site already earns are the part that decides whether the launch is a gain or a setback.
The short version
- A redesign adds a new design and can quietly remove what the old site earned: rankings, links, tracking and the record of where enquiries come from.
- Measure the current site before anyone designs anything. Without a baseline you cannot tell whether the launch helped.
- The URL map is the most important document in a redesign. Google’s guidance is to decide where every old URL redirects, use permanent server-side redirects, and keep them for at least a year.
- Speed and accessibility are design decisions, not launch checks. Google’s Core Web Vitals and WCAG 2.2 give measurable targets for both.
- Expect rankings to move after launch. Google says a medium-sized site can take a few weeks or more to settle, so watch the numbers rather than react to the first week.
Summarise with AI
ChatGPT
Claude
PerplexityA redesign is judged on what it adds and fails on what it loses
A website redesign checklist should protect what the current site already earns before it adds anything new: the URLs that rank, the links other sites point at, the analytics history and the record of where enquiries come from. Then it should hold the new site to measurable speed and accessibility targets, and prove after launch that enquiries did not fall.
It is written for the marketing lead commissioning a redesign, to brief the agency or team doing it and to hold them to account. Every step below is something to ask for in the proposal and check before launch.
Most redesign plans are lists of what the new site will have: a new look, new pages, a new content system. Very few list what the old site already has and must keep. That second list is where redesigns go wrong, because what the old site earned is invisible until it is gone.
It includes the pages search engines rank, the links other sites point at, the analytics history that lets you compare this year with last, and the form fields that tell you which source each enquiry came from. None of it shows up in a design review. All of it can be lost on launch day by a site that looks better than the one it replaced.
One disclosure before the rest. We design and redesign B2B websites for a living, so we have an interest in how this work is done. The technical rules below are quoted from Google Search Central, web.dev and the W3C rather than from our own practice, and the sources are listed at the end.
Measure the site you have before you design the next one
A redesign is a change you will be asked to justify, so take the measurements before you make it. Three months of numbers from the current site is the baseline every later claim is compared against.
- Enquiries per month, by source and by the page they started on. If the form does not record a source, fix that before the redesign, not after.
- The pages that bring search traffic, from Search Console: the queries, the clicks and the impressions for each.
- The pages other sites link to. These carry search value and point at URLs that are about to change.
- Speed and stability for the main templates, measured on real devices, so the new site can be held to the same bar or a better one.
- The questions buyers ask on sales calls that the current site does not answer. These are the pages the redesign should add.
Then set the goal in the same terms. More enquiries from the right companies is a goal. A modern look is a preference. The refresh, redesign or rebuild comparison helps decide how much of the site actually needs to change.
The URL map is the most important document in a redesign
If a redesign changes any URL, every old URL needs a decided destination. Google’s guidance on moving a site is direct about it: once you have the list of old URLs, decide where each one should redirect to. That list, with each old URL beside its new one, is the URL map.
The map decides whether rankings survive. Google treats a permanent redirect as a signal that the target should be the canonical page, so a mapped redirect carries the old page’s standing to its replacement. A missing redirect leaves a broken link where a ranking page used to be.
| Old URL | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Has a direct replacement | Permanent server-side redirect (301 or 308) to the new page | Google uses a permanent redirect as a signal that the target should be canonical |
| Merged into a broader page | Redirect to the section of the page that now covers it | The visitor and the search engine both land on the answer they came for |
| Removed with no equivalent | Let it return a 404 or 410, and keep it out of the sitemap | Google advises against redirecting many old URLs to one irrelevant page such as the home page, which can be treated as a soft 404 |
| Already redirected from an older site | Point the old redirect straight at the final page | Google advises redirecting to the final destination directly rather than through a chain |
| Unchanged | Leave it, and check its title, headings and content survived | The URL kept its standing only if the page still answers the same question |
Two rules from the same guidance are worth putting in the contract. Use server-side permanent redirects where technically possible, because temporary ones (302 and 307) are not used as a canonical signal. And keep the redirects for as long as possible: Google’s words are generally at least one year.
The cheapest redirect is the one you never need. A redesign that keeps the URLs of the pages that already rank removes most of this risk, and that is usually possible even when everything else on the page changes.
Speed and accessibility are design decisions, not launch checks
A new design tends to be heavier than the old one: larger images, more motion, more scripts. Checking speed in the last week before launch finds the problem when it is most expensive to fix. Set the targets before design starts, and test the templates against them as they are built.
| Metric | What it measures | Good |
|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | Loading: when the main content appears | Within 2.5 seconds |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | Responsiveness: how fast the page reacts to input | 200 milliseconds or less |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | Stability: how much the layout jumps while it loads | 0.1 or less |
Accessibility works the same way. The W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, version 2.2, set three levels of conformance (A, AA and AAA). Many of the criteria are design choices: contrast, for example, needs a ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text and 3 to 1 for large text at level AA. Choosing colours that fail it and fixing them after launch means redesigning the redesign.
Name the standard in the brief, so every design review checks against it. Whether a particular level applies to you legally depends on your sector and your markets, which is a question for your own advisers.
The website redesign checklist, phase by phase
Twelve steps in the order they happen. The first five come before anyone designs a page, which is the point: most of what a redesign can lose is protected or lost before the design starts. The short version for buyers is on our web design page.
Record the baseline
Three months of enquiries by source and landing page, search clicks and queries by page, and speed for the main templates.
List every URL
From the sitemap, Search Console and your analytics, including pages nobody links to from the menu.
Mark the pages that earn
The ones that bring search traffic, links from other sites or enquiries. Their URLs and content change last, if at all.
Write the URL map
Every old URL beside its new destination, with removed pages marked as removed rather than sent to the home page.
Put speed and accessibility in the brief
Core Web Vitals targets and a named accessibility standard, checked in every design review.
Keep what ranks, improve what does not
Rewrite ranking pages with care: keep the question each one answers, its main heading and its depth.
Carry the tracking across
Analytics, conversion events and the form field that records where each enquiry came from, tested on staging.
Test the redirects before launch
Every line of the map, checked for a single permanent hop to the right page.
Remove the staging blocks
Google’s checklist reminds you to remove any noindex or robots.txt blocks that were only needed during the build.
Update links, canonicals and the sitemap
Internal links pointing at new URLs, a self-referencing canonical on each page, and the new sitemap submitted in Search Console.
Send a real enquiry through every form
And confirm it arrives where it should, with its source recorded.
Watch, then compare
Search Console and enquiries daily for the first weeks, then compare against the baseline once the numbers settle.
Steps seven and eleven are the ones most often skipped, because a site can look finished without them. They decide whether you will be able to say, six months later, what the redesign did for enquiries.
Launch day and the weeks after
Some movement in rankings after a redesign is normal. Google’s own guidance says to expect fluctuations while it recrawls and reindexes a changed site, and that for a medium-sized website this can take a few weeks or more. Reacting to the first week’s numbers by changing more pages makes the picture harder to read.
What is not normal is a page that lost its traffic and returns an error, or redirects to somewhere unrelated. Check the pages you marked as earning first, every day for the first weeks, and fix any broken redirect the day you find it.
Is the redesign ready to launch?
Tick what is true today. Every unticked line is something the old site has that the new one could lose.
When you do not need a redesign
A redesign is a large change with real risk, so it is worth ruling out the smaller answers first:
- The site works and only looks dated. A visual refresh on the same URLs and content carries far less search risk.
- Few people visit it. A better-looking site with no traffic is still empty. Search or paid campaigns come first.
- One part is broken. If a single journey, such as the contact form or one service page, is the problem, fix that page.
A redesign earns its cost when buyers arrive and leave without enquiring, and the site is the reason.
Questions about redesigning a website
What should a website redesign checklist include?
A baseline of the current site’s numbers, a list of every URL, the pages that earn traffic or enquiries, a URL map with a destination for each old URL, speed and accessibility targets, tracking carried across, tested redirects, staging blocks removed, an updated sitemap, a real test enquiry, and close monitoring after launch. The full checklist sets them out in order.
Will a website redesign hurt my SEO?
It can. Rankings are lost when old URLs break, when pages that ranked are rewritten so they no longer answer the same question, or when a staging block is left in place. They are protected by a URL map, permanent redirects and careful rewriting of the pages that earn traffic.
How long does it take rankings to settle after a redesign?
Google says to expect fluctuations while it recrawls and reindexes the site, and that for a medium-sized website this can take a few weeks or more. Larger sites can take longer.
Should I use 301 or 302 redirects in a redesign?
Permanent redirects, 301 or 308, for any page that has moved for good. Google uses a permanent redirect as a signal that the new URL should be the canonical one. Temporary redirects (302 and 307) are not used that way.
How long should I keep redirects after a redesign?
Google’s guidance is as long as possible, and generally at least one year. Links from other sites keep pointing at old URLs for far longer than that, so many sites keep them indefinitely.
Should I redirect deleted pages to the home page?
No. Google advises against redirecting many old URLs to one irrelevant destination such as the home page, which can confuse visitors and may be treated as a soft 404. Redirect a page to its closest equivalent, or let it return a 404 if there is none.
Method and sources
The technical rules in this article are quoted from the primary sources below, read in October 2026; each page carries its own last-updated date. The keyword volumes behind the topic come from a Semrush pull for the US on 5 October 2026. The order of the checklist and the advice on baselines, tracking and testing are our judgement from redesigning websites, written as judgement rather than as data. Traffic-loss percentages for redesigns circulate widely; we could not trace the ones we found to a primary source, so none are used here.
- Site moves with URL changesGoogle Search Central. URL mapping, server-side permanent redirects, keeping redirects at least a year, avoiding chains and home-page redirects, removing migration blocks, canonicals, sitemaps, and the expected fluctuation after a move
- Redirects and Google SearchGoogle Search Central. How permanent (301, 308) and temporary (302, 307) redirects are treated as canonical signals
- Web Vitalsweb.dev, Google. The Core Web Vitals and their thresholds: LCP within 2.5 seconds, INP of 200 milliseconds or less, CLS of 0.1 or less, at the 75th percentile
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2W3C Recommendation, 12 December 2024. Conformance levels A, AA and AAA, and success criterion 1.4.3 on contrast
