Journal · 25 August 2026

Before you relaunch: an SEO checklist for a website redesign

The checks to make before, during and after a website redesign so your business keeps the search visibility it has built. Written for Derby businesses working with a web designer.

Hands on a laptop keyboard beside a mug of tea and a printed spreadsheet

A new website is exciting. It looks better, loads faster and finally reflects what the business does. Then, a few weeks after launch, enquiries slow down and nobody can say why.

The most common cause of sudden search traffic loss we investigate is a website relaunch that did not account for SEO. The good news is that almost all of it is preventable with some planning. This checklist is for business owners working with a web designer or agency, so you know what to ask for.

Stage 1: before design starts

Record what you have

Before anything changes, take a full inventory of your current site:

Every URL on the site, from a crawl.
The pages that receive organic traffic, from Google Search Console and Analytics, over at least the past twelve months.
The pages that other websites link to.
The searches each important page ranks for.

Save this somewhere safe. Once the old site is gone, it is much harder to reconstruct.

Decide what is staying

Redesigns are often used as a chance to simplify, which is sensible. But pages that bring traffic or links should not be dropped without a decision. For each one, choose: keep it, merge it into another page, or remove it deliberately.

Brief your web designer

Make SEO part of the brief, not something checked at the end. Ask how they handle redirects, page titles, headings, image optimisation and structured data. A good web design company will have a clear answer.

Stage 2: during the build

Keep URLs where possible

If the new platform allows it, keep the same URLs for important pages. It removes the risk entirely for those pages.

Build the redirect map

Where URLs must change, create a spreadsheet mapping every old URL to its new equivalent. The equivalent should be the most relevant page, not the home page. Redirects should be permanent (301) and go directly to the final URL, not through a chain.

Carry content across properly

Designers often shorten text to fit a cleaner layout. That can remove the very content that made a page rank. Compare old and new versions of key pages and make sure nothing important has been lost: service details, answers to common questions, location information.

Titles, descriptions and headings

Each page needs a unique title and meta description. Templates often default to the site name or the page name only. Check that each page has one main heading that describes it.

Check the staging site

Review the new site on its staging address before launch:

Is navigation clear, and can every important page be reached through links?
Do pages load quickly on a mobile connection?
Are images compressed and given descriptive alt text?
Is structured data in place and valid?
Does the staging site block search engines? It should, but that block must be removed at launch.

Stage 3: launch day

Remove any "noindex" settings or password protection that was on the staging site. This is the single most common launch error.
Check that the robots.txt file is not blocking the site.
Put the redirects live and test them in bulk using the old URL list.
Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.
Check that analytics and any conversion tracking are firing on the new site.
If the domain has changed, use the Change of Address tool in Search Console.

Stage 4: the weeks after

Crawl the live site and look for broken links, missing pages and redirect errors.
Watch Search Console daily for the first week, then weekly: indexing status, crawl errors and search performance.
Expect some movement. Rankings often wobble for a few weeks as Google processes the change. A steady decline, or a sharp drop on particular pages, needs investigating.
Update links you control: your Google Business Profile, social media profiles, directory listings and email signatures.

If it has already gone wrong

If you have relaunched and lost traffic, it is usually recoverable, especially if you act quickly. Old URLs can be found from Search Console, analytics, link data and web archives. Redirects can be added, content restored and titles fixed. The sooner this happens, the more of the lost visibility returns.

A note on platform changes

Moving between platforms, for example from a hand-built site to WordPress, or from WooCommerce to Shopify, adds its own issues. Shopify, for instance, imposes its own URL patterns for products and collections, so redirects are always needed. Plan for the platform's habits as well as the design.

Our migration and redesign SEO service covers every step above, working alongside your web designer. If you are planning a relaunch in Derby or anywhere in Derbyshire, the earlier we see the plans, the easier it is.

The full checklist

Use this as a working list with your designer or developer. Tick each item before moving to the next stage.

Stage	Task	Owner
Before	Export a full list of current URLs from a crawl, analytics and Search Console	SEO
Before	Record top pages by visits, enquiries and links	SEO
Before	Benchmark rankings and enquiry numbers	SEO
Before	Agree which pages stay, merge or go	Business owner and SEO
Build	Keep URLs the same where possible	Developer
Build	Map every changed URL to its closest new equivalent	SEO
Build	Carry over titles, descriptions and headings for important pages	Developer and SEO
Build	Block the staging site from search engines	Developer
Build	Check page speed and mobile layout on the staging site	Developer
Launch	Remove the staging block from the live site	Developer
Launch	Apply redirects and test a sample of them	Developer and SEO
Launch	Submit the new sitemap in Search Console	SEO
Launch	Check analytics and conversion tracking are firing	SEO
After	Check Search Console coverage and errors weekly	SEO
After	Compare rankings and enquiries with the benchmark	SEO
After	Fix broken links and missing redirects as they appear	Developer

The redirect map

The redirect map is the most important single document in a redesign. It is a spreadsheet with every old URL in one column and the new URL it should point to in the next. Every page that had visits, links or rankings needs a destination. Pages with no equivalent should redirect to the closest relevant page, not to the home page by default.

Test redirects after launch by requesting a sample of old URLs and checking that each returns a single permanent redirect to the right place. Chains, where one redirect leads to another, slow things down and should be flattened.

Content that quietly disappears

Redesigns often trim content to suit a cleaner design. Long service descriptions become three bullet points, FAQs vanish and case studies are dropped. If those pages ranked because of that content, rankings will fall. Before cutting, check which pages bring visits and enquiries, and keep their substance even if the layout changes.

Analytics and tracking

It is very common for a new site to launch without its tracking working: a missing tag, a changed form that no longer records submissions, or a phone number that is no longer tracked. Test every conversion on the live site on launch day. Without it you will not be able to tell whether the redesign helped.

How long recovery takes

A well-planned redesign with full redirects usually sees some movement in the first few weeks and settles within a couple of months. A poorly planned one can take far longer to recover, or not recover at all without remedial work. That is why the planning stage deserves most of the effort.

Getting help

Our website migration SEO service covers all of the above, from the URL inventory to post-launch monitoring. If your site has already launched and traffic has dropped, an SEO audit will identify what went wrong.