The Website Redesign Checklist: Plan, Build and Launch Without Losing SEO

A website redesign has many moving parts. Most problems come from steps that were skipped, not from bad design. Use this checklist to plan your redesign, build it and launch it without losing traffic.

Phase 1: Before you start

• Write down one main goal for the redesign. For example: more demo requests, a new positioning, or a launch date.
• Decide how you will measure it. Pick the numbers you will compare before and after launch.
• Record a baseline: traffic, conversion rate and the top pages in Google Search Console and your analytics.
• List your must-have integrations: CMS, CRM, booking tool, analytics, payments.
• Set a deadline and a budget range.
• Collect two or three websites you like, and write down why.

Phase 2: Content and structure

• Export a list of every URL on your current site.
• Mark the pages that get search traffic or have backlinks. These are the pages you must protect.
• Decide for every page: keep, merge, rewrite or remove.
• Plan the new sitemap and navigation.
• Write or update the copy for key pages: home, product, pricing, about.
• Collect proof: customer logos, testimonials, case studies, numbers you can share.

Phase 3: Design

• Agree on a visual direction before designing every page.
• Design mobile layouts, not only desktop.
• Design every state: hover, focus, empty, error, loading.
• Keep one clear primary call to action per page.
• Check color contrast and text size for accessibility.

Phase 4: Build

• Build reusable components, not one-off pages.
• Set up the CMS so your team can edit content without a developer.
• Optimize images, fonts and scripts.
• Add titles, meta descriptions and Open Graph images to every page.
• Add structured data: Organization, Breadcrumbs, FAQ and Article where it fits.
• Set a canonical URL on every page.
• Connect forms and booking tools, and test that every lead arrives.
• Set up analytics goals for form submits and booked calls.

Phase 5: SEO migration

This is the step that protects your traffic.

• Map every old URL to its new URL.
• Set up 301 redirects for every URL that changes.
• Do not redirect everything to the homepage. Redirect each page to its closest match.
• Keep the titles and descriptions that already rank, or improve them carefully.
• Generate a new XML sitemap and check your robots.txt file.
• Make sure the staging site is not indexed, and that the live site is.

Phase 6: Launch day

• Test the main pages on mobile and desktop, in more than one browser.
• Test every form and booking flow with a real submission.
• Check that redirects work for your top pages.
• Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console.
• Check that analytics records page views and goals.

Phase 7: After launch

• Watch Search Console for crawl errors and 404s every week for the first month.
• Compare traffic and conversions with your baseline.
• Fix the pages that lost rankings first.
• Keep a list of improvements for the next iteration. A website is never finished.

Need help with your redesign?

We design and build websites for startups and enterprises, and we handle the SEO migration as part of every website redesign.