Start a website redesign by recording what the current site already does well. Keep useful pages and working URLs where you can, plan redirects for URLs that need to change, and check the new site's content and customer actions before launch. Afterwards, watch search performance and enquiries so problems are easier to spot.
A redesign can improve the way a business presents itself and the way people use its website. It also touches pages that customers, search engines and other websites already know. Treating those pages as part of the project gives the new site a better starting point.
Record the baseline before design starts
Keep a list of the current pages, including useful articles, project pages and downloads. Look at the available analytics and Search Console data to find pages people visit and the queries that bring them there. Ask the business which pages help sales or answer important customer questions.
Those lists won't always match. A technical page might receive little traffic but be essential to a buyer comparing suppliers. Keep both the search data and the business context in view.
Record how your main enquiries, purchases or bookings are measured. Otherwise a change to the tracking setup can look like a change in customer behaviour. Save the baseline and note any seasonal patterns that could affect a comparison.
Decide what to keep, combine or remove
Review each useful page before replacing it. Its design may need work while the information is still valuable. Improve unclear writing, check old facts and keep the details that help customers make a decision.
Combining overlapping pages can make sense when the new page still answers the questions those pages covered. Removing a page needs a reason. A shorter menu doesn't require deleting every useful page underneath it.
Use a simple worksheet with the current URL, its purpose, the planned action and the new destination if there is one. Our service page guide can help assess whether the content still answers a buyer's questions.
Map changed URLs to relevant destinations
If an old address changes, decide where someone following that link should arrive. For a service that still exists, that should usually be the corresponding service page. Sending unrelated old pages to the homepage leaves visitors to search again.
Google recommends a mapping from old URLs to new ones and permanent server redirects where possible. Its guidance also advises avoiding redirect chains. These are technical tasks for the build team, with a list you can review and test. Google's site migration guidance explains the approach.
If a page is genuinely gone and there is no useful replacement, an appropriate missing-page response may be the right outcome. Ask the team to distinguish that from an accidental broken link.
Check the work before changing the live site
A homepage screenshot proves a small part of a redesign. Review the important page types and complete the tasks a customer will try.
- Find a service from the menu and from a link inside another page.
- Open a known old URL and check its final destination.
- Complete the enquiry or booking process and confirm the intended record arrives.
- Use the site on a phone and with a keyboard.
- Check important titles, descriptions, images and downloads.
- Check that analytics still measures the agreed actions.
- Confirm who can publish content and who is responsible for launch.
Also ask for the launch checks around indexing, the sitemap and canonical URLs. A private preview may be intentionally kept out of search. The team needs a specific plan for the settings that change at launch.
Keep a way back
Agree how the previous working version can be restored if launch exposes a serious problem. Include the website, content and any connected systems the change affects. A backup is useful when someone knows how to use it.
Where possible, avoid changing the domain, CMS, design and content all at once. Google recommends separating major changes during a site move. Your team can explain which changes belong together and which can wait.
Watch what happens after launch
Check important URLs and customer actions on the live site again. Then monitor search clicks, indexing reports and enquiries against the baseline. Compare like periods where possible and record other changes, such as a campaign or a quieter month.
Google notes that rankings can fluctuate while a changed site is recrawled and reindexed. A sound migration reduces avoidable mistakes; it can't promise the same position for every search. Use the reports to investigate specific problems rather than treating every daily movement as a failure.
Does every redesign need a full rebuild?
No. If the platform still supports the business and the main problems are limited to content, layout or a particular customer path, a focused improvement may be enough. Assess what is working before choosing the size of the project.
Bring the current URL and the reason for the change to a website design conversation. Keeping useful work is part of planning the next version.