Updated 9 September 2026 · 3 min read
Quick answer: Before launching a website redesign, inventory the existing pages, decide which URLs will stay or change, test the important visitor journeys and confirm that the new site can be discovered. Prepare redirects where needed and assign someone to monitor the release. A checklist reduces avoidable mistakes, but cannot guarantee unchanged search traffic.
What should you record before changing the site?
List existing pages, important downloads, forms and integrations. Note which pages receive useful traffic, enquiries or external links where that information is available. Save the current content and settings through the project’s normal backup process.
For every page, choose an outcome: keep, improve, merge or retire. Record the reason and the intended destination if it changes. A redesign is easier to review when the team can explain what happened to each important page.
How should URL changes be handled?
Google’s site-move guidance recommends preparing a mapping from old URLs to relevant new destinations, testing the new site and monitoring the move. It also cautions that ranking fluctuations can occur while pages are recrawled and reindexed. Review Google’s documentation on site moves with URL changes.
Keep a useful URL when there is no good reason to change it. When a permanent change is necessary, configure an appropriate permanent redirect to the relevant replacement. Avoid sending unrelated retired pages to a generic destination simply to avoid an error. Review special cases with the person handling the migration.
Which visitor journeys need testing?
- Service discovery: can a new visitor understand the offer and reach the right service page?
- Contact: do forms submit, notifications arrive and success messages explain the next step?
- Mobile use: do navigation, images and controls remain usable on a phone?
- Keyboard use: can the main journey be completed with a visible focus indicator?
- Content: are prices, contact details, links and images correct?
Test with realistic entries, including long names and an intentional form error. Check the actual destination of every main call to action. A label can be correct even when its underlying link still points to an old page.
What belongs in the launch plan?
Name the person making the release, the person checking it and the route for reporting a problem. Define which failures would require an immediate fix or rollback, such as a broken enquiry form. Keep the checklist short enough that someone can execute it while the release is happening.
Confirm that any development-only indexing restrictions are handled correctly for launch. Check the final URLs, redirects and sitemap, and verify important pages in the search tools used by the business. These are implementation checks rather than a promise that a search engine will index every page.
What should happen after launch?
Repeat the core journeys on the published site. Check form delivery, broken links and unexpected errors. Monitor useful business measures alongside search traffic so that a technical problem is not mistaken for a normal change in demand. Document issues and fixes in one place.
Frequently asked questions
Should every URL change during a redesign?
No. Visual improvements do not automatically require new addresses. Preserve a useful existing structure unless there is a clear reason to change it.
Can a redesign guarantee no traffic loss?
No. Search visibility can fluctuate after significant changes. Careful mapping, testing and monitoring help address preventable migration problems.
Prepare your brief with the website pricing guide and discuss a redesign with Stefano Marketing Agency.
