A redesign is a chance to modernize your brand, improve conversions and fix technical problems, but it’s also one of the most common ways businesses lose search traffic overnight. This website redesign checklist walks through every stage so your new site performs better than the old one from day one.
1. Plan and benchmark
- ☐ Define goals: leads, sales, applications, sign-ups or support deflection.
- ☐ Record current performance: traffic, rankings, conversions, page speed and top pages.
- ☐ Export your top landing pages from Google Search Console and analytics.
- ☐ Interview stakeholders and review customer feedback.
- ☐ Audit competitors’ sites for ideas and gaps.
- ☐ Agree budget, timeline and decision-makers.
2. Content and SEO preparation
- ☐ Crawl the current site to list every URL.
- ☐ Decide for each page: keep, improve, merge or remove.
- ☐ Keep URLs the same wherever possible.
- ☐ Build a redirect map (old URL → new URL) for every changed or removed page.
- ☐ Preserve page titles, meta descriptions and structured data for high-performing pages.
- ☐ Plan new content to fill gaps found in keyword research.
3. Design and UX
- ☐ Create a sitemap and wireframes for key templates.
- ☐ Design mobile-first.
- ☐ Make calls to action clear on every key page.
- ☐ Follow accessibility guidelines (contrast, headings, alt text, keyboard navigation).
- ☐ Build a reusable design system for consistency.
4. Development
- ☐ Choose the right CMS or platform for your team. See how to choose a web design company.
- ☐ Build on a staging site that search engines can’t index.
- ☐ Optimize performance: image formats, lazy loading, caching and minimal scripts.
- ☐ Set up analytics, conversion tracking and consent management.
- ☐ Test forms, integrations and email notifications.
5. Pre-launch testing
- ☐ Test on major browsers and mobile devices.
- ☐ Check Core Web Vitals on key templates.
- ☐ Run an accessibility audit.
- ☐ Verify every redirect in your map.
- ☐ Check for broken links and missing images.
- ☐ Confirm titles, meta descriptions, canonical tags and structured data.
6. Launch
- ☐ Remove “noindex” and staging restrictions on the live site.
- ☐ Activate redirects and clear caches.
- ☐ Submit the new XML sitemap in Google Search Console.
- ☐ Spot-check top pages, forms and checkout immediately after launch.
7. After launch
- ☐ Monitor Search Console daily for two weeks for 404s and indexing issues.
- ☐ Compare traffic, rankings and conversions against your benchmark.
- ☐ Fix issues quickly and keep improving based on data.
Common redesign mistakes
- Changing URLs without redirects, which is the fastest way to lose rankings.
- Deleting content that ranked well because it didn’t fit the new design.
- Launching with staging settings that block search engines.
- Heavy visual effects that slow pages down.
- Not tracking conversions, so you can’t tell whether the redesign worked.
Redesigning an online store?
E-commerce redesigns and platform migrations need extra care for product URLs, customer accounts and order history. See Shopify vs. WooCommerce vs. BigCommerce and our e-commerce development cost guide.
How Scadea helps
Scadea plans and delivers website redesigns and migrations with SEO protection built in, from content audits and redirect mapping to design, development and post-launch monitoring. Learn more about our website development services.
Frequently asked questions
Will a redesign hurt my SEO?
Not if URLs, content and metadata are handled carefully and every changed URL is redirected. Done well, a redesign often improves rankings.
How often should a website be redesigned?
Many businesses redesign every three to five years, with continuous improvements in between.
How long does a redesign take?
Typically 6–16 weeks for business websites, longer for large sites or e-commerce stores.
Planning a redesign? Talk to Scadea about a redesign that protects your traffic.
