Website Redesign SEO Checklist: How to Keep Your Rankings, Using Google's Own Rules and Our Own Move

Key takeaways

• Traffic is lost at launch, not at design. Changed URLs without redirects, deleted pages, a leftover no-index tag and a slower site are the usual causes, and each one is preventable.
• Build the redirect map before the design is finished. List every address that earns traffic or links, decide what happens to each, and test the result on a staging site.
• Use permanent, server-side redirects, one hop each. Google recommends 301 or 308, and says to avoid chains, keeping them short, ideally no more than three hops.
• Do not send every old page to the home page. Google says redirecting many old URLs to one irrelevant page can confuse users and may be treated as a soft 404.
• Keep the redirects for at least a year. Google's guidance says generally at least one year, and from users' perspective, consider keeping them indefinitely.
• Measure against a baseline. Record 12 months of Search Console clicks, your top pages and your enquiries before anything changes, then compare at fixed points after launch.

Why redesigns lose traffic

A search engine knows your site by its addresses. When a page moves and nothing tells Google where it went, the page's history stays with the old address and the new one starts from nothing. Most of the damage in a redesign comes from five avoidable causes:

1. URLs change with no redirect. The old address returns an error, and the signals attached to it are lost.
2. Pages that earn traffic are deleted. They looked old, so someone removed them.
3. A no-index rule from staging goes live. Google's guidance tells you to check that these rules were updated once the redirects are active.
4. The new site is slower or harder to read. A heavier design can undo the gains of a better layout.
5. Tracking breaks. Forms, events and analytics stop recording, so you cannot tell what is happening.

If you are not yet sure a redesign is the right move, run the tests in our guide to the signs a website needs a redesign first.

Step 1: record your baseline

You cannot tell whether a redesign worked without a before. Export these in the week before work starts:

• Search Console performance. The last 12 months of clicks and impressions by page and by query. Twelve months matter, because seasonality will otherwise fool you later.
• Top pages. The 20 pages with the most clicks, and the pages that bring enquiries.
• Enquiries. The number of contact submissions, calls or sales, and enquiries per 100 visits.
• Links. Which pages other sites link to, from Search Console's links report.
• Speed. The Core Web Vitals result for your main templates, using the targets in Google's guidance.

Save the files somewhere that is not the site you are about to change.

Step 2: list every URL

Google's site move guidance suggests collecting addresses from more than one source, because no single list is complete. Combine:

• Your sitemaps. The addresses you told Google about.
• Server logs or analytics. The addresses people and bots visited recently, picked over a period that allows for seasonal traffic.
• A crawl of the live site. It finds orphaned pages that no sitemap lists.
• Search Console. Pages with impressions that you did not expect.

Put them in one sheet. This list is the starting point for everything that follows.

Step 3: triage the content

For every address, decide one of four outcomes. The rules below are ours, so adjust them to your site.

Two cautions. Do not delete a page only because it looks dated. If a page ranks, rewrite it and keep the address. And do not merge pages that serve different questions, because the merged page will serve neither well.

Step 4: build the redirect map

The map is a spreadsheet with one row per old address. These columns are enough:

Rules from Google's guidance on moving a site with URL changes:

• Use server-side permanent redirects where possible. Google recommends HTTP permanent redirects such as 301 and 308.
• Send each old address straight to its final destination. Googlebot can follow up to 10 hops, but Google advises keeping chains short, ideally no more than three and fewer than five.
• Redirect to the closest equivalent. Sending many old pages to the home page can be treated as a soft 404. Redirecting several old pages into one consolidated page is fine.
• Do not redirect what has not moved. The best redirect is the one you did not need, so keep addresses where you can.

Step 5: check the new site before launch

Work through this on the staging site, with search engines kept out of it:

• Titles, descriptions and headings. Each page has a unique title and one clear H1.
• Internal links. They point to the new addresses, not to old ones that will redirect.
• Canonical tags. They name the new, final addresses.
• Images. Each has descriptive alt text and sensible dimensions.
• Structured data. It is present on the pages that had it before.
• Speed and mobile. The main templates meet the Core Web Vitals targets on a phone. Our guide to choosing a web design agency shows how to run the same test on a studio's live work.
• Forms and events. Every form sends, every event records and the thank-you pages work.
• A prepared list of no-index rules to remove. If you blocked staging from search, list exactly what to lift at launch. Google's guidance says to make sure these are updated once the redirects are active.

Step 6: launch day

A calm launch is one where each step is written down and has an owner.

1. Keep the old site recoverable. You should be able to restore it quickly if something serious goes wrong.
2. Publish the new site and switch on the redirects.
3. Remove the staging no-index rules and check the live pages can be indexed.
4. Check robots.txt. It should block only what you meant to block.
5. Confirm canonical tags use the final addresses.
6. Test the redirects. Use Search Console's URL Inspection tool for single pages, and a script or command-line tool for the whole map, as Google suggests.
7. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console. Google says to submit the new sitemap, and you can keep the old one for a while to watch indexing move across.
8. Submit a Change of Address only if the domain changes. Google says you do not need it for an HTTP to HTTPS move, a www switch or paths moving within the same domain.
9. Submit every form from the live site and check the message arrives.
10. Check analytics is recording visits and events.
11. Update your own links on social profiles, email signatures and directory listings to the new addresses.
12. Tell the team which addresses to watch in the first week.

Step 7: monitor for 90 days

Compare against your baseline at fixed points. The "investigate when" column is our own rule of thumb, not a Google threshold.

Google notes that there are no fixed crawl frequencies and that how fast it crawls depends on the site. Expect movement over weeks, not days, and look at trends instead of single days.

Keep the redirects live. Google's guidance says to keep them for as long as possible, generally at least one year, to let it transfer signals and reassign links from other sites.

What this looked like on our own move

On 24 September 2026 we moved amariq.com from Webflow to a hand-coded static site on Cloudflare. We applied the same method: every address that was public kept its address, the few that changed got a permanent redirect, and the redirect file now holds 14 live rules. The domain stayed registered where it was, the DNS moved to Cloudflare with the email records copied exactly, and the Search Console and Analytics properties stayed the same, so the history did not reset. The full story, with costs, is in Webflow vs a static site on Cloudflare.

When the platform changes too

A platform change adds risk, because the way URLs are built can differ. Keep this in mind:

• Decide the structure first and the platform second. Our Webflow vs WordPress and Wix vs Webflow guides cover the platform choice.
• Check how the new platform builds addresses. Folder paths, trailing slashes and file endings can differ.
• Do not change the design and the domain on the same day unless you must. Each change you separate is one fewer thing to untangle if traffic moves.

How we run a redesign

At Amariq, the first call is about your goals and what is holding the site back, and the proposal includes the redirect plan. Our conversion-focused redesign starts with positioning and structure, and our Webflow migration service covers the redirect map and launch checks for any platform change. Milestones and a delivery date are agreed before work starts, and a short handover means your team can run the site afterwards. For planning, see how long a website redesign takes.

Frequently asked questions

Will a website redesign hurt my SEO?

It can, if addresses change without redirects, ranking pages are deleted, a staging no-index tag stays live or the new site is slower. It does not have to. Keep the addresses that rank, redirect any that must move, test on staging and compare Search Console before and after.

Do I need a 301 redirect for every page?

You need one for every address that changes and that has traffic, links or enquiries. Pages with no value can return a proper "gone" response. If an address stays the same, it needs no redirect. Map every changed address to its closest equivalent, and do not send them all to the home page.

How long should I keep 301 redirects?

Google's guidance says to keep them for as long as possible, generally at least one year, so it can transfer signals to the new addresses. From a user's point of view, consider keeping them indefinitely.

How long does it take to recover after a redesign?

It depends on the site, and Google says there are no fixed crawl frequencies. Expect movement over weeks. If the redirects work, the pages are indexable and the content matches, most of the change comes from how quickly Google recrawls your pages.

Do I need to tell Google about the redesign?

Not for a redesign on the same domain. Submit the new sitemap and test your redirects. Google's Change of Address tool is only for moving from one domain or subdomain to another, and it is not needed for HTTP to HTTPS, a www switch or paths moving within the same domain. UK businesses should also read our UK website redesign guide for VAT, cookie and price rules.

Should I redesign and change platform at the same time?

If you can, separate them. A platform change alters how addresses and templates are built, which adds risk. If both must happen together, keep the address structure the same and test the full redirect map on staging.

What should I do with pages that get no traffic?

Check whether they have links or serve a purpose, such as a legal page. If not, retire them with a proper "gone" response, or redirect them to the closest relevant page. Do not keep them just to keep the count.

What if my traffic drops after launch?

Check the basics first: redirects return a permanent redirect to the right page, the new pages are indexable and have no leftover no-index tag, canonical tags use the final addresses and the sitemap is submitted. Then compare the pages that dropped with your baseline.