Website Redesign Checklist: 15 Things to Do Before You Launch

Redesigns Can Destroy Your Rankings If Done Wrong

A website redesign should improve your online presence. But we've seen businesses lose 50–80% of their organic traffic overnight because they launched a new site without proper planning. URLs changed, redirects weren't set up, metadata was lost, and Google treated the new site like a completely different (and unproven) website.

Follow this checklist to avoid those mistakes.

Before You Start

1. Audit your current site. Run Google PageSpeed Insights, check Google Search Console for your current rankings, and document which pages get the most traffic. You need to know what's working so you don't accidentally kill it.

2. Export your sitemap. Download your current sitemap.xml and save it. Every URL on this list needs to exist on the new site or have a 301 redirect to the appropriate new URL.

3. Back up everything. Full backup of your current site — files, database, images, everything. If the new launch goes wrong, you need a rollback plan.

4. Document your current SEO. Save all title tags, meta descriptions, heading structures, and schema markup. The new site should preserve or improve these, never lose them.

5. Catalog your backlinks. Use Ahrefs or Google Search Console to find every external link pointing to your site. If any URLs change, you need redirects for these pages specifically.

During Development

6. Preserve your URL structure. If your current site has /services/plumbing/ and people link to that page, your new site needs the same URL or a 301 redirect. Changing URLs without redirects is the #1 cause of post-redesign traffic loss.

7. Maintain or improve page speed. Your new site should be faster than the old one, not slower. Test performance throughout development, not just at launch.

8. Keep your content. If a page ranks well, keep that content. You can redesign the layout without rewriting copy that Google already likes.

9. Implement proper heading hierarchy. One H1 per page, followed by H2s and H3s in logical order. Don't use headings for visual styling — use CSS for that.

10. Add schema markup. If your old site didn't have structured data, the redesign is the perfect time to add it. LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage, and BreadcrumbList schemas give you a competitive edge in search results.

Before Launch

11. Set up 301 redirects. Every old URL that changes needs a permanent redirect to its new location. Test every single one.

12. Update your sitemap. Generate a new sitemap.xml with all current URLs and submit it to Google Search Console.

13. Test on mobile. Over 60% of traffic is mobile. Test every page on actual phones, not just browser responsive mode.

14. Check all forms and CTAs. Submit every form, click every button, verify email addresses receive submissions. A broken contact form means lost leads.

15. Verify analytics. Make sure Google Analytics and Search Console tracking code is on every page of the new site before you launch.

Need help with a redesign? Our Clone & Upgrade package handles all of this — we rebuild your existing site with clean hand-coded HTML, preserve your SEO, and improve your performance scores. Starting at $1,499.