A redesign is a chance to fix everything that frustrates you about your current site. It is also the easiest way to lose traffic you have spent years building, if old pages disappear or change address without a plan.
Work through this checklist in order and you keep what already works while improving the rest.
Key takeaways
- ✓Audit your current analytics and rankings before anyone designs anything.
- ✓Map every old URL to a new one and set up 301 redirects before launch.
- ✓Test on real devices and measure the results for weeks after launch.
Audit the current site
Before you change anything, record how the current site performs so you have something to measure against:
- ✓Your most visited pages and the pages that bring in enquiries or sales
- ✓The searches you rank for, from Google Search Console
- ✓Pages with links from other websites
- ✓What customers ask most often, from your inbox and sales calls
- ✓Current page speed and how the site works on a phone
Protect your search rankings
Rankings belong to specific pages at specific addresses. If those addresses change, search engines have to start again unless you tell them where each page went.
Make a spreadsheet of every old URL and the new page that replaces it, then set up permanent 301 redirects. Carry over page titles, descriptions and headings for pages that rank well, and keep their content at least as useful as before. Our SEO basics guide explains how these pieces fit together.
Plan the content before the design
Designing around placeholder text is the most common cause of redesign delays. Decide the pages, the order of information on each one and who is writing the copy before design starts.
Cut pages nobody visits, merge pages that cover the same topic, and give every page one clear purpose and one next step for the visitor.
Design for real users
Start from what your customers need to find and do, not from what a competitor's site looks like. Clear navigation, readable text and obvious calls to action matter more than effects. Our guide to UX best practices for business websites covers the details.
Test before launch
Check the new site on the devices your customers actually use, not just a large desktop screen:
- ✓Every form sends, and the messages arrive
- ✓All redirects work and there are no broken links
- ✓Pages load quickly on a mid-range phone
- ✓Analytics and conversion tracking record visits and enquiries
- ✓Keyboard navigation and screen readers work on key pages
After launch
Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console and watch for crawl errors and drops in traffic over the following weeks. Compare enquiries and sales with your baseline from the audit. Small fixes in the first month are normal. Our pre-launch QA checklist has a fuller testing list, and our website development team can run the whole redesign for you.
Modus Venture is a US-founded creative digital agency. If you would rather have an experienced team handle this for you, see our website development services.