The most expensive redesign mistakes are invisible on launch day. The new site looks better. A month later, enquiries drop, and no one connects it to the fact that thirty old addresses now lead nowhere. This list is designed to prevent that.
Before you design anything
- Record where you are. Enquiries per month, traffic by source, top landing pages, current speed. You cannot show improvement without a starting point.
- List every current address. Crawl the existing site, or export it. Note which pages bring visitors and which pages other sites link to.
- Decide which pages stay. Pages that earn traffic and enquiries deserve to be kept, in some form, at the same address.
- Save the words that work. Existing titles, descriptions and headings that rank or persuade should not be discarded casually.
- Document tracking. Which tags, pixels and events are live, and where they are set up.
During the build
- Keep addresses stable where you can. Where an address must change, plan a permanent redirect from the old one to the most relevant new page.
- Build the redirect map early, not the night before launch.
- Carry across the on-page basics: titles, descriptions, one clear main heading per page, sensible internal links.
- Rebuild tracking with the site, and test forms, calls and WhatsApp taps on real devices.
- Check speed on a phone before approval. New designs often add weight.
- Keep the staging copy out of search so that it does not compete with the live site.
On launch day
- Test the redirect map on a sample of old addresses.
- Confirm the new sitemap and the robots file are correct, and that nothing is blocked by mistake.
- Submit the sitemap in Search Console.
- Submit a real form and verify the enquiry arrives.
Pages worth protecting above all
Pages that bring in traffic, pages that people enquire from and pages that other sites link to are the ones to protect. Make a short list of these before design begins. Each should either survive at the same address or redirect to a clearly relevant page. A homepage redirect for everything is a poor substitute.
A content audit before you start
| Decision | When it applies |
|---|---|
| Keep as is | The page performs and is accurate |
| Improve | It has traffic but poor results |
| Merge | Several pages cover the same topic thinly |
| Remove and redirect | It is out of date or unhelpful, and a better page exists |
Do not skip the staging test
Test the new site on a private address, on phones and browsers, before launch. Submit every form, check every tag and read every page for errors. Fixing a mistake before launch takes minutes. Fixing it after can take weeks of lost enquiries.
Tell the people who need to know
Staff who answer phones and messages should know what is changing and when. Partners and clients who link to you may need to update addresses. A short note ahead of launch avoids confusion and gives you early warning of anything you missed.
Have a way back
Before you switch, keep a copy of the old site and know how to restore it. If something serious goes wrong, a fast rollback protects your enquiries while you fix the problem calmly.
In the weeks after
| Check | Why |
|---|---|
| Search Console coverage and errors | Old pages returning errors show up here |
| Enquiries against the baseline | A drop suggests something broke |
| Top old landing pages | Confirm each one redirects properly |
| Analytics events | Tracking may have stopped without warning |
| Broken links and missing images | Small errors erode trust |
Expect some movement in search results after a large change. Watch for sharp, sustained drops, and fix causes quickly. For the schedule, read how long website development takes, and for the running cost afterwards, website maintenance cost. The tracking side is detailed on conversion tracking setup.