A website redesign without losing traffic comes down to three things. You list all the old URLs, assign each one a new equivalent, and on launch day you switch on permanent server-side redirects. That’s it. If you are ordering a new version of your site and don’t want to give up rankings you spent years working for, this plan is for you. We go through four stages: inventory, redirect map, technical implementation and post-launch checks.
Table of contents
Why does traffic drop after a new site goes live?
Traffic goes down when old URLs stop working or lead to the wrong place. Google then loses the signals attached to those URLs. The usual suspects? A changed URL structure, deleted subpages, forgotten images and PDFs. And the classic: rewriting content and headings at the very same moment. The search engine sees a new site and has no way to connect it with the history of the old one.
That is why Google’s site move guidelines advise changing one thing at a time: first the domain, then the CMS, and the look last. In practice this means one thing. A new layout and a new URL structure are two separate risks, and in my opinion it is better to spread them across different dates in the schedule.
What to check on the old site before the project starts
Before the designer draws the first screen, you need to know which subpages bring traffic, links and customer inquiries. Without that, it is easy to delete an article that has been pulling in a large share of visits for years (and only notice when the chart in Analytics starts looking sad). Above all, collect:
- a full list of URLs from a crawl, the sitemap and Search Console,
- subpages with organic traffic and conversions,
- URLs that links from other sites point to,
- images and PDF documents that bring in search visits on their own,
- Search Console verification tags and the Analytics code.
A solid SEO audit before migration answers these questions in a single report. And a review of your existing website shows what works and what needs fixing. That later becomes the brief for the new site.
The redirect map: how to prepare it
A redirect map is an ordinary spreadsheet. In it, every old URL gets one new URL, the closest match by topic. The columns? Old URL, new URL, redirect type, priority and test status. That’s enough. Priority comes in handy during testing, because you start with the subpages that have the most traffic.
- Point each URL to its equivalent, not all of them in bulk to the homepage.
- Avoid chains (A to B to C) and loops, because they slow down both the browser and Google’s crawler.
- For subpages with no equivalent, make a conscious decision: the closest category or a deliberate 404 error.
The spreadsheet is built together with the information architecture, not after it. If the new company website design assumes a new menu and new URLs, the map shows right away how many old URLs will need to be handled. No surprises on the home stretch.
301 redirects for a new site: how to implement them technically
Google recommends permanent server-side redirects from the old URLs to the new ones, exactly as laid out in the map. On Apache, these are rules in the .htaccess file. Elsewhere it is the server configuration, or a redirect plugin or module in the CMS. Agree on the method with your administrator or hosting provider before anyone starts typing rules into production.
And what if the platform doesn’t allow server-side redirects at all? Google’s documentation on redirects allows meta refresh in that case: Google treats an instant one as permanent and a delayed one as temporary. Leave JavaScript for the very end of the list. Oh, and make sure the copy of the site in the new CMS has the verification tags and the analytics code. Otherwise you will lose data exactly when you need it most.
Website redesign without losing traffic: what to do on launch day
On launch day you switch on the redirects, test the map and submit the new sitemap in Search Console. The checklist for that day:
- a test of a sample of URLs from the spreadsheet: permanent redirect code and the right destination,
- removing the indexing block that protected the test version,
- submitting the new sitemap in Search Console,
- a check of internal links and canonical tags, which must not point to the old URLs.
Also check whether the structured data on your site made it over from the old version. New templates tend to lose markup for products, reviews or FAQs. And nobody notices until the stars disappear from the search results.
How do you monitor an SEO migration in the weeks after a site change?
After launch you keep an eye on three things: 404 errors, indexing of the new URLs and traffic on the most important subpages. A new error in the Search Console reports is usually just a missing row in the map. You add it, deploy it, check it. If a page doesn’t show up in Google, use the URL Inspection tool.
Don’t switch the redirects off after a few weeks. According to Google’s recommendations for URL changes, you keep them for as long as possible, usually at least a year, so that the search engine can transfer signals and links from other sites. A website redesign without losing traffic is planned before the project. Patching things up after launch is already firefighting.
Frequently asked questions
Can you redirect all old URLs to the homepage?
No. A bulk redirect breaks the topical link between the old subpage and the new URL, so the signals have nowhere to go. Point each URL to its equivalent.
How long should you keep 301 redirects after changing a site?
Google recommends keeping them for as long as possible, usually at least a year. In fact, the safest option is to leave them in place indefinitely, because old links on the web live for years.
Should you change the domain, CMS and look of the site at the same time?
Better not. Google recommends doing it step by step, and with separate stages it is much easier to work out what caused a possible drop.
