SEO
Keeping your rankings through a redesign
The migration checklist we run on every rebuild so traffic doesn't dip the week you launch.
Traffic dropping after a relaunch is common and almost entirely preventable. It is not the new design that costs you rankings — it is the URLs, the content and the technical signals that quietly changed alongside it.
Before you build
- Export every live URL, plus its traffic and rankings.
- Note the pages that bring traffic and leads. Those are constraints, not suggestions.
- Record current titles and meta descriptions.
- Take a performance baseline so you can prove the new site is faster.
The redirect map
Every old URL needs a destination. Map them one to one where the page still exists, and to the closest relevant page where it does not. Point everything at the homepage and you throw away the signals those pages earned.
Use permanent redirects, and make sure they resolve in one hop. Chains of redirects leak authority and slow the page.
Keep the content
Shortening a page that ranks is the quietest way to lose it. If a page brings traffic, the new version needs to cover at least what the old one covered. Redesign the presentation, keep the substance.
After launch
- Submit the new sitemap and watch for crawl errors daily for two weeks.
- Spot-check the top twenty old URLs actually land where intended.
- Confirm analytics is recording, before you need the data.
- Expect a small dip for a week or two while pages are recrawled. A dip that deepens after three weeks is a problem, not patience.
Working on something like this?
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