What to do when moving to a new design so you keep your Google rankings and content: URL mapping, 301 redirects, content inventory and post-launch monitoring.
Moving to a new design is exciting, but an unplanned migration can melt years of Google rankings within weeks. This list summarises the checks we apply step by step in our redesign projects.
Before the migration
- List every URL of the current site (the sitemap and Search Console help).
- Mark the pages with the most visits and the most inbound links.
- Decide which content will be moved, merged or removed.
- Back up the existing title and description tags.
During the migration
- Define a 301 redirect for every page whose URL changes; do not bulk-redirect old URLs to the home page.
- Optimise images for the new sizes and keep their alt texts.
- Make sure the new site has a single h1, a proper heading order and structured data.
- Check that the staging environment is closed to search engines and the live one is open.
After launch
- Submit the new sitemap to Search Console.
- Watch 404 errors and crawl stats daily for the first two weeks.
- Measure page speed on mobile; first impressions usually happen on a phone.
- Test forms, WhatsApp links and checkout steps end to end.
With these steps a redesign does not hurt rankings; a faster, clearer site usually improves visibility.