Use this checklist to refresh your site and keep what is already working.
What are the signs it is time to redesign?
- The site looks dated or does not reflect your business any more.
- It is slow, or hard to use on a phone.
- Visitors arrive but few enquire, book or buy.
- You cannot update it without help.
- You want features it cannot support, such as online booking or a store.
What should you record before you start?
- Make a list of every page and its web address.
- Note which pages bring the most visitors, using Google Search Console or your analytics.
- Save the page titles and descriptions of your best pages.
- Record which other websites link to you.
- Take a note of your current speed and visitor numbers so you can compare afterwards.
What should you protect during the redesign?
- Keep your web addresses where you can. If an address must change, redirect the old one to the new one with a permanent redirect.
- Keep the content that ranks. Improve it, but do not delete the topics that bring visitors.
- Keep a clear structure of headings, with one main heading per page.
- Keep and improve internal links between related pages.
- Make the new site fast and mobile friendly. This is one of the main reasons to redesign.
- Keep structured data and descriptive image text where it exists.
What should you check before you go live?
- Test the redirects from every old address to its new one.
- Check that no leftover setting tells search engines to ignore the site. Test versions are often set to hidden, and forgetting to switch that off is a common and costly mistake.
- Check that your sitemap lists the new pages.
- Test forms, booking flows and payment steps on a phone and on a computer.
What should you do after launch?
- Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console.
- Watch for pages Google cannot find and fix them quickly.
- Compare visitors and rankings with the numbers you recorded. Expect small changes for a few weeks while search engines catch up.
- Keep improving: add content, collect reviews and update pages that are not performing.
What mistakes should you avoid?
- Changing your domain name without redirects.
- Deleting old pages that still bring visitors.
- Launching with a test setting that hides the site from search engines.
- Rewriting every page at once, so you cannot tell what helped and what hurt.
Planning a redesign?
We handle redesigns so that content and search settings are carried over safely. Tell us about your current site through the project form and we will suggest what to keep, what to improve and what to replace.