{"id":1006,"date":"2026-10-05T09:55:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T09:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/?p=1006"},"modified":"2026-10-29T06:58:40","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T06:58:40","slug":"website-redesign-seo-checklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/website-redesign-seo-checklist\/","title":{"rendered":"Website Redesign SEO Checklist (With a 301 Redirect Map)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A website redesign SEO checklist comes down to four stages: record what ranks before you change anything, map every old URL to a new one, check the new site before launch, and watch it closely for four weeks after. Redesigns lose rankings for predictable reasons: pages move without redirects, content that ranked is cut, and settings from the staging site reach the live one. Each step below prevents one of those.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"780\" src=\"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/website-redesign-seo-checklist-stages-1.jpg\" alt=\"The four stages of a website redesign SEO checklist\" class=\"wp-image-3090\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/website-redesign-seo-checklist-stages-1.jpg 2400w, https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/website-redesign-seo-checklist-stages-1-300x98.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/website-redesign-seo-checklist-stages-1-1024x333.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/website-redesign-seo-checklist-stages-1-768x250.jpg 768w, https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/website-redesign-seo-checklist-stages-1-1536x499.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/website-redesign-seo-checklist-stages-1-2048x666.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2400px) 100vw, 2400px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why you need a website redesign SEO checklist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Search engines rank pages, not websites. When a page&#8217;s address changes, the new address starts with none of the old page&#8217;s history unless a permanent redirect tells search engines where it went. When a page&#8217;s content changes heavily, it may stop matching the searches it ranked for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The common causes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Missing redirects.<\/strong> Old URLs return &#8220;page not found&#8221;, and links from other sites point nowhere.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Cut content.<\/strong> A page that brought steady traffic is merged or removed.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Staging settings left on.<\/strong> The new site launches with &#8220;noindex&#8221; or a robots.txt that blocks everything.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Lost titles and descriptions.<\/strong> Carefully written titles are replaced with defaults.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Slower pages.<\/strong> A heavier design makes pages slower, especially on phones.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Changed internal links.<\/strong> Important pages get fewer links from the rest of the site.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Before: take an inventory<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Do this before design starts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Export every URL on the current site.<\/strong> Use the sitemap, a crawler such as Screaming Frog (free up to 500 URLs), or your CMS.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Export search performance.<\/strong> In Search Console, go to Performance, set the date range to 12 months, and export pages with clicks and impressions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Export the top search queries<\/strong> for your most important pages.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>List pages with links from other sites.<\/strong> Search Console&#8217;s Links report shows the top linked pages.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Note pages that bring enquiries or sales<\/strong> from your analytics.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Record titles, meta descriptions and H1s<\/strong> for every page that gets traffic.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Save structured data<\/strong> (the JSON-LD on each page type).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Test current speed<\/strong> in PageSpeed Insights for the homepage and key pages, so you can compare later.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Back up the whole site<\/strong>, files and database.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mark each URL in your inventory as keep, merge, improve or remove. Pages with search traffic or outside links should never simply disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">During: build the redirect map<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A redirect map is a two-column list: old URL and new URL. Every old URL that changes or disappears needs a row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Old URL<\/th><th>New URL<\/th><th>Reason<\/th><th>Checked<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>\/services\/web-design.html<\/td><td>\/web-design<\/td><td>New structure<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\/our-team<\/td><td>\/about<\/td><td>Pages merged<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\/blog\/2021\/05\/speed-tips<\/td><td>\/blog\/speed-tips\/<\/td><td>Date removed from blog URLs<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>\/old-offer<\/td><td>\/services<\/td><td>Service discontinued, closest match<\/td><td>Yes<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Copy the table into a spreadsheet with one row per URL. Rules for filling it in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Redirect to the closest match<\/strong>, not to the homepage. A visitor looking for a service page should land on that service or its replacement.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Use permanent (301) redirects<\/strong>, not temporary (302) ones.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Avoid chains.<\/strong> If A already redirects to B and B now moves to C, point A straight to C.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Keep URLs that don&#8217;t need to change.<\/strong> The safest redirect is the one you don&#8217;t need.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Include old images and PDFs<\/strong> that get traffic or links.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Then on the staging site:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Titles, descriptions and H1s carried across or improved for every kept page<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Structured data present and valid in Google&#8217;s Rich Results Test<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Canonical tags point to the live domain, not staging<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Internal links point to new URLs directly, not through redirects<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Images have alt text<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Pages pass a speed test at least as well as the old site<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Staging is blocked from search engines (and you have a note to unblock it)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Launch day<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Remove the staging &#8220;noindex&#8221; and check robots.txt allows crawling<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Put the redirects live and test a sample from the map, including old links from other sites<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Crawl the new site for broken links and redirect chains<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Submit the new XML sitemap in Search Console<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Check that analytics and conversion tracking record visits and form submissions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Test the contact form, checkout or booking flow yourself<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Keep the old site&#8217;s backup and the redirect map somewhere safe<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The first four weeks<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Daily for two weeks:<\/strong> check Search Console&#8217;s Pages report for spikes in &#8220;Not found (404)&#8221; errors and fix them with redirects<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Weekly:<\/strong> compare clicks and impressions with the same period before launch<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Check key queries<\/strong> for your most important pages<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Review Core Web Vitals<\/strong> once field data catches up, after about four weeks<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Update links you control<\/strong>: social profiles, directory listings, email signatures<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some movement in the first weeks is normal while search engines process the redirects. A steady drop on specific pages after two or three weeks usually points to a missing redirect or content that changed too much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">When to get help<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A small site with a handful of URL changes can be handled with this list. A site with hundreds of pages, a platform change or a store with product URLs is where mistakes get expensive. Our <a href=\"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/website-redesign\">website redesign service<\/a> includes the inventory, the redirect map and the post-launch checks, and our <a href=\"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/seo-services\">SEO services<\/a> cover audits on sites that already lost traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For the budget side, see <a href=\"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/website-redesign-cost\/\">website redesign cost<\/a>. If the redesign includes moving platforms or domains, read the <a href=\"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/website-migration-checklist\/\">website migration checklist<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/crawling-indexing\/site-move-with-url-changes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Google Search Central, &#8220;Site moves with URL changes&#8221; and &#8220;Redirects and Google Search&#8221;<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Redesigns lose rankings for a handful of predictable reasons. This checklist covers each one, from the page inventory before you start to the first four weeks after launch, with a redirect map you can copy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[26,27,25,20],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-redesign-and-planning","tag-301-redirects","tag-checklist","tag-seo","tag-website-redesign"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3170,"href":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions\/3170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kryloweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}