Practical guide
Redesigning your website without losing your search rankings
A poorly prepared redesign can cause traffic to plummet overnight. The right method comes down to a few steps.
1. Take stock
List all the addresses on the old website, prioritising those that receive visits and external links. Search Console and the old sitemap are good sources.
2. Redirect every old address
Each old URL must lead, via a 301 redirect, to the closest new page. Not to the homepage by default: Google often treats this as a page not found.
3. Keep what works
Keep the content that ranks well and the effective titles and descriptions, and improve them rather than deleting them. Add structured data and pay attention to speed.
4. Test and monitor
Before the switch: broken links, mobile version, speed, forgotten noindex tags. Afterwards: submit the new sitemap, and monitor crawl errors and rankings over several weeks. Need help? See website redesign and maintenance and SEO.
Frequently asked questions
In brief
How long does it take to recover your rankings?
With correct redirects, the impact is often small and temporary; a faster, clearer website often even gains rankings.
Should you keep the same addresses?
That's ideal when possible; otherwise, 301 redirects pass on most of the value.
Going further
Also worth reading
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