A new design can wipe out years of search rankings and break the forms that bring in leads. Use this pre-launch checklist to make sure your redesign only moves things forward.
A redesign is exciting. New look, faster pages, clearer messaging. But launch day is also when things quietly break: search traffic drops because old URLs return 404 errors, contact forms send leads nowhere, and analytics stops counting conversions.
None of these problems is hard to prevent. They’re just easy to forget when everyone is focused on the design. This is the checklist we work through before every launch.
Before you start: record a baseline
You can’t tell whether the new site is better if you don’t know how the old one performed. Before anything changes, capture:
- Traffic, conversions and conversion rate for the last 3–12 months from your analytics
- Top landing pages and top converting pages
- Search queries, clicks and positions from Google Search Console
- Pages with the most backlinks, from an SEO tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush
- Core Web Vitals and page speed scores for key templates
- A full crawl of the current site, with every URL, title and meta description (Screaming Frog is the standard tool)
1. SEO and redirects
This is where redesigns do the most lasting damage. Every URL on the old site that has traffic or links needs a home on the new one.
- Build a redirect map: every old URL mapped to its closest new equivalent
- Use permanent 301 redirects, not 302s
- Avoid redirect chains (A → B → C); point old URLs straight to the final page
- Don't send everything to the homepage; redirect to the most relevant page
- Carry over or improve page titles, meta descriptions and H1s on important pages
- Keep valuable content; don't cut pages that rank just because they look old
- Set canonical tags correctly on every template
- Re-add structured data (Organization, Article, Product, FAQ and so on) where it applied
- Generate a new XML sitemap and confirm it lists only live, indexable URLs
- Check internal links point to new URLs, not through redirects
The most common launch mistake we see: the staging site’s “noindex” setting or a
Disallow: / line in robots.txt goes live with the new site. Search engines then drop your pages. Check this on launch day, every time. 2. Content and copy
- No placeholder text, "lorem ipsum" or dummy images anywhere
- Spelling and grammar checked on every page
- Prices, phone numbers, addresses and opening hours are current
- Legal pages updated: privacy policy, cookie policy, terms
- Every image has meaningful alt text, or empty alt for decorative images
- The 404 page is helpful, with search and links to key sections
3. Forms, checkout and integrations
Forms are where your website makes money, and they’re often tested last.
- Submit every form on the site, on desktop and mobile
- Confirm submissions arrive in the right inbox, CRM or tool
- Check autoresponders and confirmation emails send, and don't land in spam
- Test validation and error messages with wrong inputs
- Spam protection is working without blocking real people
- For e-commerce: run real test orders through payment, tax, shipping and emails
- Third-party integrations (booking tools, chat, maps, payment) work on the live domain
4. Tracking and analytics
- Analytics installed on every page, firing once (not twice)
- Conversion events and goals recreated for new forms, buttons and URLs
- Ad platform pixels and tags firing correctly
- Cookie consent banner works and gates non-essential tags
- Search Console verified for the new site, with the sitemap submitted
- Internal and agency traffic filtered where needed
5. Performance
A redesign is the best chance you’ll get to make the site fast. Aim to pass Google’s Core Web Vitals on real devices: Largest Contentful Paint under 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint under 200 milliseconds, and Cumulative Layout Shift under 0.1.
- Images served in modern formats (WebP or AVIF), correctly sized, and lazy-loaded below the fold
- Hero images and key fonts preloaded
- Unused CSS and JavaScript removed; third-party scripts audited
- Caching and a CDN configured
- Image and embed dimensions set so the layout doesn't jump
- Tested on a mid-range phone over a mobile connection, not only on a fast laptop
6. Accessibility
Accessibility is good practice, increasingly a legal requirement in many markets, and better for everyone. Target WCAG 2.2 level AA.
- Every page can be used with a keyboard alone, with a visible focus outline
- Text has enough colour contrast against its background
- Headings follow a logical order (one H1, then H2s, H3s)
- Form fields have proper labels, and errors are announced clearly
- Buttons and links have descriptive names, not just "click here"
- Videos have captions; content doesn't rely on colour alone
- Automated checks run with a tool such as axe or WAVE, plus a quick screen reader test
7. Devices and browsers
- Tested on current Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge
- Tested on real iOS and Android phones, not only browser resizing
- Menus, sliders, accordions and modals work on touch
- Tap targets are large enough and not crowded together
8. Security and infrastructure
- HTTPS everywhere, with HTTP and non-www/www versions redirecting to one canonical domain
- SSL certificate valid and set to renew automatically
- Admin areas protected with strong passwords and two-factor authentication
- CMS, plugins and libraries updated to current versions
- Staging site password-protected or taken offline after launch
- Automated backups configured and a restore tested
- Uptime monitoring set up with alerts
9. Launch day
- Launch early in the week, during working hours, never on a Friday afternoon
- Take a full backup of the old site first
- Lower DNS TTL a day ahead if you're changing hosting
- Check robots.txt and noindex settings immediately after launch
- Test the top 20 old URLs to confirm they redirect correctly
- Submit forms again on the live site
10. The first 30 days
- Watch Search Console for crawl errors and 404s, and add redirects as they appear
- Compare traffic and conversions with your baseline weekly
- Review real-user performance data
- Collect feedback from your sales and support teams, who hear from customers first
Some ranking movement in the first few weeks is normal while search engines re-crawl the site. A sharp, sustained drop usually points to a redirect or indexing problem worth investigating straight away.
Planning a redesign? We handle design, development and the migration details that protect your rankings. Let’s talk about your project.
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