How do I protect my SEO when I redesign my website?

A redesign can improve your site, but it can also lose the search visibility you built if web addresses change or useful pages disappear. The fix is planning: list your current pages, keep what works, and send every old address to its new home with a permanent redirect. Google notes that rankings can move around for a while even when a move is done well.

Before launch

1. List every current page, especially the ones that bring visits. Search Console's Performance report shows your top pages.
2. Decide what happens to each one: keep the same address, move to a new address, or merge into another page.
3. Keep the content that ranks. Rewriting a strong page from scratch can lose what made it work.
4. Map old to new addresses in a simple two-column list.
5. Plan permanent (301) redirects for every address that changes. Google recommends server-side permanent redirects.
6. Carry over page titles, descriptions and structured data.

At launch

1. Turn on the redirects.
2. Remove any "noindex" setting or crawler block used on the test version. Google lists these as a common cause of traffic drops.
3. Update links inside the site so they point straight to new addresses.
4. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.

After launch

• Test a sample of old addresses to confirm they land on the right new pages.
• Watch the Page indexing and Performance reports in Search Console for the next few weeks.
• Keep redirects in place for a long time. Google suggests at least a year.

We can do this for you. If we are building your new site, redirects and the launch checks are part of the work. Open a request in your client portal to ask about your project.

Common problems

• If traffic dropped right after launch, check old addresses first. Missing or broken redirects are the most common cause.
• If old pages show "not found", add redirects for them to the closest matching new page.
• If Google still shows old addresses, that is normal for a few weeks. Google says smaller sites may take a few weeks or more to switch over.

Related articles

• Why did my Google ranking drop?
• What makes a good web address (URL) for SEO?
• How long does SEO take to work?
• When does my website need a redirect?