Before you design anything
1. Decide what the redesign is for
"It looks dated" is a reason to start, not a goal. Write down what should be different afterwards: more contact form submissions, more demo requests, fewer support calls, a page your team can update themselves. Every later decision is easier when you can ask whether it helps that goal.
2. Record where you are now
Take a snapshot of the current site before anything changes: visitors per month, where they come from, your most visited pages, how many leads the site produces, and how fast the main pages load. Without this you cannot tell whether the new site is better or just newer.
3. List every page you have
Crawl the site and export a full list of URLs. Most companies are surprised by how many pages exist: old campaigns, blog posts, PDF downloads. You need the complete list for the next step.
4. Protect the pages that bring visitors
This is the step that saves your search rankings. For every existing URL, decide one of three things:
- Keep it at the same address.
- Move it, with a permanent (301) redirect from the old address to the new one.
- Remove it, redirecting to the closest relevant page.
Put this in a spreadsheet, old address beside new address, and have it implemented before launch. A page that simply disappears takes its search ranking and its incoming links with it.
While you build
5. Fix the content, not just the layout
A new design around old text is a missed opportunity. Go through each page and rewrite, merge or delete. Say what you do, for whom, and what the visitor should do next, in words a customer would use. Remove anything nobody would miss.
6. Set a speed budget
Decide at the start how fast pages must load and hold the design to it. Large hero videos, heavy animation libraries and uncompressed images are where speed is lost. It is far easier to stay fast than to fix a slow site after launch.
7. Design for phones first
For many businesses most visitors arrive on a phone. Design the small screen first and expand to desktop, not the other way round. Check that text is readable without zooming, buttons are easy to tap and nothing scrolls sideways.
8. Cover accessibility basics
Readable color contrast, text alternatives on images, forms with proper labels, and a site that can be used with a keyboard. These help every visitor, they are increasingly a legal requirement, and they are cheap when done from the start.
9. Carry over and improve the on-page SEO
Every page needs its own title and description, one clear main heading, a logical heading order, and descriptive link text. Move across anything that already works on the old site. Add structured data for your organization and services so search engines understand what the page is about.
10. Rebuild forms and tracking, then test them
Forms and analytics are the parts most often broken by a redesign, and nobody notices until leads stop arriving. Submit every form yourself and confirm the message reaches the right inbox. Confirm that analytics records visits and conversions on the new pages.
11. Agree who updates the site
If your team needs a developer to change a phone number, the site will go out of date. Decide which parts you need to edit yourselves and make sure the new site lets you.
Launch and the weeks after
12. Launch with a plan, then keep watching
Choose a quiet day, not a Friday afternoon. Keep a backup of the old site. Then work through this list:
| When | Check |
|---|---|
| Launch day | Redirects work for your top pages; forms deliver; analytics is recording |
| Launch day | The site is not blocking search engines (a common leftover from the test version) |
| First week | Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console; fix any broken links it reports |
| First week | Test on real phones and in more than one browser |
| First month | Compare traffic and leads against the snapshot from step 2 |
| First month | Check which old addresses are still being requested and add missing redirects |
A small dip in search traffic for a few weeks after a relaunch is normal while search engines re-read the site. A large or lasting drop almost always points to missing redirects or a page that lost its content.
Redesign, or just refresh?
Not every tired website needs rebuilding. Before committing to a full redesign, check whether a smaller change would meet the goal from step 1.
| If the problem is | You probably need |
|---|---|
| The text is out of date or unclear | A content rewrite on the existing design |
| Pages load slowly | Performance work: images, scripts, hosting |
| It looks dated but works well | A visual refresh: type, color, spacing, photography |
| Visitors cannot find things | A new structure and navigation |
| It is hard or impossible to update | A rebuild on a system your team can manage |
| It does not work on phones | A rebuild |
A refresh carries far less risk to your search rankings because addresses and content stay where they are. Choose the smallest change that solves the real problem.
Mistakes that cost the most traffic
- Changing every address for no reason. If a page's URL can stay the same, leave it.
- Redirecting everything to the homepage. Search engines treat this almost like a missing page. Redirect each old page to its closest match.
- Removing text to make pages "cleaner". The words are what search engines read. Cut clutter, not substance.
- Launching with the test site's "do not index" setting still on. It happens more often than anyone admits.
- Replacing text with images of text. It cannot be read by search engines or by screen readers.
- Not checking the old site's analytics afterwards. You only notice the loss if you compare.
The checklist in one place
- Decide what the redesign is for.
- Record your current numbers.
- List every existing page.
- Map old addresses to new ones and set up redirects.
- Rewrite, merge or delete content.
- Set a speed budget.
- Design for phones first.
- Cover accessibility basics.
- Carry over and improve on-page SEO.
- Rebuild and test forms and tracking.
- Agree who updates the site.
- Launch with a plan and keep watching.
Next step
If an outside team will do the work, ask them how they handle steps 3, 4 and 10 before you sign. Their answer tells you a lot. Our guide on hiring a remote development team covers what else to check, and if you plan to add a chat assistant to the new site, read what AI support agents can and cannot do.
Qorica builds fast, SEO-ready websites that your team can update without calling a developer. See our website development and UI/UX design services, or send us your current site and we will tell you where we would start.
