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This guide was first published in 2025 and has been updated with a practical planning and launch checklist. A website needs to answer customer questions and allow search engines to discover the intended pages. Neither a new design nor an SEO plugin guarantees rankings.
1. Inventory what already exists
For a redesign, list the current URLs before building. Record each page’s purpose, title, description and whether it receives useful search traffic. Search Console can help identify pages and queries worth preserving. Do not assume an old-looking page has no value.
Keep useful URLs where possible. If a move is necessary, decide the most relevant destination and implement a direct permanent redirect. Update internal links to the final URL as well.
2. Map pages to customer needs
A small service website might use a homepage, two service pages, an About page and Contact. That is a planning example, not a rule. If two services have different buyers or requirements, each may deserve a page. If they are simply different names for the same offer, separate pages can add confusion.
For each proposed page, write down the main question it answers, the evidence it can show and the next action. A location page should add useful coverage or project detail, rather than repeat a service page with a town name changed.
3. Prepare the content before polishing the layout
Collect the services, inclusions, cost factors, process and actual project photographs. Explain what the business does in ordinary language. Put essential answers in text, not only in an image or video.
Introduce the person or business behind the work. Where experience or results matter, give enough detail for a reader to assess them. Dates and sources make a case study more useful than an unsupported percentage.
4. Build understandable navigation
Use descriptive links between related pages. A service page can link to a relevant project, and that project can link back to the service. Important pages should be reachable from the website, not only listed in a sitemap.
Google recommends crawlable links with useful anchor text. Read Google’s link guidance.
5. Review metadata and indexing
Give each indexable page an accurate title and useful description. Preserve existing metadata that still describes the page well. There is no reason to rewrite everything solely because the design changed.
Check that intended public pages are not accidentally noindex, that canonical URLs are consistent and that the sitemap lists the preferred final pages. Demo websites and internal utility pages may need a different indexing decision from commercial services.
6. Test the customer journey
Check navigation, contact links, forms and booking routes on desktop and mobile. Verify a successful test enquiry reaches the intended inbox. Check keyboard use, labels, focus states and readable text as well as the appearance.
Measure performance with suitable tools and review the actual causes of slow loading. Resize images for their display needs and avoid loading full embedded pages when a linked preview image would do.
7. Review after launch
- Check important URLs and redirects.
- Submit or inspect the sitemap in Search Console.
- Monitor indexing and relevant query performance.
- Confirm conversion events correspond to successful actions.
- Keep a record of changes and assess useful enquiries over time.
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Filed under: SEO, Web Design