Redesign
A new website that keeps what the old one earned.
Most ranking losses after a redesign have nothing to do with the design. They come from addresses that changed without a redirect, pages that were quietly thinned or dropped, and a staging setting that followed the site to launch. All of it is preventable, and preventing it is most of this service.
How do you redesign a website without losing its search rankings?
By treating the launch as a site move, not a repaint. Before anything is designed, every existing address is listed and marked to keep, merge or retire. Every address that changes gets a permanent redirect to its closest equivalent, written into a map before launch.
Pages that already rank keep their substance. The layout can change completely, but the questions a page answers, its headings and its depth carry over unless there is a reason to change them. The new site is built where search engines cannot index it, and those blocks come off at launch.
Then somebody watches. Google says most pages of a small or medium site take a few weeks to move and that rankings may fluctuate while it happens, and it advises keeping redirects in place for at least a year.
Written and maintained by the VIS Mountain team. Last reviewed . The sources behind it are listed below.
A redesign is a migration, whether or not anyone calls it one
A search engine knows your site as a list of addresses, each with its own history. A redesign that changes those addresses, or what sits on them, asks the search engine to learn the site again. The work is making that as easy as possible.
An established site has three things a new one does not: pages a search engine has already stored, links from other websites pointing at particular addresses, and positions for particular searches. None of that is visible in the design, and all of it is attached to addresses. Change an address without a forwarding instruction and the history stays behind.
Read the full breakdown: A redesign is a migration, whether or not anyone calls it oneHide the full breakdown: A redesign is a migration, whether or not anyone calls it one
So the design work and the migration work run side by side, and the migration work starts first. The inventory and the redirect map exist before a layout is approved, because they decide which pages the new site has to contain.
We hold ourselves to the same method. VIS Mountain rebuilt its own website this way, mapping every old address to a new one before launch.
One piece of Google's advice is worth knowing before you plan anything: change one thing at a time. A new domain, a new platform and a new layout in a single launch means that if traffic falls, nobody can say which change caused it. Where a change of name is also coming, it is a separate step.
How the migration runs
The first three steps happen before a design is signed off. That ordering is most of the method.
Crawl and list every address
Every page, and also every PDF, image and old campaign page that still gets visits. The list comes from a crawl of the live site, the sitemap, Search Console, analytics and the server logs, because no single source has everything. Each address is recorded with its visits, its enquiries and the links pointing at it.
Decide keep, merge or retire
Each address gets one decision, made on that evidence and written down. The table further down sets out how each decision is made and what happens to the address.
Write the redirect map
One row for every address that changes: old, new, and why. Redirects are permanent and set on the server. Each goes straight to its final destination with no chain, and nothing is sent in bulk to the home page, which Google may treat as a missing page. A retired page with no real equivalent returns a proper not found response.
See the remaining steps: How the migration runsHide the remaining steps: How the migration runs
Carry the substance of ranking pages across
For every page that earns traffic, the title, headings, body copy, internal links, structured data and image descriptions are compared, old against new. The layout can change entirely. The questions the page answers should not disappear because somebody wanted less text.
Build where search engines cannot see
The new site is built on a staging address behind a password or a noindex rule. Google is explicit that a robots.txt file is not a way to keep a page out of its index. Every block added for staging goes on a list, because that list is what gets checked at launch.
Run the launch day checks
Launch is timed for a quiet period where the business has one, which is also Google's advice. Then the list is worked through in order.
- Staging blocks removed, and confirmed removed
- Every row of the redirect map tested, not a sample
- Canonical tags and internal links pointing at the new addresses
- The new sitemap submitted in Search Console
- Analytics, call tracking and every form tested with a real submission
- Advertisements, social profiles and the Google Business Profile pointed at the new addresses
Watch Search Console for weeks
Indexed page counts for old and new addresses, not found errors, and clicks by page against the baseline taken before launch. A problem found in the first week is cheap to fix. One found in the fourth month has cost a season.
Relaunches that go wrong have usually skipped the first step. Nobody chose to lose those pages. They simply never appeared on a list.
The two places a relaunch breaks
Rankings are the last stage of a sequence. A relaunch rarely damages the last stage directly. It breaks one of the two before it.
Keep, merge, retire or create
Every address on the old site gets one of these decisions, recorded beside the evidence for it.
| Item | When | What happens to the address |
|---|---|---|
| Keep | The page earns visits, links or enquiries and is still true | Same address where possible. If the structure forces a change, one permanent redirect |
| Merge | Two or more pages answer the same question and compete with each other | The strongest address survives, the others redirect to it, and the best of their content moves across |
| Retire | The service has gone, the offer has ended, or the page never did anything | A redirect to the closest real equivalent. If there is none, a not found response and not the home page |
| Create | The inventory shows a question customers ask that no page answers | A new address, linked from the pages around it so it gets found |
Merging is where most of the gain is on an older site. It is also the decision owners resist most, because it looks like deleting work.
When not to redesign
A redesign is the most expensive way to fix most website problems, and it carries a risk the alternatives do not. These are the cases where we would talk you out of one.
- The site is slow but structurally sound. Speed work on the existing site costs less and risks nothing.
- The real complaint is too few visitors. A new design does not produce traffic. Search work and advertising do.
- Two or three pages convert badly. Fix those.
- The content is thin. A new design wrapped around thin content is a better looking thin site.
- Your busiest season is about to start. Google's advice is to time a move for a quiet period, and so is ours.
- Nobody can find the login for the domain, the hosting or the analytics. Recover access first: a launch without it can be neither checked nor reversed.
- The main reason is that you are tired of looking at it. Your customers see it once.
A rebuild is the right answer when the platform cannot be fixed, when the site cannot be used properly on a phone or with a keyboard, when your own staff cannot edit it, or when the business has changed and the structure no longer describes it.
What you have to supply
Timelines on a rebuild are set by these far more than by the building.
- Access to the domain registrar, the hosting, the current site, Search Console and analytics. If Search Console was never set up, it goes in first so that there is a baseline to compare against.
- One decision maker who can approve a page list and a design. A committee doubles the time and blurs the decisions.
- The facts only you hold: services, prices you are willing to publish, service area, hours, credentials and named staff.
- Real photographs of your premises, your people and your work.
- A list of what has to survive: booking tools, patient forms, payment links, tracking numbers, and any web address printed on signs, vehicles or packaging.
- Your compliance requirements. In healthcare that includes which forms collect patient information and who is allowed to receive it. The practice remains responsible for its own compliance.
- A quiet month, if one exists.
The printed address is the one people forget. A web address on a van or a brochure is an old URL that will be typed for years, and it goes into the redirect map like any other.
Speed and accessibility are goals of the rebuild, not extras
A rebuild is the one moment when every template is open anyway, which makes it the cheapest time to get right two things that are expensive to retrofit later.
Google publishes thresholds for what it calls Core Web Vitals: the main content visible within 2.5 seconds, a response to a tap or click within 200 milliseconds, and a layout shift score of 0.1 or less, each judged at the 75th percentile of real visits. The new templates are built to meet those on a phone, and the old site's field figures are recorded first so that the comparison is measured and not assumed.
Read the full breakdown: Speed and accessibility are goals of the rebuild, not extrasHide the full breakdown: Speed and accessibility are goals of the rebuild, not extras
Accessibility works the same way. Colour contrast, heading order, form labels, keyboard focus and text alternatives are template decisions, and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines at level AA are the working standard. It is far cheaper to build a template that passes than to repair one that does not. Automated checks catch only part of it, so the templates are also used with a keyboard and a screen reader before launch.
A new site that is slower than the old one can lose ground after a relaunch even when every redirect is right, and the cause is rarely diagnosed correctly. Measuring before and after is how it gets caught.
What Google says about a move, and what nobody controls
The rules here are Google's published guidance for moving a site, and they are specific. Use permanent, server side redirects, which tell Google to show the new address in results. A temporary redirect tells it to go on showing the old one. Send each address straight to its destination and avoid chains. Keep redirects for as long as possible, and generally for at least a year. Google also says plainly that permanent redirects do not cause a loss of link credit.
It is equally clear about what to expect. With any significant change, rankings may fluctuate while the site is crawled and indexed again, and how long that takes depends on the number of pages and the speed of the server. That movement is normal. What this discipline prevents is the permanent kind of loss.
Read the full breakdown: What Google says about a move, and what nobody controlsHide the full breakdown: What Google says about a move, and what nobody controls
Nobody controls how Google orders its results, and nobody honest promises that every position will hold through a relaunch. What can be promised is the method: every address accounted for, every ranking page compared, every block removed, and the numbers watched afterwards.
Two obligations sit outside search. Forms that collect personal or patient information have to go on collecting it securely and sending it only where it is meant to go, and a redesign is when that quietly breaks. The accessibility standard the site is built to is agreed in writing at the start; whether the law requires it of you is a question for your own counsel.
We do not publish a price for this piece of work on its own, because the right scope depends on what already exists. What is published is the bundle pricing: 2,400, 3,600 or 4,800 dollars a month depending on which channels are running. You can read the full breakdown on the pricing page, and you will get an exact number in writing before anything starts.
How this connects to the rest
A redesign sits under web design and development, and it is the project where most of the other disciplines meet.
Technical SEO supplies the crawl, the inventory and the monitoring after launch. In practice the two services share the first three steps.
Core Web Vitals work sets the speed targets the new templates are built to.
Website accessibility sets the other target, and both are cheaper to build in than to repair.
The platform decision belongs to WordPress web design or to Shopify, depending on what you sell and who will edit the site.
After launch the site passes to website maintenance, because a new site with no updates, backups or monitoring starts ageing on its first day.
And conversion rate optimization picks up where the rebuild stops, working on the pages the new tracking shows are underperforming.
Send us the address and we will say whether it needs rebuilding.
Often it does not, and a repair would do. If a rebuild is right, the first thing you will see from us is a list of every page you already have.
Straight answers.
Will we lose rankings when the new site launches?
Some movement is normal. Google says visibility can fluctuate temporarily during a move while pages are crawled and indexed again, and that a site's rankings settle over time.
What is avoidable is the permanent loss that comes from missing redirects, thinned pages and staging blocks left in place. Nobody can promise that no position will move, and we do not.
Do we have to keep the same URLs?
Keep them wherever you can. An address that does not change needs no redirect and carries no risk.
Change one when the old structure is wrong for the business as it is now, and then redirect it permanently to the new address. Changing addresses for tidiness alone is risk with no return.
How long do redirects need to stay in place?
Google's guidance is as long as possible and generally at least a year, which gives it time to pass signals from the old addresses to the new ones. For the sake of visitors it suggests considering keeping them indefinitely.
We treat them as permanent. Other websites, old emails and printed material will go on pointing at the old addresses for years.
Can we change our domain name at the same time?
You can, and Google advises against it. Its guidance is to change one thing at a time, so that a problem can be traced to its cause.
If a new name is coming, it is planned as its own step, with its own redirect map and a change of address filed in Search Console.
What happens to pages we no longer want?
Each one is retired on purpose. If another page covers the same ground, the old address redirects there and anything worth keeping moves with it.
If nothing equivalent exists, the address returns a not found response. Sending every unwanted page to the home page looks tidy, and Google may treat it as a missing page anyway.
How do we know the launch went well?
By comparing against a baseline recorded before launch: clicks and impressions by page, the number of pages indexed, positions for the searches that matter, and enquiries.
Those are checked weekly at first, alongside not found errors in Search Console. Field speed data takes weeks to build up, so that comparison with the old site arrives later than people expect.
Where this comes from.
Primary documentation and published research behind the guidance on this page.
- Move a site with URL changes, Google Search Central (opens in a new tab)URL mapping, redirects kept for at least a year, and what fluctuation to expect.
- Redirects and Google Search, Google Search Central (opens in a new tab)How permanent and temporary redirects are treated differently.
- Introduction to robots.txt, Google Search Central (opens in a new tab)Google's statement that robots.txt is not a way to keep a page out of its index.
- Google Search Console Help (opens in a new tab)
- Core Web Vitals, web.dev (opens in a new tab)
- WCAG 2 checklist, WebAIM (opens in a new tab)A practical summary of the Level A and AA success criteria.
Talk to the team
A short call, a look at how the business currently shows up, and a straight answer on what we would do first.