25 August 2026 · 6 minute read

How to redesign your website without losing your Google rankings

One of the most common calls we get goes something like this: "We launched our new website a couple of months ago, it looks much better, but enquiries have dropped and we have disappeared from Google for things we used to rank for." It is a painful situation, and it is almost always avoidable.

A website redesign changes things search engines rely on: addresses of pages, the words on them, the links between them and sometimes the technology underneath. Change those carelessly and you throw away the trust your old site had built up. Change them carefully and a redesign can improve your rankings. Here is how to do it carefully.

Step 1: Find out what is working now

Before you plan anything, make a list of the pages that matter. You will need access to Google Search Console and your analytics. Look at the last twelve months and note:

• Pages that get organic search traffic, and the searches that bring it.
• Pages that lead to enquiries, bookings or sales.
• Pages that other websites link to.

You may be surprised. An old blog post about something you barely remember writing might be bringing in a steady trickle of good visitors. A service page you think of as minor might rank well for a valuable search. These pages need protecting.

Step 2: Crawl the old site

Use a crawling tool to list every address on your current site, along with its title, description and headings. Save this. It is your record of what existed, and you will need it to build redirects and to check nothing has gone missing.

Step 3: Plan the new structure with the old one in mind

A redesign is a good moment to tidy up. You might merge thin pages, remove out-of-date content or reorganise services. That is fine, but every change should be deliberate. For each important page on the old site, decide:

• Keep: it moves to the new site, ideally at the same address.
• Merge: its content is combined with another page, and its address redirects there.
• Remove: it is no longer relevant, and its address redirects to the closest useful page.

Where possible, keep addresses the same. Every change, even a good one, introduces a little risk.

Step 4: Protect the content that ranks

Designers often want to cut words to make pages look cleaner. Sometimes that is right; sometimes it removes the very text that made a page rank. For pages that bring in search traffic, keep the substance. You can restructure it, improve it and make it easier to read, but do not strip it back to a headline and three bullet points without understanding what you are losing.

Step 5: Build a redirect map

A redirect map is a simple spreadsheet: old address in one column, new address in the other. Every old address that changes or disappears needs a permanent (301) redirect to the most relevant new page. Do not redirect everything to the homepage; search engines treat that much like a missing page.

Include old addresses that still have external links pointing at them, even if they were removed years ago. Those links still carry value.

Step 6: Carry over the technical basics

Check that each new page has a unique title and description, a single main heading, sensible internal links and structured data where relevant. Make sure the new site is fast, works well on mobile and does not accidentally block search engines. A surprising number of sites launch with a "discourage search engines" setting still switched on from the staging version.

Step 7: Test before launch

On the staging site, run through the redirect map and check each one works. Crawl the staging site and compare it with your record of the old one. Test forms, booking tools and tracking codes. Make sure your analytics will keep recording without a gap.

Step 8: Launch, then watch closely

After launch, submit your new sitemap in Search Console and keep an eye on it daily for the first couple of weeks. Look for:

• Spikes in "not found" errors, which usually point to a missing redirect.
• Important pages dropping out of the index.
• Searches where your position falls sharply.

Some movement in the first few weeks is normal while search engines process the changes. Large, lasting drops on specific pages usually have a specific cause that can be fixed.

Common mistakes we see

• Changing every address for the sake of a neater structure, with no redirects.
• Moving from one domain to another without telling Search Console.
• Removing text-heavy pages in favour of image-led designs.
• Losing location pages that brought in local searches from around York.
• Launching with tracking broken, so nobody notices the drop for weeks.

A redirect map, illustrated

Here is what part of a redirect map looks like for a fictional York joinery firm moving to a new structure. Every old address with traffic or links has a destination, and none goes to the homepage by default.

Who should do what

What to expect in the first month

In the first days after launch, Search Console will report the new sitemap and begin recrawling. You may see some pages briefly swap places in results, or a short dip while old addresses are replaced by new ones in the index. That is normal. What is not normal is a page that brought in steady traffic disappearing entirely for more than a couple of weeks, or a rising count of "not found" errors. Both point to a specific fault, usually a redirect that was missed or a page whose content was cut back too far, and both can be fixed once found.

Timing your launch

Avoid launching just before your busiest season. A guest house should not switch sites in the week the Christmas market opens; an accountant should avoid January. Pick a quieter month so that any problem has time to surface and be fixed before it matters. Launch early in the week, not on a Friday afternoon, so someone is around to deal with surprises.

Pre-launch checklist

• Search Console and analytics access confirmed.
• Old site crawled and saved.
• Every important page assigned keep, merge or remove.
• Redirect map complete and tested on staging.
• Titles, descriptions and headings checked.
• Search engine blocking switched off.
• Forms, bookings and tracking tested.
• New sitemap ready to submit.
• Launch date set away from your peak season.

Our website redesign service follows this process, and our local SEO work picks up afterwards if you want to grow from where you left off. If your redesign is for a tourism business, read what visitors check before booking before you plan the new pages.

Is it worth the effort?

Yes. This work adds a little time to a redesign and protects the most valuable thing your old site had: its standing with search engines and the visitors that brings. Done properly, a redesign is a chance to build on that standing, not start again from nothing.

If you are planning a redesign and want someone to handle this side of it, it is a standard part of how we work.

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