Website Redesign Without Losing Your Google Rankings: A Step-by-Step Checklist

A redesign should bring more customers — but many businesses launch a beautiful new site and watch their Google traffic drop the next week. The cause is almost always the same: old addresses stop working and Google loses the pages it trusted.

Here is the checklist we use so a new website keeps (and grows) its rankings.

Signs it's time to redesign

• The site is slow or hard to use on a phone.
• It doesn't reflect what you sell today, or your prices and services changed.
• You can't update it yourself.
• It looks older than your competitors'.
• Visitors come but don't contact you.

Before the redesign

1. List every current URL. Export them from your sitemap and from Google Search Console (Pages report).
2. Find your best pages. In Search Console, note the pages and searches that bring the most clicks — they must survive.
3. Save titles and descriptions of important pages so good wording isn't lost.
4. Record your numbers (traffic, leads, sales) to compare after launch.

During the redesign

• Keep good URLs when you can. If an address must change, plan a 301 redirect from old to new.
• Keep the content that ranks. Improve it, but don't delete the text Google liked.
• One H1 per page, clear H2 sections, unique title and description on every page.
• Build on a staging address hidden from Google (noindex), then remove the noindex at launch.
• Compress images and test speed on a phone before going live.

On Apache hosting (like most shared hosting in Morocco), a 301 redirect can be one line in the .htaccess file:

# Old page  ->  new page (permanent redirect)
Redirect 301 /our-services.html https://example.ma/services
Redirect 301 /contact-us.php    https://example.ma/contact

# A whole old folder -> new section
RedirectMatch 301 ^/news/(.*)$ https://example.ma/blog/$1

On launch day

1. Remove the staging noindex and check robots.txt doesn't block the site.
2. Test the redirects: open 10–20 old URLs and make sure each lands on the right new page.
3. Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console.
4. Check Google Analytics is receiving visits.

After launch: the first 4 weeks

• Watch Search Console for “Not found (404)” pages and add missing redirects.
• Compare clicks and leads with the numbers you recorded before.
• A small dip for a week or two can be normal; a big drop means something is missing — usually redirects.

Want a redesign that keeps what works? Read about our process and our website development service.

Frequently asked questions

Will my rankings drop after a redesign?

Not if URLs are kept or redirected, content that ranks is preserved, and the new site is faster. A small movement for a week or two is normal while Google recrawls.

Should I change my domain at the same time?

Avoid changing the design and the domain together. If you must, redirect every old page to its new address and use the change-of-address tool in Search Console.

Is a 302 redirect OK?

No — use 301 for permanent moves. A 302 tells Google the move is temporary, so it may keep the old page in results.

How long should I keep redirects?

At least a year, and ideally for good. They cost nothing and protect links from other websites that still point to your old pages.

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