Redesigning your website without losing your SEO
To redesign a website without losing your SEO, find the pages that get visits, keep their URL or redirect them one by one with a permanent (301) redirect to the equivalent page, then check in Google Search Console after launch. Google recommends keeping those redirects for at least a year.
Why a redesign can cut your traffic
Your current site has pages Google knows, URLs other sites link to, and content that answers searches. If those pages disappear or change address carelessly, Google lands on missing pages, and the visits they brought you stop.
Even when well prepared, a redesign can move your rankings for a few weeks: Google says so itself, while it crawls and reindexes the site (Google). The goal is to keep that period short.
Find what works
Before touching the site, we take inventory:
- the pages that get the most visits, in your analytics tool;
- the searches that bring you visitors, in Google Search Console;
- the pages other sites link to;
- the pages that generate contact requests or sales.
Those pages deserve special attention in the new structure.
Keep or redirect every URL
The safest option is to keep the same URL when the page still exists. When it has to change, the old URL is redirected to the new one with a permanent redirect, a 301 or 308. For Google, that’s the signal that the new page replaces the old one (Google).
In practice, we prepare a two-column table: the old URL and the new one. A few rules:
- each page is redirected to the one covering the same topic, not to the home page;
- avoid redirect chains, from one page to another and then to a third;
- keep redirects as long as possible, generally at least a year (Google).
On Webflow, these redirects are managed directly in the site settings.
Be careful with content
A page that ranks well often does so thanks to its text. If you replace it with a much shorter version, or completely change its topic, it can lose its place even with a redirect. Rewrite, yes, but keep what answered the searches.
Also think about each page’s title and description, image alt text, and the links between your pages.
After launch
- Test every redirect, one by one.
- Check that the site is no longer blocked from search engines, as it sometimes is during development.
- Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console.
- Monitor missing pages and traffic over the following weeks.
A redesign doesn’t necessarily mean rebuilding everything. Sometimes reworking a few pages is enough, and it’s the first thing I look at. Learn more about how I approach a redesign.
