Designing a beautiful, more functional, and user-friendly site feels exciting—and it should be.
But if you're not factoring SEO into that redesign from day one, you might be setting yourself up for a major traffic drop. And that’s not just a temporary dip—it can take months or longer to recover lost rankings if the transition isn’t handled carefully.
So, if you’re planning to remodel your digital storefront, here’s the SEO checklist I walk clients through to keep their momentum going—and often, improve it.
Redesigning your website can feel like hitting the refresh button—new look, better navigation, faster speed. But the downside? All those changes could unintentionally tank your organic traffic if SEO isn't baked into the process from the get-go.
In fact, I commonly see traffic drops post-launch. And let’s be clear—this isn't just about vanity metrics. If search traffic drives leads for your business, then a drop in visibility means fewer inquiries, fewer conversions, and ultimately, less revenue.
Proper planning lets you maintain—and even grow—that SEO equity you’ve worked so hard to build. It all starts with knowing where your current value lives, and being strategic about how you migrate from old to new without breaking anything along the way.
One of the biggest culprits behind post-redesign ranking losses? Messy (or missing) redirects.
When your URLs change—and during a redesign, many often do—you need a meticulous map that connects every old URL to its new home. This isn’t a “nice to have.” It tells search engines where to find your content. Skip it, and you're basically telling Google, "This page no longer matters," even if it’s earning top search traffic.
A solid redirect strategy preserves your SEO foundation while supporting a cleaner and more intuitive site structure.
If your redirects are sloppy—or worse, nonexistent—you’re making it too hard for Google and your users to find what they came for.
The words on your website aren’t just there to explain what you do. They hold real estate in Google’s index. Your blog, landing pages, and product pages all contribute to your domain authority, and they might be doing more heavy lifting than you realize.
I've seen businesses accidentally strip away months or years of SEO gains just by refreshing their copy or removing a few “outdated” pages.
Your content isn’t just “nice to have,” it’s strategic—but only if you audit, preserve, and sometimes even enhance it before relaunch.
Think of it like renovating a historic home. Sure, you want modern improvements—but you need to preserve the foundation that makes it valuable in the first place.
Once your new site is live, the job isn’t done—it’s just beginning.
A technical SEO audit is like a post-op checkup: it tells you whether everything under the hood is working as it should. A lot can go wrong during a migration, from broken internal links to missing schema markup, and if you’re not methodically testing for these issues, they can quietly undermine your site's performance.
This is where the details matter—especially if you're trying to compete in search-heavy industries like professional services, cybersecurity, or health and wellness.
If your technical infrastructure isn’t supporting your SEO, you’re leaking value—simple as that.
Launching your new site isn’t the endgame. It’s the handoff. Once you go live, start closely monitoring how the new environment performs.
SEO is dynamic—it responds to changes in site architecture, browser behavior, and algorithm updates. The more proactive you are in checking results, the faster you can identify (and fix) anything that threatens your visibility.
This is where many teams drop the ball. They celebrate the launch, and then go hands-off. But traffic problems rarely show up on day one—they trickle in.
Nothing is set in stone after launch. If something’s off, you want to know yesterday so you can pivot quickly.
You can’t silo SEO into a checklist at the end of a redesign process. It’s got to be a core part of the entire game plan—from content wireframes to CMS selection to dev sprint reviews.
Most redesign pitfalls don’t happen in a vacuum—they’re the result of misaligned priorities between marketing, web teams, and leadership. Making SEO a shared responsibility avoids costly oversights.
Strong SEO outcomes are a team sport—and every player has a role.
If everyone knows why SEO matters—and how to protect it—you’ll turn your redesign into a strategic advantage, not a liability.
Have questions? We’re here to help. From strategy to success, we make smart marketing simple—whenever you need us, visit us at www.mrgemarketing.com
