Website Redesign Checklist: Before Design Begins
Capture the current site before deciding what to replace. Inventory indexable URLs, top landing pages, conversions, forms, integrations, analytics, legal content and assets. Interview the people who answer sales and support questions: their repeated questions often reveal the missing information.
| Keep or change? | Decision evidence |
|---|---|
| Page and URL | Search demand, inbound links, traffic, conversions, current accuracy and a destination if removed. |
| Navigation | Priority user tasks, service structure and whether labels are understood without internal jargon. |
| Content | Accuracy, usefulness, proof, ownership and the decision it helps a visitor make. |
| Visual component | Purpose, accessibility, responsive behaviour and maintenance cost. |
| Integration | Business owner, data flow, failure alert and test case. |
Your Redesign and Build Checklist
- Set measurable goals. Define the important journeys and conversions, plus what must not regress.
- Map the information architecture. Give distinct user intents distinct pages and keep labels concise.
- Create the redirect map early. Assign every changed or removed indexable URL to the most relevant live destination.
- Write real content before final layout. Design with genuine headings, proof, objections and calls to action rather than placeholder copy.
- Build responsive and accessible states. Include keyboard focus, readable contrast, form labels, errors, reduced motion and usable small-screen layouts.
- Preserve measurement. Map analytics and advertising events to the new forms, calls and journeys.
- Test a staging release. Crawl links, check titles and canonicals, submit forms, inspect devices and test performance.
- Launch with a verification list. Check DNS/SSL, redirects, robots, sitemap, analytics, conversions and high-value pages immediately.
The First Days After Launch
Watch server errors, redirect misses, form submissions, analytics events and real user feedback. Compare key journeys with the pre-launch baseline. Fix breakage before expanding the scope into new features.
Map an old URL to a genuinely relevant replacement. Sending every removed page to the homepage hides gaps and creates a poor visitor experience.
Redesign Mistakes to Avoid
- Deleting the existing URL inventory before the redirect map is complete.
- Approving visual mockups with placeholder content.
- Rebuilding every feature without checking whether anyone uses it.
- Launching forms without success, error and notification tests.
- Judging speed from one desktop lab run.
- Changing domain, platform, content and information architecture without a rollback plan.
Website Redesign Checklist by Redesign Type
Visual refresh redesign checklist
When only the design changes, the website redesign checklist is short: preserve URLs, content and tracking, and verify nothing moved that search engines had already indexed.
Full rebuild redesign checklist
A rebuild means the website redesign checklist covers content model, URL mapping, redirects, templates and analytics together, because all of them change at once.
Platform migration redesign checklist
Moving platform adds export fidelity, template parity and plugin replacement to the website redesign checklist, plus a staging environment that mirrors production.
Domain change redesign checklist
Changing domain makes the redirect map the single most important item on the website redesign checklist, alongside email authentication that references the old domain.
Website Redesign Checklist Frequently Asked Questions
What should a website redesign checklist protect?
A website redesign checklist protects the URLs, content and conversion paths that already work. Anything currently earning traffic or enquiries is inventoried before design starts.
When should a website redesign checklist be started?
Before the first design, not after. A website redesign checklist run at the end becomes a damage report rather than a plan.
Does a website redesign checklist include redirects?
Yes, and it is the highest-risk item on it. Every changing URL needs a mapped 301, and the map is part of the website redesign checklist rather than an afterthought at launch.
How does a website redesign checklist prevent traffic loss?
By recording what ranks, what converts and what is linked to before anything moves, so the redesign can be checked against that record instead of against opinion.
What belongs on a website redesign checklist after launch?
Crawl and indexation checks, redirect verification, analytics and conversion tracking, form testing and a ranking comparison against the pre-launch baseline.
Website Redesign Checklist: Sources and Further Reading
Platform requirements and recommended practices change. These primary sources were checked when this guide was reviewed.
- Google SEO Starter Guide — primary documentation consulted for this guide.
- W3C Web Accessibility Initiative — primary documentation consulted for this guide.