Websites and SEO · 19 Oct 2026 · 2 min read
How to revamp your website without losing your Google rankings
A new design can quietly undo years of search visibility. The checklist we follow before, during and after a website revamp.
A website revamp is usually about looks and enquiries. But if pages move or disappear without care, Google may lose track of the pages it used to rank, and traffic can drop for months. The good news is that most of that risk is avoidable.
Before the revamp
- List every page on the current site, using its sitemap or a crawl tool.
- Note which pages bring the most visits and enquiries, from Google Search Console and Analytics.
- Save the current titles and descriptions of your best pages.
- Decide which pages stay, which merge and which are removed.
During the build
Keep the addresses of important pages where possible. Where a page must move, plan a permanent 301 redirect from the old address to the closest new page, never just to the homepage. Keep the useful content from pages that ranked well, rewritten if needed but not thrown away. Make sure each page has one clear heading, a unique title and description, and loads quickly on a phone.
On launch day
- Put all redirects in place and test the most important old addresses yourself.
- Check that the new site is not blocked from search engines by mistake.
- Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console.
- Confirm tracking for forms, calls and WhatsApp still works, including any Google Tag Manager setup.
In the weeks after
Watch Search Console for pages that are not found and add redirects for any you missed. Some movement in rankings is normal in the first few weeks. Compare enquiries, not just traffic, since a clearer site often turns the same visitors into more enquiries.
This is the process we follow on every website revamp. If you are planning one, we are happy to talk it through.
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