Website relaunch checklist

A website relaunch is more than a new design. Without a clear plan, you quickly lose rankings, traffic and leads. This checklist covers the five steps that matter in every relaunch.

You can use this checklist yourself or get an offer from us for the full relaunch. We apply every one of these steps in our own projects.

Step 1: Take stock

List every URL on your current website that brings visitors or rankings today. Use Google Search Console and Google Analytics for this. This list is the base for every next step.

Step 2: Build a redirect map

Match every old URL to the right new URL. This is called a redirect map. Every old page gets a 301 redirect. This way Google keeps the value of the old page for the new URL.

Step 3: Save your content

Save every text, image and meta tag from your old website. Check closely which content ranks well and should stay on the new website. Good content is too valuable to lose in a relaunch.

Step 4: Technical testing before go live

Test the new website before it goes live. Check the redirects, the sitemap and the robots.txt file. A single mistake in the robots.txt file can remove your whole website from Google.

Step 5: Go live and monitor

Watch your rankings and your traffic closely for the first four to six weeks after go live. This way you catch problems early and fix them right away.

Rankings are lost when Google can no longer find the old pages, or finds them without the content that ranked. These steps secure the SEO side of your relaunch.

Redirect old URLs to new pages

Every old URL that brings visitors or rankings gets a 301 redirect to the new page on the same topic. Do not send everything to the home page. Test the redirect list before go-live and again right after.

Keep content that ranks

Look in Google Search Console at which pages and search terms bring impressions and clicks. Keep these texts, headings and topics on the new website. Change them only when the new page answers the same question at least as well.

Carry over titles and descriptions

Take the page titles and meta descriptions from the old website and use them on the new pages. Improve them only where you can clearly do better. Every page needs its own title and its own description.

Submit the sitemap again

Create the sitemap with the new URLs and submit it in Google Search Console right after go-live. It should list only pages that exist and that Google may index.

Watch Search Console after launch

Check Search Console regularly after go-live: errors, indexed pages, impressions and clicks per page. Compare the numbers with the time before the relaunch, so you see early which page loses visibility.

You can handle these steps yourself or together with us. Our SEO service covers the ongoing work, and the SEO audit shows where your current website stands before the relaunch.