Website Relaunch Without Ranking Loss: The 10-Step Checklist

A relaunch is a great opportunity: faster pages, a modern appearance, more enquiries. At the same time, it's one of the most common reasons why websites suddenly drop in Google rankings. The reason is almost always the same: old web addresses disappear without Google knowing where the content has moved. With proper planning, you can avoid this.

Before the Relaunch

1. Take Stock

Export a list of all existing URLs – for example from your sitemap, Google Search Console or with a crawler. Note which pages bring the most visitors and which are linked from other websites. These pages are your most valuable asset.

2. Set Your Goals

What should the new website do better? More enquiries, faster loading times, easier maintenance, a second language? Clear goals help with every decision later on – and make success measurable.

3. Evaluate Content Instead of Deleting It

Not every old text is bad. Pages that rank well should be revised rather than deleted. Outdated content can go – but with a redirect to the most appropriate new page.

4. Create a Redirect Plan

For each old URL, decide which new address it should permanently redirect to (status code 301). Important: redirect to the content-relevant page, not universally to the home page.

During Implementation

5. Hide the Preview from Google

The new website should run under its own preview address until launch, one that isn't indexed. Otherwise, duplicate content will appear in Google.

6. Build in Technical SEO Basics

• Meaningful page titles and meta descriptions
• Exactly one H1 heading per page
• Clean internal linking
• XML sitemap and robots.txt
• Structured data, for example for your business

7. Test Load Time and Mobile View

Check the new site on different mobile phones and with tools like Google PageSpeed. You can also get a quick overview with our free website check.

After Launch

8. Check Your Redirects

Randomly call up old addresses and verify that they redirect correctly. Error pages (404) can be found in Search Console.

9. Submit Your Sitemap

Submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console. This way, Google learns about the new structure faster.

10. Monitor Your Figures

Keep a close eye on visitors, rankings and enquiries in the first few weeks. Small fluctuations are normal – significant drops usually indicate missing redirects.

Conclusion

A relaunch is not purely a design project. If you move the old addresses cleanly and think about the technical basics from the start, you'll get off to a flying start with the new website. If you don't want to plan your relaunch alone: in our free initial consultation, we'll look at your current website together.