A redesign changes templates, URLs, and content all at once — and every change is a chance to silently delete the signals your rankings stand on. This checklist splits the work into before, during, and after, with a CheckSEO scan as the benchmark at each stage.
Related reading: Web Designers & Developers , Google Traffic Drop Analysis , Website Migration SEO Checklist , New Website SEO Checklist .
Scan the current site and save the audit: scores, indexed URLs, titles, meta descriptions, and the internal link map. This snapshot is your evidence of what must survive — without it you cannot even tell what the redesign broke.
Keep URLs identical where possible. Where they must change, map every old URL to its new home with a 301 redirect. Carry over titles, meta descriptions, heading structure, and image ALT text — they are content, not decoration.
Scan the new site the day it launches. Compare against the benchmark: missing pages, lost meta, new broken links, robots or noindex accidents. Fix within days, not after the traffic report drops.
Start with the SEO Search tool to review the website quickly and understand the initial score.
Move into the Projects dashboard to track the website as an ongoing SEO project.
Open the related module pages like SEO Reports, Index Coverage, Sitemap, Robots, Content, and Links to understand the result in detail.
These internal links use targeted anchor text so visitors and search engines can move naturally across the main website SEO review topics.
Ship websites that are ready to rank on day one.
Google Traffic Drop AnalysisTraffic dropped? Rule out the technical causes first.
Website Migration SEO ChecklistMigrations are survivable — with a complete URL inventory.
New Website SEO ChecklistGive your new website a ranking head start, not a handicap.
Usually changed URLs without redirects, lost title and meta content, removed pages, broken internal links, or a noindex/robots setting carried over from staging.
Before any design work starts. The pre-redesign scan is the benchmark everything after launch gets compared against.
No. Scan now, fix indexing accidents and broken redirects first — recoveries are common when caught within weeks.
It's simple: enter your website URL on our free audit page and get a full SEO report — score, issues, and recommended fixes — delivered to your email. No signup needed.