Website Redesign & SEO Migration Checklist

01 / Before design begins

Define what the new website must accomplish.

Agree on business outcomes before reviewing layouts. A beautiful homepage cannot resolve unclear service descriptions or an unanswered inquiry.

• Name the project owner. Identify who approves content, who makes technical changes, and who can stop a launch when something critical fails.
• Choose the primary visitor action. Specify the desired next step for each main page: consultation request, phone call, appointment, or project inquiry.
• Record a baseline. Save dated reports for organic landing pages, inquiries, qualified leads, and booked consultations. Record how each metric is measured so later comparisons use the same definitions.
• Confirm business ownership of accounts. Document who controls the domain, hosting, CMS, analytics, and form delivery. Keep credentials in an approved password manager, not in the project checklist.
• Approve the content inventory. Assign a reviewer to service descriptions, staff biographies, locations, testimonials, photography, and contact details. Flag material that needs permission or factual verification.

02 / Before pages move

Create a URL decision sheet.

Map changed URLs to relevant replacements, use permanent server redirects, and update internal links, canonical URLs, and the sitemap. Do not send unrelated deleted pages to the homepage. Remove launch-time indexing blocks from pages intended for search. These migration checks follow Google Search Central’s site-move guidance.

Use one row per existing URL. The examples below are illustrative, not redirects on your website.

• Account for important entry points. Include pages used in advertising, email signatures, proposals, QR codes, downloads, and partner links. Assign someone to update materials your team controls.
• Keep a decision trail. Add columns for owner, reason for change, approval date, and test result. A redirect plugin is an implementation tool; the decision sheet explains the intent.

03 / Before launch approval

Test the complete path from visit to inquiry.

• Walk through the site on a phone and laptop. Open the navigation, expand submenus, read headings, tap calls to action, and check both light and dark modes where offered.
• Use the keyboard. Tab through navigation and forms. Confirm that focus is visible, fields have labels, and errors explain what needs correction.
• Run an authorized form test. Use clearly labeled test information. Verify the confirmation message or thank-you page, notification recipients, delivery, and the assigned follow-up owner.
• Check measurement against a real action. Confirm that one completed inquiry is counted once. Distinguish a phone-link click from an answered call and a submitted form from a qualified prospect.
• Review sensitive intake fields. For medical and legal businesses, have the responsible team approve what the public form asks for and where submissions go. Do not use real patient or client details in testing.
• Check realistic loading conditions. Test key landing pages with typical mobile connectivity. Review oversized media, missing images, layout shifts, and scripts that delay the main action.
• Prepare a recovery plan. Confirm the backup, restoration owner, maintenance window, and criteria for postponing or reversing the release.

04 / Release day

Approve the live experience, not only the preview.

Preview approval is one checkpoint. Hosting, caching, integrations, and public URLs can behave differently after release.

• Repeat priority checks on the public site. Visit the homepage, major services, contact page, and the highest-priority landing pages. Test representative old URLs and verify the expected destinations.
• Verify production form settings. Confirm that test recipients and staging links are gone. Coordinate any final test inquiry with the intake team.
• Record the release. Save the date, changed pages, known issues, and responsible contacts. Note concurrent campaign or tracking changes that may affect performance comparisons.

A simple launch approval record

05 / After the launch

Watch visibility and lead quality together.

Google notes that migration processing and ranking fluctuations take time; crawl frequency is not fixed. A checklist reduces preventable mistakes but cannot guarantee rankings or a recovery date.

• Check daily at first for critical failures. Review error reports, delivery failures, broken destinations, and staff feedback. Escalate issues that prevent visitors from contacting the business.
• Review weekly with comparable periods. Separate branded and nonbranded search, priority landing pages, and device types. Consider seasonality, campaign changes, and reporting delays before assigning a cause.
• Ask what happened after the inquiry. Track qualified conversations and booked consultations alongside traffic. More submissions alone do not establish that the redesign generated better opportunities.
• Schedule ongoing ownership. Set review dates for content, redirects, forms, and maintenance. Keep the launch decision sheet available to the next person who changes the site.

Plan the next website with fewer surprises.

Trendi Marketing helps businesses connect page structure, design, content, and lead handling. Explore our website design services, including law firm website design and medical website design.

Sharing this resource with your team? Link to this page so readers can find the current checklist.