A website redesign should start with an inventory of what the current site does, not with a new visual theme. The risk in a redesign is practical: URLs change, content gets shorter, and the enquiry form breaks on the day you announce the new site. This checklist is the sequence Zylora Digital uses so those failures are deliberate decisions rather than surprises.

Discovery

List the pages that exist, including PDFs and campaign URLs people still share. Note the primary action on each important page. If you have analytics or Search Console access, record which URLs receive visits. If you do not, say so and work from the inventory. Do not invent traffic figures to justify deleting a section.

Write down what must not be lost: a product name customers search for, a certification you can document, a phone number, a form that sales already uses.

Content

For each kept page, decide whether the words still answer the question. Rewriting is useful when the old page is vague. Replacing a specific page with a slogan is how useful queries disappear.

Put text in HTML. Navigation labels should match the page they open. Agree who signs off copy before build, because design cannot hide missing facts.

Design and build

Design the mobile width first if most of your customers will use a phone. Check that the path from the homepage to the enquiry is visible without hunting through a menu.

Build with one URL per page. Choose a trailing-slash style and keep it. Titles and meta descriptions should describe that page, not repeat one slogan on every template.

Redirects and canonicals

Before launch, finish a map: old URL, new URL, or “gone on purpose.” Redirect changed URLs with a permanent redirect to the closest replacement. Do not send every retired page to the homepage.

Each public page should declare its own canonical URL. Internal links should use that URL. A redesign that leaves two addresses for the same article creates a duplicate, even when the design is new.

Website redesign is the service that carries this map. The SEO and AI search work depends on the same URLs being crawlable after launch.

Testing

On a staging address, check:

  • Forms submit and show an error a person can fix
  • The keyboard can reach the menu, links, and fields, and focus is visible
  • Headings follow the page, with one clear H1
  • Images that carry meaning have alternative text
  • The layout does not jump as images load
  • Analytics, if you use it, still records a visit and an enquiry
  • Redirects from the map respond as intended

An automated accessibility score is not the whole test. The WCAG checklist describes what to do by hand.

Launch and the week after

Launch when the redirect map and the contact path work, not when the homepage animation is finished. For the first days, watch form deliveries and a sample of old URLs. Fix gaps in the redirect map quickly. Rankings are not something you can confirm on launch day. Indexing takes longer, and a sitemap submission does not force it.

Limitations

This checklist assumes you can edit the site and the server redirects. Some hosted builders restrict both. It does not cover a rebrand that also changes the company name and domain. That move needs the same URL care, plus a plan for people who still use the old name.