Websites age quietly. Often you only notice when customers ask about things that should be on the site, or when you no longer like showing it yourself.
Typical signs
- The site is hard to read or use on mobile.
- Services, prices or contact people are out of date.
- Changes are cumbersome or only possible through someone else.
- Hardly any enquiries come in through the website.
- The design no longer fits your business.
What matters when switching
Existing pages that people find on Google should redirect to the matching new page. Otherwise visitors land on error pages and visibility you have built up is lost. Content that works well should move over too.
A good opportunity
A relaunch is the right moment to rework copy, drop pages nobody needs and add features such as online booking.
Step by step to a relaunch
- Take stock: which pages get visits, which search terms you are found for, where enquiries come from.
- Set goals: what should the new website do better than the old one?
- Plan the structure: which pages stay, which go, which are added?
- Revise the content: align copy and images with the new structure.
- Design and build on a preview that Google cannot find yet.
- Set up redirects from every old address to the matching new one.
- Launch and monitor: submit the sitemap and watch for errors in the first weeks.
What to secure beforehand
- A list of all existing addresses, for example from the sitemap or Google Search Console.
- The pages with the most visitors and the search terms you are found for.
- Forms, embeds and logins that need to keep working.
- Copy and images that work well and should be carried over.
Common mistakes
- The preview is visible to Google and gets indexed before launch.
- After launch, the search engine block from the preview is still active.
- Old addresses lead nowhere because redirects are missing.
- Content that ranked well is shortened or removed.
- Images lose their descriptions, pages lose their titles.
Planning redirects properly
The most important technical step in a relaunch is redirects. Every old address that Google knows or that other sites link to should point permanently (with status code 301) to the matching new page. Don't send everything to the home page: Google often treats that like a missing page, and visitors don't find what they were looking for.
- Collect all old addresses, for example from the sitemap, Search Console and a crawl of the old site.
- Assign the matching new address to each old one, in a simple spreadsheet.
- Send pages without a counterpart to the closest page on the same topic.
- After launch, spot-check the redirects.
- Point internal links on the new site directly to the new addresses, not via redirects.
Keep and improve your content
A relaunch is not a chance to throw everything away. Pages that bring in enquiries today have proven themselves. Their content should stay and may get better: clearer headings, up-to-date details, answers to new questions. At the same time it is the right moment to merge weak or duplicate pages. Tips in the post Writing website copy.
Rethink technology and design
A relaunch is also a chance to rethink the technology. Does the site need to run on a system that constantly needs updates, or would a lean, fast solution do? If you rarely change content, simpler technology often pays off. If you edit often yourself, you need a good editing interface. For the design: first work out what visitors are looking for, then design.
Accessibility belongs on the list too. Building a new website accessibly from the start is easier than retrofitting it. More in the post Accessible website.
Relaunch or refresh?
- A refresh makes sense if the technology is current and the structure works, and only copy, images or individual pages are outdated.
- A relaunch makes sense if the site is hard to use on a phone, changes are cumbersome, the technology is outdated or your offer has changed fundamentally.
- Either way: what works well today should stay.
Choosing the right time
Don't plan the launch for your busiest period. Small issues often appear in the first few days and should be fixed quickly, and both you and your designer need some room for that. Advertising or printed material with new addresses should only appear after launch.
After launch
In the first weeks after a relaunch, rankings on Google can fluctuate until the new pages are picked up. Keep an eye on errors and pages not found in Search Console and fix them quickly. After that you will see whether the new website brings more enquiries than the old one.
Measuring success
Decide beforehand how you will measure success: enquiries, bookings and calls via the website, or visibility for important search terms. Record the numbers before the relaunch. Only then will you see after a few months whether the effort paid off. Cookie-free visitor statistics are often enough. What to check before going live is covered in the website launch checklist.
Will a relaunch cost me my Google rankings?
Not necessarily. Fluctuations in the first weeks are normal. With complete redirects, retained content and clean technology, lasting losses can usually be avoided. It becomes risky when redirects are missing or well-ranking content is removed.
Can I keep my domain?
Yes, and that usually makes sense. The domain simply moves to the new website. Changing the domain is a separate undertaking with additional redirects and should be well justified.
What happens to my email addresses?
Email usually runs independently of the website. But when moving, the email records must be kept, otherwise messages stop arriving. This belongs on the launch checklist.
How long does a relaunch take?
Roughly as long as a new website, plus time for the audit and redirects. What the timeline depends on is covered in the post How long does a website take?.
Not every old website needs to be rebuilt from scratch. Sometimes new copy, better images and a few technical improvements are enough. That is easy to assess in an intro call.
