> How to redesign or rebuild a website without losing rankings: record what ranks, keep or redirect every address, carry content over, check after launch. - Canonical: https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/redesign-a-website-without-losing-rankings/ --- # How to redesign a website without losing rankings Ranking losses after a redesign usually come from three avoidable mistakes: addresses that change without a redirect, content that is cut without checking what it ranked for, and a launch that carries over a "do not index" setting from the test site. Updated 6 October 2026 ## Before: record what the site has A redesign can only protect what has been written down. Before any design work starts, crawl the current site for a list of every address, and export from Google Search Console the pages and searches that bring visitors. Search Console keeps sixteen months of data. Note each page’s title and description, and which pages other websites link to. ## Keep the addresses, or redirect each one Every address that changes needs a permanent redirect, known as a 301, to the page that replaces it. Map old to new one by one, straight to the closest equivalent and in a single hop. Sending every old address to the home page throws away what each page had earned. ## Carry over the content that ranks Pages rank for the words on them. Where the record shows a page bringing visitors, the new version keeps its subject, its main heading and the sections that answer the searches it appears for. Shorter and cleaner is fine. Cutting the part that ranked is where the traffic goes. ## Keep the test site out of search, and unblock at launch Test sites are normally hidden from search engines with a password or a “noindex” instruction, and rightly. The launch checklist must include taking that block off. A live site still carrying the test site’s block disappears from results within days. ## Launch-day checks Launch day is when small faults are cheapest to catch. - Crawl the new site for broken links and missing titles. - Test the redirects from the full list of old addresses. - Submit the new sitemap in Search Console. - Confirm that Analytics and Search Console are still recording. - Read the robots.txt file and one page’s source for any leftover block. ## After: watch for four weeks Google takes days to weeks to recrawl a rebuilt site. Each week, read Search Console’s Pages report for new errors, check the list of pages not found, and compare the searches and pages bringing visitors with the record made before the work began. ## Questions people ask ### Will a redesign always cause a drop in traffic? A short wobble while Google recrawls the site is common. A lasting drop usually traces to changed addresses without redirects, removed content or a blocked site, and the checks in this guide catch all three. ### How long should redirects stay in place? Keep redirects for at least a year, and for as long as other websites still link to the old addresses. Removing a redirect turns each of those links into a dead end. ### Do I need to tell Google about a redesign? A redesign on the same domain needs no announcement: submitting the new sitemap in Search Console is enough. A move to a new domain is different and uses Search Console's Change of Address tool. ## Free competitor gap report Before a rebuild, it helps to know what the site is up against. Name up to three competitors and we compare your current site with theirs, so the new one is built to close the gaps and keep what already ranks. 1. Speed and technical health, side by side 2. On-page SEO and site structure 3. The content they are found for and you are not 4. Who holds the searches that matter in your market 5. A prioritised list of what to fix first [Request your free report by email](mailto:contact@hadalmedusa.com?subject=Competitor%20gap%20report%3A%20Guide%3A%20How%20to%20redesign%20a%20website%20without%20losing%20rankings&body=Website%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AWhere%20you%20compete%20(area%2C%20country%20or%20countries)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0ACompetitors%20to%20compare%20against%20(up%20to%20three)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AAnything%20else%20we%20should%20know%3A%0D%0A%0D%0A) - **Address** — contact@hadalmedusa.com - **Include** — your site; up to three competitors; where you compete ## More guides - [Why your Wix site is not showing up on Google](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/wix-site-not-showing-on-google/) - [Page with redirect: what it means in Search Console](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/page-with-redirect-search-console/) - [Why your Wix site is so slow, and what to do about it](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/why-is-my-wix-site-so-slow/) - [All guides](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/) - [Redesigns and rebuilds: what the service includes](https://hadalmedusa.com/services/website-redesign/)