# Website redesign checklist: 30 steps > A website redesign checklist in 30 steps: goals, audit, content, design, SEO migration and launch, so the new site keeps its traffic and ships on time. Canonical page: https://kyvrel.com/blog/website-redesign-checklist Published: 2024-12-10 · Updated: 2025-02-18 · 5 min read · Kyvrel A redesign goes well when the boring parts are decided before anyone opens a design file. This website redesign checklist covers 30 steps in six stages: goals, audit, content, design and build, SEO migration and launch. Use it to plan the project, brief a team or check a proposal. Every step is something we do on a typical redesign. Most redesign problems are not visual. Traffic drops because redirects were missed. Launches slip because content arrived late. Budgets grow because nobody wrote down what "done" means. The steps below are ordered to prevent those three failures first. ## Website redesign checklist, stage 1: goals and baseline Start with numbers and reasons. A redesign without a baseline cannot prove it worked. - **01 · Write down why you are redesigning.** One paragraph. "Looks dated" is valid, but name what it costs you: lost leads, slow edits, wrong positioning. - **02 · Pick two or three measurable goals.** For example: demo requests per month, time to publish a page, mobile conversion rate. - **03 · Record the baseline.** Export 12 months of analytics and Search Console data. Note top landing pages, top queries and conversion rates. - **04 · Set the budget range and the launch window.** Decide what is fixed and what can move. Our [2025 website price guide](https://kyvrel.com/blog/website-cost-2025) has typical ranges by build type. - **05 · Name one decision-maker.** Feedback from five people with equal votes is the most common cause of a late project. Keep the output of this stage short: one page with the reasons, the goals, the baseline numbers, the budget and the decision-maker. Share it with everyone who will review the work. When a debate starts in week five about a button color, this page is what settles it. It also gives you a fair way to judge the result after launch, because the goals were written before anyone saw a design. ## Stage 2: audit what you have You are not starting from zero. The current site holds rankings, links and content that still work. - **06 · Crawl the whole site.** List every URL, its title, status code and word count. A desktop crawler is enough for most marketing sites. - **07 · Mark pages that earn traffic or links.** These are the pages you protect during migration. - **08 · Find dead weight.** Thin, outdated or duplicate pages can be merged or removed, with redirects. - **09 · Run a performance and accessibility check.** Use Lighthouse and a keyboard-only pass. Write down the worst issues so the new site does not repeat them. - **10 · Interview the people who use the site.** Sales, support and whoever edits content. Ask what they avoid doing because the site makes it hard. ## Stage 3: content and structure Content is the item that delays redesigns most often. Plan it like a deliverable, with an owner and a date. - **11 · Draft the new sitemap.** Group pages by what visitors need, not by your org chart. - **12 · Map every old URL to a new one.** This is the start of your redirect map. No old URL should be left without a target. - **13 · Decide who writes what.** In-house, a copywriter, or the agency. Put the delivery dates in the project plan. - **14 · Write the key pages first.** Home, product or service pages and pricing. Design follows content, not the other way round. - **15 · Choose the CMS based on who edits.** If marketing edits daily, they need a CMS they can use without a developer. ![Six redesign stages on a timeline: goals, audit, content, design and build, SEO migration, launch](https://kyvrel.com/blog/inline/website-redesign-checklist-1.png) ## Stage 4: design and build With goals and content in place, design decisions get faster and easier to defend. - **16 · Start with wireframes for the key templates.** Agree on structure and hierarchy before visual style. - **17 · Fix the number of revision rounds.** Two rounds per stage is enough when feedback is consolidated. Unlimited rounds usually means unclear decisions. - **18 · Build a small design system.** Type scale, colors, spacing and components. It keeps new pages consistent after launch. - **19 · Build on a staging site you can see every week.** A live staging link is the simplest guard against surprises at the end. - **20 · Test on real devices and browsers.** Include keyboard navigation, screen reader basics and color contrast against WCAG 2.2 AA. ## How do you keep SEO during a redesign? Losing search traffic after a redesign is common and mostly avoidable. Google's own guidance on [site moves with URL changes](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes) explains the mechanics. These five steps cover what usually goes wrong. - **21 · Finish the redirect map.** One-to-one 301 redirects from every old URL to the closest new page. Avoid redirecting everything to the home page. - **22 · Carry over titles, descriptions and headings** for pages that rank, unless you have a reason to change them. - **23 · Keep internal links pointing to final URLs,** not to redirects. - **24 · Check structured data, canonical tags and the XML sitemap** on staging before launch. - **25 · Block staging from search engines,** and remember to remove the block on launch day. ## Stage 6: launch and the first 30 days Launch is a process, not a moment. Plan the first month as part of the project. - **26 · Launch early in the week,** never on a Friday, with the team available. - **27 · Test the redirects right after launch** with the full list of old URLs. - **28 · Submit the new sitemap in Search Console** and watch coverage and crawl errors daily for the first two weeks. - **29 · Compare against the baseline** at 2, 4 and 8 weeks: traffic to key pages, rankings for main queries and conversions. - **30 · Write a handover pack.** Accounts, credentials stored safely, CMS guide and a list of known issues. The site, code and accounts should be in your name. ![Old URLs flowing through a redirect map to new pages, then to Search Console checks](https://kyvrel.com/blog/inline/website-redesign-checklist-2.png) ### What to check in a redesign proposal If you are reviewing agency proposals, use the checklist in reverse. A good proposal mentions the redirect map, the baseline, revision rounds, a staging link and post-launch monitoring. If SEO migration is listed as "optional", ask what the plan is for your existing rankings. ## Plan your redesign with a fixed scope A redesign is easier to run when scope and price are fixed up front. Our [website redesign service](https://kyvrel.com/products/website-redesign) starts at $9,500 for 8 page templates, takes 5-6 weeks and includes SEO migration: redirect map, Search Console checks before and after, and monitoring after launch. To see what extra pages, languages or a CMS add to the total, check [our website pricing](https://kyvrel.com/pricing). Every package, add-on and change rate is published there, so you can budget before the first call.