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How to Redesign Your Website Without Destroying Your SEO

Written by
Visions Team
on
June 12, 2025

Launching a new website is exciting:  fresh design, improved UX, faster performance. But if you don't approach it carefully, it can do more harm than good, especially to your search visibility.

SEO isn't something you bolt on at the end of a project. It’s woven into the structure, content, and setup of your site. A careless redesign can erase years of work, dropping your rankings, cutting off your organic traffic, and leaving your users (and Google) confused.

Here’s how to redesign your site without losing your SEO momentum.

1. Audit What’s Already Working

Before you change a thing, take stock of your current SEO performance. You need to know what’s working so you can preserve it.

What to look for:

  • Top-performing pages (by traffic, conversions, backlinks)

  • Keywords you rank for

  • High-authority backlinks

  • Pages with strong dwell time or low bounce rates

Tools to help:

Tip: Export this data and use it as a reference throughout your redesign. If a blog post drives 30% of your traffic, you don’t want it buried or broken in the new version.

2. Keep URL Structures Consistent (Or Redirect Properly)

Changing your URLs without planning is one of the fastest ways to lose rankings. If you must change them, you need to put proper redirects in place.

Best practice:

  • Keep the same URLs where possible — especially for high-performing pages.

  • If changes are necessary (e.g., restructuring), use 301 redirects to point the old URLs to the new ones. This tells search engines the move is permanent and passes most of the SEO value across.

  • Avoid mass-deleting pages without assessing their value first.

Example:
Don’t let /services/web-design become /what-we-do/design without a redirect, or worse, just drop it entirely. Google (and users) will hit a 404, and any SEO equity tied to that URL is lost.

3. Update Metadata and Content Strategically

Content is often refreshed during a redesign — and that’s great. But it’s important not to throw away content that’s ranking just because it feels outdated.

What to do:

  • Review which content ranks and why. Look at search intent and keep the key topics, structure, and target keywords.

  • Refresh old content by improving readability, adding internal links, and updating stats or images.

  • Keep important metadata (title tags, meta descriptions, H1s) intact or refine them carefully.

Tip: You can modernise tone or design without removing the content value. If a how-to guide from 2019 still ranks, update it for 2025 rather than delete it.

4. Involve SEO from the Start... Not Just at the End

SEO shouldn’t be a final checklist before launch,  it should guide the site structure, navigation, and content strategy.

Why it matters:

  • Navigation affects crawlability

  • Page structure influences rankings

  • Image names and alt text impact image search

  • JavaScript-heavy sites can block bots if not handled well

Bring your SEO lead into early conversations about wireframes, sitemap planning, and content migration. This saves time later and ensures nothing important gets left behind.

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5. Post-Launch Monitoring: Watch Everything Closely

Once the new site is live, the work isn’t over. This is when you keep a close eye on performance to catch any issues early.

Track:

  • Keyword rankings (any sudden drops?)

  • Organic traffic by page

  • Crawl errors (use Google Search Console)

  • Redirect issues or missing pages

  • Page speed and mobile performance

Tools: Pair Search Console with tools like Screaming Frog to run a crawl of the new site and spot issues quickly.

Final Thoughts

A website redesign should improve your user experience, boost performance, and support your marketing goals, not erase your hard-earned rankings.

With the right planning, you don’t have to choose between a beautiful new site and strong SEO. You can have both.

Need help making it all work?

Whether you're planning a refresh or a full rebuild, we can help you protect your SEO while creating something brilliant. From content migration to technical audits, we’ve got the experience to guide you through the process, simply book a meeting today.