WaveINO insight

Website Redesign Checklist

A migration-safe redesign checklist for content, redirects, accessibility, performance, analytics and launch recovery.

Direct answer

A redesign is not complete when the new layout is approved. Preserve valuable URLs, map redirects, migrate metadata and content, validate structured data, test forms and analytics, measure performance, and monitor crawl errors after launch.

Inventory before changing URLs

Export current URLs, status, canonicals, titles, internal links, backlinks and performance. Keep useful URLs when intent remains the same.

Design content and journeys together

Map each audience question to a page and conversion path. Avoid replacing useful copy with visual placeholders or duplicating the same keyword page by location.

Prepare the migration

Create one-to-one redirects only where intent is equivalent. Update internal links, canonicals, sitemaps, structured data and analytics in the release candidate.

Validate and monitor

Crawl the build, test mobile and keyboard use, check forms and events, compare Web Vitals, then monitor Search Console and server errors after deployment.

Primary sources