Decide what needs changing before choosing a rebuild
Write down the business problem. Outdated service information may need a content update. Missing project proof may need better case studies and photography. A site that makes those updates difficult may need a broader rebuild. The scope should follow that diagnosis.
A working enquiry route, a useful guide or a recognisable project address has value even when the design feels old. Identify those assets before treating the current site as something to discard.
The Appselec case study records a rebuild for an established company. HR Homestyle Projects is a first-site project, so it is a reference for our website work rather than evidence of a migration or a search traffic improvement.
Save a baseline and inventory the pages
Keep a list of the current pages, their purpose and the business information they contain. Save the copy and approved media you intend to reuse. Where you have access, record search queries, landing pages and links from other sites, with the reporting period written beside the figures.
Give each page a decision: keep, improve, combine or retire. Preserve a useful URL when the page still serves the same purpose. Where a URL must change, map it to the closest relevant replacement. Sending every old service page to the homepage is not a useful migration plan.
Google’s site move guidance recommends mapping old URLs to their new destinations and checking the new site before moving traffic. Ask your builder for that mapping as part of the launch plan.
Protect the domain, email and enquiry paths
List who controls the domain, where email runs, who receives enquiries and which booking or other services the site uses. Confirm account access before launch week. A website change should not become an unexpected email or ownership problem.
Name a business contact who can verify each visitor action. Check that an enquiry reaches its intended destination and that a booking flow reaches the correct confirmation. A button changing colour or a success message appearing is not evidence of delivery.
The domain and account ownership guide explains the access questions to resolve. Include those answers in your website design brief.
Make the content accurate before making it look finished
Check that services, service areas, contact details and project records describe the business today. Assign an owner to approve each factual change. Keep genuine proof where it still applies and obtain permission before publishing new client material.
Review the image and video gaps against the page list. New layouts do not supply missing team photographs or completed-project views. Arrange the content work early enough for the actual material to be reviewed on desktop and phone.
Read the pages, follow the links and use a keyboard through the main actions. Check headings, image crops, captions and anything that moves. Have someone from the business review the parts they know rather than signing off only the homepage.
Before the build: assign an owner and evidence
Copy this checklist into the project record. For each item, add the responsible person and a link or note showing what has been checked.
- Business scope: agreed problem, audience and required visitor actions. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
- Page inventory: keep, improve, combine or retire decision for each URL. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
- Baseline: dated search and landing-page reports where available, plus important external links. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
- Content: approved facts, copy and media, with a plan for missing material. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
- Dependencies: domain, email, analytics, forms and booking access confirmed. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
Before launch: test the pages and the business actions
Ask the builder to show the checks on the release you are approving. A preview passing inspection does not prove that the production domain has the same configuration.
For permanently moved pages, Google recommends server-side permanent redirects such as 301 or 308. Its redirect documentation explains how redirects indicate the preferred destination. Test the actual old addresses as well as the new ones.
- Content and access: desktop, narrow phone, keyboard navigation, image crops and readable reduced-motion states checked. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
- Domain: HTTPS works and hostname variants reach the intended page with relevant paths preserved. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
- Search setup: intended public pages are indexable, canonical URLs match and the sitemap lists the right destinations. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
- Old links: the agreed redirect map works and links inside the site point to current pages. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
- Enquiries and bookings: delivery and confirmation are demonstrated with the business’s agreement. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
- Measurement: page addresses, titles and required actions are recorded correctly. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
After launch: verify the live site and follow the data
Deployment, indexing and search performance are different states. A live page can be technically available before it appears in search. A change in clicks also needs context: compare equivalent reporting periods and separate business-name searches from service demand.
- Live release: key pages, old links, images, forms and bookings checked on the public domain. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
- Search discovery: sitemap and important URLs checked in Search Console; indexing status recorded separately. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
- Errors: broken links, failed requests and business delivery problems reviewed and assigned. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
- Follow-up: compare dated search and enquiry reports with the baseline and investigate specific changes. Owner: ______. Evidence: ______.
Use the same checklist when choosing a web designer so proposals include the work around launch. Our website design and development service brings the site, content and handover into one project brief.
Questions about a business website redesign
Do we have to change all our URLs?
No. Keep useful existing addresses where the page serves the same purpose. When a change is necessary, agree a relevant destination and test the redirect.
Will the new site keep the same search rankings?
There is no honest guarantee. Record the baseline, preserve useful content, plan changed URLs carefully and monitor the live site and Search Console after launch.
How do we know the redesign is ready to launch?
Agree completion evidence in the brief: accurate content, working pages and redirects, accessible desktop and phone layouts, and demonstrated enquiry or booking behaviour. Recheck the important paths on the public domain after deployment.