Website Redesign Checklist: Before, During, and After Launch

A website redesign checklist exists to make sure nothing quietly breaks: old addresses, contact forms, tracking, and the project pages that bring in inquiries. The work splits into three stages. Before the redesign, you record what the current site has and what it earns. During the build, you map every old URL and rebuild what's needed. After launch, you check that Google, visitors, and your inbox all see the new site working.

The list below is written for interior design studios and landscaping companies, where the portfolio and its photos are usually the biggest and most fragile part of the site.

Before the redesign: record what you have

This stage is about creating a snapshot you can compare against later. Once the old site is gone, you can't go back and check what it had.

Access and backups

1. Collect every login: domain registrar, hosting, the site's admin panel, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and any ad accounts. Check whose name each one is under.
2. Make a full backup of the current site, including the media library. Keep it somewhere other than the hosting account.
3. Download the original, full-size project photos if they live only on the site. Many sites store compressed copies, and you'll want the originals for a new layout.
4. Export past form submissions if your site stores them. It's easy to have years of inquiries stored there and not know it.

Pages and traffic

1. Verify the site in Search Console if you haven't already. Google's site move guide says to verify all variants of both the old and new sites, meaning the http, https, www, and non-www versions.
2. Export the Pages and Queries tables from the Performance report. Search Console's Performance report has an export button for the chart and table data. Pick the longest date range available so seasonal pages show up too.
3. Build a full list of URLs. Google suggests pulling them from sitemaps, server logs, analytics, and your content management system, since no single source catches everything.
4. Mark the pages that matter. On a studio site, it's often a few project pages and one or two service pages that bring most visits. Those get the most care later.

Project pages and photos

1. Count your project pages and the photos on each.
2. Note which project photos already appear in Google Images. Search site:yourdomain.com in Google Images and look. For a landscaper, a well-named photo of a flagstone patio can bring in visitors for years.
3. Write down what each project page says: location, scope, materials. That text is easy to lose when someone rebuilds pages from the photos alone.

Everything that runs in the background

1. List every tracking code: analytics, the Meta pixel, Google Ads conversion tags, call tracking numbers.
2. List every form and where it sends: which email address, which CRM, any autoresponder.
3. List embedded extras: review widgets, an Instagram feed, a Houzz badge, a booking calendar, a newsletter signup.

If the inventory turns up much more than you expected, our page on website redesign cost explains how page count and migration affect the price.

During the build: map, rebuild, and test

The URL map is the center of this stage. Everything else in the list hangs off it.

The URL map

Make a spreadsheet with three columns: old address, new address, and action. Each row gets one of three actions.

• Keep. The address doesn't change. This is the safest option, so use it wherever the old URL is reasonable.
• Redirect. The page moves or merges, and the old address gets a permanent 301 redirect to the closest new page.
• Remove. The content is gone. Google says URLs for content you aren't moving should return a 404 or 410.

Two rules to follow. Redirect each old address directly to its final destination, because Google recommends avoiding chains and keeping any unavoidable ones to no more than 3 hops, and fewer than 5. And don't send dozens of retired pages to the home page. Google may treat that as a soft 404, which means the redirect counts for little.

Photos and portfolio pages

Google's guide says images, downloads, and PDFs need to move like the rest of your content. In practice, a redesign often changes every image address because the new site stores files differently. If your photos get Google Images traffic, add their old URLs to the map too, at least for the top ones.

While you're moving photos, fix what was wrong with them:

• Rename files to describe the scene, like walnut-kitchen-island-brooklyn.jpg or dry-creek-bed-front-yard.jpg.
• Write short alt text for each image.
• Resize large files so project galleries load quickly on a phone.
• Check that each project page still has its written description, not only a gallery.

Pages, links, and settings

• Keep the text of pages that rank. A service page that gets traffic should move with its substance intact, even if the wording is updated.
• Point internal links straight at new addresses.
• Give each new page a self-referencing canonical tag, as Google recommends for moved URLs.
• Keep the test site hidden from search with a password or a noindex setting, and write a note to remove it at launch.

Forms and tracking

Rebuild every form from your list, and send a real test inquiry through each one. Check that it arrives at the right inbox and doesn't land in spam. Then reinstall analytics, the pixel, and conversion tags, and confirm each one records a test visit or test submission.

Test on phones

Use real phones, ideally on a weak connection, rather than a desktop browser set to imitate one. Galleries and forms are where problems show up.

• Open a project page on cellular data and see how long the first photo takes.
• Swipe through a full gallery.
• Tap the phone number and the email address.
• Fill out the contact form with your thumb.
• Read the service list without zooming.

Pick a launch date

Google suggests moving a site during a period when traffic is lower. For a landscaping company, that usually means avoiding spring, when people are booking work. A design studio may have its own slow months. Launch early in a week, so problems surface when you're around to fix them.

Launch day

Keep launch day short and boring. Most of the work should already be done.

1. Take one more backup of the old site.
2. If you're changing hosting, lower the DNS TTL in advance. Google's guide on moving hosting recommends setting it to a low value, such as a few hours, at least a week before the switch.
3. Switch DNS or publish the new site.
4. Turn on the redirects and test a sample from the URL map, starting with your most visited pages.
5. Remove the password or noindex setting from the test site.
6. Check robots.txt. Google advises making sure it blocks only what you intend.
7. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.
8. If the domain changed, submit a Change of Address in Search Console.
9. Send a test inquiry through the live form.

After launch: first days, first weeks, first months

Expect some movement in search. Google says rankings may fluctuate while it recrawls and reindexes, and that for a small to medium site, most pages can take a few weeks to move.

In the first days

• Check the Pages report in Search Console for new 404 errors and fix the ones that should have been redirected.
• Click through the main menu and a handful of project pages on your phone.
• Confirm analytics and the pixel are recording visits.

In the first weeks

• Compare traffic to your top pages against the export you saved before the redesign.
• Update your website link in your Google Business Profile if the address changed, plus Houzz, Yelp, Instagram, and your email signature. Google recommends updating links you control and high-volume external links to the new URLs. For more on profile work, see our article on local SEO for landscapers.
• If you're moving hosts, don't cancel the old plan yet. Google advises keeping it until traffic to the old provider reaches zero.

In the first months

• Keep redirects in place. Google's guidance is at least 1 year, and we'd leave them indefinitely.
• Renew the old domain if you moved to a new one. Letting it lapse breaks every redirect at once.
• Add new projects. A redesigned portfolio that stops growing ends up in the same place as the old one.

If you'd rather hand this off

This checklist is the same work we do during a redesign. For 10 years we've built and rebuilt sites for interior design studios and landscaping companies, and the list above covers the migration side of it. Our website redesign services page explains what's included, starting from $1,000.