Before a redesign starts, list what already works: the page addresses, the pages that rank and bring enquiries, where the phone number sits, the menu labels regulars know and the working forms. Then change everything else freely.

What a redesign quietly throws away

A redesign brings a new look, a new structure and usually new words. Along the way, some things that were working disappear.

An address that ranked in search now returns a missing page. The phone number moves to the footer. A familiar menu label is renamed, and a working form is replaced by one that asks for more.

Nobody decides to remove these things. They are simply not on anybody's list, so nothing protects them.

The remedy is a list, written before the brief, of everything the current site does well.

What is easy to lose

The second is the one redesigns damage most often without noticing. A page can keep its address and still lose its place if the new design cuts its text to two lines beneath a large photograph.

Make the list before the brief

The evidence for what works already exists, in four places.

Analytics shows which pages people arrive on and which lead to enquiries. Search Console shows which pages appear in search, for which searches, and which pages other sites link to.

Staff know what customers ask for by name, and which pages they send people to. And regular customers, asked casually, will say what they use.

Include pages that look minor but are used: a payment page linked from invoices, a seasonal menu, a form that existing clients rely on.

Write the result down as a short document, and give it to whoever designs the new site before any drawing starts.

Keep the addresses, or redirect every one

Every page address has a history: links from other sites, bookmarks, a place in search results, sometimes a line on a brochure or the side of a van.

Where possible, keep the same addresses. Where one must change, the old address should send visitors and search engines to its closest new equivalent with a permanent redirect, rather than dumping everyone on the home page.

Include files as well as pages. A price list PDF linked from a supplier's site breaks as easily as any page.

After launch, try a sample of old addresses from the list, including any printed on paper, and check that each one lands where it should.

Keep what makes a page rank

A page ranks because of what it says. Its heading, its title in search results, the questions it answers and the detail it gives are what search engines matched to people's searches.

A redesign often shortens text to suit a cleaner layout, or merges several specific pages into one general page. Either can cost a page the very words that earned its position.

Move ranking pages into the new design with their text intact, and edit them carefully afterwards rather than rewriting them from scratch during the build.

A worked example

A retirement residence with about ninety suites commissioned a new website this autumn. Most of its visitors are the adult children of possible residents, researching in the evening and phoning during the day.

The first design draft renamed the menu around lifestyle, merged the suites and rates page into a long page about community, moved the phone number to the footer, and gave every page a new address.

Before approving it, the manager made the list. The suites and rates page was the most common landing page from search, and the tour booking form brought most enquiries.

The front desk added the detail nobody had written down: families on the phone often mentioned finding the number at the top of the screen.

The residence kept those things: the suites and rates page with its address and its words, the tour form unchanged, the phone number at the top right, and the menu label families knew.

Everything else changed: photographs, layout, type, colours and most of the remaining pages, with every old address redirected.

The phone number and the menu

Regular customers and returning visitors move by habit. They know where the phone number is and which menu item leads to the page they need.

Moving the number from the top of every page to a contact page, or to an icon with no digits, costs most with exactly the people who have already decided to call.

Menu labels work the same way. Rename the main items only for a good reason, and change the design around them freely.

Forms and tracking

A form that brings enquiries should move to the new site as it is: the same fields, the same destination address, the same thank-you page and the same goal counting it.

Change it later, on its own, if it needs changing. When a new design, new pages and a new form all launch together and enquiries fall, nobody can say which change did it.

Keep the tracking code running through the launch, and check the goal with a test enquiry on the first day.

The counter-case

Some sites have little worth keeping. A site with no rankings, few enquiries and a structure that never matched how customers search can change almost everything.

A business changing what it sells, or its name, will rightly retire pages and labels, though every old address still needs a destination.

And the list should never become an excuse to avoid a redesign that is needed. It protects what works so that everything else can change freely.

Before the redesign starts

  1. Export every page address on the site.
  2. Mark the pages that bring enquiries.
  3. Note the searches each page ranks for.
  4. Record where the phone number sits.
  5. Ask staff what customers look for.
  6. Map every old address to a new one.
  7. Keep tracking running through the launch.

Step six guards the rest of the list. A page that ranks and a form that works survive almost any change of design, provided people can still reach them.

Putting a working page back exactly as it was follows the same discipline as a home page for the busiest day of the year.

Frequently asked questions

What should stay the same in a redesign?

Whatever already works: page addresses, the pages that rank and bring enquiries, the phone number's position, familiar menu labels, working forms and the tracking that measures them.

Do page addresses really matter?

Yes. They carry links from other sites, bookmarks and search positions. Keep them, or redirect each old address permanently to its closest new page, not the home page.

How can a page lose rankings without moving?

When its text is cut to suit a cleaner layout or merged into a general page, it loses the words search engines matched to people's searches.

How do I find what works now?

Analytics for landing pages and enquiries, Search Console for searches and links, staff for what customers ask about, and regular customers for what they actually use.

Should the contact form change in a redesign?

Not at the same time. Move it across unchanged and alter it later, so that if enquiries fall you can tell whether the form or the design caused it.

Does this mean changing less overall?

No. Listing what works protects a few specific things, so that everything else, from photographs to layout to most of the pages, can change freely.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Redesign starting in the new year?

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