Website redesign SEO: how to move a site without losing rankings
You keep your rankings through a redesign when every old address leads to the page with the same content, by a permanent (301 or 308) redirect. Test the redirects before launch and keep them for at least a year, as Google’s own guide advises. Below: why sites lose rankings, the six steps we follow, a redirect map you can copy, and what we learned moving the website of Render Friends, our sister studio.
Why do sites lose rankings after a redesign?
Rankings belong to addresses. Google has ranked your old pages at their old addresses. When those addresses show “not found” or lead somewhere unrelated, Google has nothing to pass the ranking to.
01
No redirect at all
The old page simply disappears.
02
A temporary redirect
Google’s guide says temporary redirects (302, 303, 307) keep showing the old page in search results; permanent ones (301, 308) show the new one.
03
Everything to the home page
Google warns that this “might be treated as a soft 404 error”, which is the same as no page at all.
Some movement is normal even when you do everything right. Google expects “temporary fluctuation in site ranking during the move”, and for medium-sized sites it can take “a few weeks or more” to show the new addresses.
How do you redesign a website without losing SEO?
We follow six steps on every redesign.
- List every old address. Take them from the old sitemap, from Search Console and from a crawl of the live site, a tool that follows every link and lists every page it finds. Pages that bring visits or have links from other sites matter most.
- Decide what happens to each page: keep, merge, rewrite or retire.
- Write the redirect map: one row for every old address, with its new address or an honest “not found”.
- Test the redirects before launch, in both forms of each address: with and without the slash at the end. Check that no redirect leads to another redirect, or to an error.
- Launch: turn the redirects on, check that canonical tags and robots rules point to the new pages, and submit the new sitemap in Search Console.
- Check Search Console two and four weeks after launch, and fix any address that still shows an error.
- 301 · 308permanent redirects: Google shows the new address
- 1 yearat least, to keep redirects in place
- 2 · 4 weekswhen we check Search Console after launch
Google Search Central: site moves and redirects, 2026 · our own process
Then keep the redirects. Google’s guide says “generally at least 1 year”, and from the visitor’s side, it suggests keeping them indefinitely.
A redirect map you can copy
A redirect map is a plain table. Make it before the design is finished, because it shows which pages the new site must have.
| Old address | Decision | Status | New address |
|---|---|---|---|
/collections/oak-chairs | keep | 301 | /furniture/chairs/ |
/oak-chair-2019 | merge into the chair page | 301 | /furniture/chairs/oak/ |
/about-us | rewrite | 301 | /about/ |
/marketing | merge | 301 | /services/ |
/shop | retire: never had content | 404 | — |
The last two rows come from a real site. The first three are an example of a furniture brand.
What we learned moving Render Friends
In 2026 we moved the website of Render Friends, our sister studio, from Weblium to new code. Its 21 old addresses each redirect to their new page, and we checked that every new address exists, so no redirect ends on an error.
- 21old addresses, each redirected to its new page
- 42address forms tested, with and without the slash
- 1old page given an honest 404
One old page, /shop, was created by accident and never had products. It got an honest 404 instead of a redirect to some other page.
The most useful lesson was about the slash at the end of an address. Our hosting adds the slash before it reads the redirects. A one-line settings change would have sent /marketing to /marketing/, which had no redirect, and then to an error, and the same for all 21 addresses. We caught it by testing all 42 address forms, with and without the slash, against the server’s routing rules before the change went live.
Test each old address in both forms. A redirect that works for /marketing can still fail for /marketing/.
No similar page to send it to? Let the old address return 404. A redirect to the home page saves nothing.
01
When should you not redirect a page?
When there is no page with similar content to send it to. Google’s advice is direct: if you removed a page and “there’s no replacement”, return a 404 (not found) or 410 (gone).
A redirect to an unrelated page does not save anything. Google can treat it as a soft 404, and the visitor lands somewhere they did not ask for. An honest “not found” is cleaner for both.
02
Where does this fit in a redesign?
The redirect map is one step in a larger job: deciding whether to rebuild at all, designing the new pages and moving the content. Our website redesign page covers the whole process, with prices and timelines.
If you are not sure your site needs a rebuild, start with a free review.
We look at your current site and tell you whether it needs a rebuild at all, what to fix first, and how much work each fix is.
Send it with the button on the right→
Questions about redesign and SEO
Will my website lose rankings after a redesign?
Some movement for a few weeks is normal, as Google's own guide says. The part you can prevent is old addresses that stop working, and a tested redirect map does that.
What is the difference between a 301 and a 302 redirect?
A 301 is permanent: Google shows the new address in search results. A 302 is temporary: Google keeps showing the old one. For a redesign, use 301 or 308.
How long should redirects stay in place?
At least a year, according to Google. For visitors, Google suggests keeping them indefinitely.
Should I redirect deleted pages to the home page?
No. Google may treat that as a soft 404. If there is no page with similar content, let the old address return 404 or 410.