Website Redesign Checklist: What Every London Business Must Do Before Launch

A website redesign is one of the most significant marketing investments a business makes. It is also one of the easiest ways to accidentally destroy years of accumulated SEO value in the space of a single afternoon. Businesses that launch redesigned websites without the right preparation regularly find themselves with a beautiful new site, zero organic traffic, and no idea why their Google rankings have vanished.

This checklist covers every critical element that must be verified before a redesigned website goes live. It is structured across five areas: SEO and technical foundations, content and copy, conversion architecture, analytics and tracking, and post-launch verification. Work through it sequentially before pressing the launch button on any new or redesigned site.

Part 1: SEO and Technical Foundations

This is the area most commonly neglected in website redesigns and the area with the most potential for serious, lasting damage to organic search performance.

URL Structure and Redirects

Map every URL on your existing website against the corresponding URL on the new site. Any URL that is changing (which in a full redesign is likely to be most of them) must have a 301 permanent redirect in place from the old URL to the new. Without redirects, every inbound link pointing to your old pages delivers a 404 error, and all the link equity and ranking authority associated with those pages is lost.

• Create a complete URL mapping document before development begins: old URL, new URL, redirect status
• Test every redirect using a crawler tool (Screaming Frog is the standard) before launch
• Check that redirects are 301 (permanent), not 302 (temporary), as only 301 redirects pass link equity
• Ensure your homepage redirect is correct: both yourdomain.co.uk and www.yourdomain.co.uk should redirect cleanly to the canonical version

XML Sitemap

• Generate a new XML sitemap for the redesigned site and verify it includes all indexable pages
• Exclude any pages that should not be indexed (thank you pages, admin pages, duplicate content)
• Submit the new sitemap to Google Search Console immediately after launch

Robots.txt

• Verify the robots.txt file is not blocking search engine crawlers from indexing key pages
• During development, sites are often set to disallow all crawlers. Confirm this setting has been reversed before launch.

Canonical Tags

• Check that canonical tags are correctly implemented on all pages, pointing to the preferred version of each URL
• For pages with URL parameters, verify canonicals prevent duplicate content indexation

Page Speed and Core Web Vitals

• Run Google PageSpeed Insights on your 5 most important pages on both mobile and desktop
• Confirm Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is under 2.5 seconds
• Confirm Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is under 0.1
• Optimise all images: WebP format where possible, compressed without visible quality loss, lazy loading applied to below-fold images

HTTPS and Security

• Confirm SSL certificate is active and all pages load via HTTPS
• Verify there are no mixed content warnings (HTTP assets loading on HTTPS pages)
• Check HTTP URLs redirect correctly to HTTPS equivalents

Mobile Responsiveness

• Test the new site on iOS and Android devices, not just desktop browser mobile simulation
• Verify tap targets are large enough, text is readable without zooming, and forms work correctly on mobile

Part 2: Content and Copy Audit

Title Tags and Meta Descriptions

• Every page must have a unique, keyword-optimised title tag under 60 characters
• Every page must have a unique meta description of 150 to 155 characters written to encourage clicks
• Confirm title tags and meta descriptions have been carried over or improved from the old site, not deleted during the redesign

Heading Structure

• Each page should have exactly one H1 tag containing the primary keyword
• H2 and H3 headings should create a logical, scannable content hierarchy
• Check that heading tags have not been used for styling purposes rather than content structure

Content Migration

• Confirm all valuable content from the old site has been migrated to the new site or deliberately retired
• Check for any content that has been accidentally deleted, truncated, or replaced with placeholder copy
• Verify that all internal links within page content point to new URLs or are covered by redirects

Image Alt Text

• All images on the new site must have descriptive, keyword-relevant alt text
• Alt text must describe the image accurately, not keyword-stuff

Schema Markup

• Verify LocalBusiness schema is implemented on the homepage and contact page
• Add FAQPage schema to any page with a FAQ section
• Add Service schema to key service pages
• Check that any review or rating schema from the old site has been correctly migrated

Part 3: Conversion Architecture

Contact Forms and Enquiry Mechanisms

• Test every contact form, booking form, and enquiry mechanism on the new site before launch
• Confirm form submissions generate the correct email notifications to the right team members
• Verify confirmation emails or thank you messages are triggered on form submission
• Check forms work correctly on mobile

Call to Action Placement

• Verify CTAs appear above the fold on key pages
• Confirm mid-page and end-of-page CTAs are present on all service pages and key blog posts
• Check CTA buttons link to the correct destination pages

Thank You Pages

• Create distinct, properly configured thank you pages for each conversion action
• Thank you pages should confirm what happens next, set expectations, and provide immediate additional value
• Thank you page URLs must be correctly configured in analytics as goal conversion events

Part 4: Analytics and Tracking

• Google Analytics 4 is correctly installed on every page, including the new thank you pages
• Conversion events (form submissions, phone call clicks, key PDF downloads) are correctly configured in GA4
• Google Search Console ownership is verified for the new domain/URL structure
• Google Tag Manager is correctly deployed and all tags are firing correctly on the new site
• If running paid advertising, all conversion tracking pixels (Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn) are installed and firing on the correct conversion pages
• Cross-domain tracking is configured if your site operates across multiple domains or subdomains

Part 5: Post-Launch Verification Checklist

Complete these steps within 48 hours of launch:

1. Submit the new XML sitemap to Google Search Console
2. Request indexing of key pages through Google Search Console’s URL inspection tool
3. Run a full site crawl using Screaming Frog or a similar tool to identify any 404 errors, redirect chains, or crawl issues
4. Verify organic rankings for your 10 most important keywords using a rank tracking tool, establishing a pre-launch baseline to compare against
5. Test all conversion mechanisms again on the live site, not just the staging environment
6. Check the site loads correctly on at least 3 different browsers and 2 different mobile devices
7. Verify your Google Business Profile website URL is updated to the new site URL if it has changed
8. Update any other directory listings, social media profiles, and partner websites with the new URL if it has changed

FAQ: Website Redesign

Marcus Lobow Founder

Marcus is the founder of Lobo Digital, a London digital marketing agency specialising in SEO, GEO, and AI search optimisation for SMEs and purpose-driven organisations.

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