How do I redesign my website without losing my SEO?

Record what you have now

1. 1Export all current URLs from your sitemap or a crawler.
2. 2From Google Search Console and analytics, list the pages that get the most clicks and the search queries that bring them.
3. 3Save page titles, meta descriptions, headings and structured data for important pages.
4. 4Take a full backup of the current site.

Design without throwing away what works

• Keep URLs the same wherever possible; a new look does not need new addresses.
• Do not cut or merge content on pages that rank well without a clear reason.
• Keep important text as real text on the page, not inside images or hidden behind tabs that load later.
• Keep internal links to your key pages from menus and related pages.
• Build on a staging site that search engines cannot index, so the half-finished version does not appear in Google.

Launch checklist

1. 1Add 301 redirects for every changed or removed URL, pointing to the closest matching page.
2. 2Remove any noindex setting or password left over from staging.
3. 3Check that titles, meta descriptions, canonical tags and structured data are in place.
4. 4Submit the updated sitemap in Search Console.
5. 5Run PageSpeed Insights to make sure the new design is not slower than the old one.

After launch

Watch Search Console for the following weeks for crawl errors, 404s and pages dropping out of the index, and fix them quickly. Some movement in rankings is normal after a redesign; a steady drop usually points to missing redirects, lost content or a technical setting left from staging.