Website Redesign Checklist: What to Fix Before You Relaunch

Is your website redesign costing you the traffic, leads, and credibility your website currently earns?

It could happen. A new website can look cleaner and be more up-to-date, but go live with missing pages, broken forms, lost tracking, incorrect redirects, or slower performance. A few weeks in design and development can wipe out months or years of search growth.

Redesigning your business website should build on what already works, address known weaknesses, and improve the website’s user-friendliness for your customers and internal teams.

This website redesign checklist covers what to check before you go live, what to test on launch day, and what to monitor during the first 30 days.

Table of Contents

1. Start With the Reason for the Redesign
2. Audit the Current Website Before Removing Anything
3. Map Redirects and Protect Search Visibility
4. Fix Content and Messaging Before Design Approval
5. Review User Experience, Mobile Design and Accessibility
6. Test Performance and Technical Quality
7. Set Up Analytics and Conversion Tracking Before Launch
8. Assign Ownership and Define Launch Blockers
9. Website Redesign Relaunch Checklist

Start With the Reason for the Redesign

A redesign needs a business reason. “The website looks old” may be accurate, but it does not provide the project team enough direction to make sound decisions.

IWhat are the issues the new website needs to address. The current site may not be messaging service well, be hard to navigate, poorly laid out for mobile, not converting well, or be slow. The brand, service or target audience may have changed. Maybe it’s hard to update the content management system.

Attach a measurable outcome to each issue.

“Develop a superior website” is too vague. Maybe it’s more qualified consultation requests, less mobile form abandonment, or helping visitors to priority service pages in fewer clicks.

• The audiences the website must serve
• The questions those visitors need answered
• The services or products that matter most
• The primary actions visitors should take
• The weaknesses affecting the current site
• The measurements that will define success

These decisions offer a benchmark against which the layouts, content and functionality can be reviewed. Design choice should not detract from an agreed goal – it should help reach it.

EspioLabs provides website design services that connect discovery, messaging, UI/UX design, development, and launch testing within one project process.

Audit the Current Website Before Removing Anything

A big risk in redesigning is removing content that is valuable but you do not know what it does.

Before you change navigation or delete pages, create an inventory of the existing website. Keep a record of each live URL, what it’s for, how it’s performing and the plan for the redesigned site.

Review Google Analytics, Google Search Console, paid campaign data, backlinks and lead tracking systems. Use a date range long enough to capture seasonal variation. For a seasonal organization this might be 12 months of data at minimum.

Look carefully at:

• Organic landing pages
• High-converting service or product pages
• Pages earning external links
• Articles ranking for relevant searches
• Active campaign landing pages
• Forms, bookings and checkout pages
• Legal, privacy and compliance pages
• Resources used by sales or support teams
• Pages with meaningful repeat visits

Do not delete a page simply because of its visual age or style of writing. An expired page still has good rankings, links and customer history. You can change the content and change the design without losing the URL.

Use a working page inventory:

Current URL	Current role	Evidence	Relaunch action	Owner
/services/example	Main service page	Rankings and leads	Rewrite and retain URL	Marketing
/old-service	Discontinued offer	Low traffic, no leads	Redirect to related service	SEO
/guide/example	Educational resource	Traffic and backlinks	Update and preserve	Content
/campaign-page	Paid landing page	Active conversions	Retain until campaign ends	Paid media

Keep a copy of the original crawl, sitemap, analytics baseline, and page inventory after launch. These records make it easier to investigate missing pages or unexpected declines.

A Practical Example From an EspioLabs Redesign

EspioLabs’ redesign for the Canadian Network of Agencies for Regulation involved moving over 22 pages from Wix to WordPress. The project had to ensure trusted identity, restructure navigation, move existing content, boost accessibility and provide for future updates.

We didn’t view this project as a visual refresh. The redesign plan included considerations for content structure, platform migration, accessibility and long-term site management from the very beginning. View the CNAR website redesign case study.

That’s how you should think about a redesign. Visual decisions are part of a larger migration and business project.

Map Redirects and Protect Search Visibility

If you change a page address and don’t redirect it, visitors and search engines won’t be able to find the page.

A redirect sends someone who asks for an old URL to its new home. The valuable old page should point to the nearest equivalent on the new site.

Do not redirect every deleted page to the homepage. The destination must be the same with the purpose and subject of the original page.

Create the redirect map before launch:

Old URL	New URL	Reason	Redirect	Test result
/services/old-name	/services/new-name	Service renamed	301	Pass
/blog/old-guide	/blog/posts/new-guide	Article rebuilt	301	Pass
/retired-service	/services/related	Service removed	301	Pass
/duplicate-page	/primary-page	Content consolidated	301	Pass

Google recommends server-side permanent redirects (like 301 or 308) for permanent moves. It warns against sending a lot of unrelated old URLs to one irrelevant destination. Redirects should stay in place for as long as possible; a year is the absolute minimum. Review Google’s site move guidance.

Fix Content and Messaging Before Design Approval

Even the prettiest design can’t save a message visitors don’t understand.

Kindly review and approve the priority content before signing off on the final designs. Designers need real headings, paragraphs, proof points and CTA’s. When real copy is added later, layouts based on placeholder text often break.

Each priority page should answer four questions:

1. What does the business provide?
2. Who is the offer meant for?
3. Why should the visitor trust the company?
4. What should the visitor do next?

Review service descriptions for vague language, internal terminology, and repeated claims. Replace broad promises with clear information about the customer problem, the service process, and the expected outcome.

Please include proof where it supports the decision. Proof may include project examples, qualifications, testimonials, client results, process details, or links to completed work.

Calls to action need clear labels. “Learn More” says little. “Request a Website Review,” “View Our Design Work,” or “Plan Your Redesign” tells the visitor what happens next.

Content hierarchy matters. Place the core offer and primary customer benefit near the top. Supporting details can follow as the reader moves through the page.

Review User Experience, Mobile Design and Accessibility

Desktop approval is not a green light for a page to go live.

Test priority templates on actual phones, tablets, and desktop screens. Ensure visitors can read the content, use the navigation, fill out forms, and tap controls without having to zoom or accidentally correct clicked links.

Review:

• Menu labels and navigation depth
• Text size and line spacing
• Button size and spacing
• Form labels and error messages
• Sticky headers that cover page content
• Pop-ups on small screens
• Search and filtering tools
• Phone and email links
• Booking, checkout and account workflows
• Cookie and privacy controls

Accessibility needs manual review alongside automated scanning.

A keyboard test must verify that users can access and use all interactive elements. The active element should be displayed. Focus should move logically, not be trapped in a menu, pop-up or embedded tool.

Check colour contrast, heading order, alternative text, link labels, form instructions, and focus states. WCAG 2.2 includes criteria covering keyboard access, contrast, headings, form instructions, and operable controls.

EspioLabs’ guide to UX trends for 2026 examines current interface patterns, accessibility, and mobile behaviour.

Test Performance and Technical Quality

A redesigned website should not be slower or less reliable than the website it replaces.

Problems can arise even before the site gets its first visitor due to background video, large images, excessive animation, tracking scripts and third-party tools. Performance testing should be part of development, not something you do the last afternoon before the product ships.

Check Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals measure loading performance, responsiveness, and visual stability.

Metric	What it measures	Good threshold
Largest Contentful Paint	Main content loading	2.5 seconds or less
Interaction to Next Paint	Interaction responsiveness	200 milliseconds or less
Cumulative Layout Shift	Visual stability	0.1 or less

Google’s recommended targets are assessed at the 75th percentile across mobile and desktop visits. Test field data when it is available, since a one-time laboratory test cannot fully represent the experience of real visitors. Review Core Web Vitals thresholds.

Test more than the homepage. Service pages, blogs, portfolio templates, forms, and interactive tools may use different components.

Test Every Important Function

A performance score does not confirm that the website works.

• Forms and confirmation messages
• Email and CRM notifications
• Phone and email links
• Calendars and booking tools
• Payment and checkout functions
• Search and filters
• Customer portals and logins
• Consent and cookie controls
• Embedded video and maps
• Downloadable files
• Social sharing previews
• Structured data
• HTTPS and mixed-content warnings
• Browser compatibility
• Backup and rollback procedures

Submit each form with actual test data. Ensure the submission is directed to the correct inbox or CRM, triggers the correct analytics event, and delivers any anticipated confirmation message.

Review all 3rd party integrations for the current site. A redesign can break tools that are hidden on the page but critical to sales, support or reporting.

Set Up Analytics and Conversion Tracking Before Launch

You cannot properly judge a re-design without a good before and after comparison.

Establish a baseline for the new site launch. Target measurements related to the redesign goals.

Measurement	Baseline source	Post-launch comparison
Organic landing-page traffic	Search Console and GA4	Weekly for 30 days
Qualified form submissions	GA4, CRM or inbox	Daily for first week
Phone and email clicks	GA4 events	Weekly
Priority keyword positions	Rank tracker or Search Console	Weekly
Page speed and Web Vitals	PageSpeed Insights and Search Console	Weekly
404 errors	Crawl and server reporting	Daily for first week
Revenue or booking actions	CRM, ecommerce or booking platform	Based on sales cycle

The production website should include:

• Google Analytics 4
• Google Search Console
• Google Tag Manager where applicable
• Consent-management settings
• Required advertising pixels
• Form submission events
• Phone and email click events
• Booking, checkout or purchase events
• Thank-you page tracking
• Campaign attribution settings

Develop a consistent event naming system. Do not use several names for the same customer action.

Use the testing tool for the platform you’re using, or test events in GA4 DebugView through real interactions. A tag in the source code does not prove the event is firing properly.

EspioLabs’ Growth Marketing services connect website performance, SEO, AI search visibility, campaigns, and conversion measurement to broader acquisition goals.

Assign Ownership and Define Launch Blockers

A checklist without ownership becomes a list of tasks everyone assumes someone else completed.

Assign one primary owner to each critical area.

Area	Primary owner	Proof required
Redirects and indexing	SEO lead or developer	Crawl export showing final status
Page content	Marketing or content lead	Approved page copy
Forms and CRM routing	Developer and sales owner	Successful test submission
Analytics events	Marketing or analytics lead	Verified event log
Mobile and browser QA	Designer and developer	Completed device test record
Accessibility	Design, development and content	Automated and manual test results
Backups and rollback	Developer or hosting provider	Confirmed restore point and procedure
Final launch approval	Project owner	Signed completion checklist

Some issues should stop the launch.

• Priority forms or checkout functions fail
• Production pages are blocked from indexing
• Critical redirects are missing
• Canonical tags point to staging or old URLs
• Analytics cannot record primary conversions
• Mobile navigation prevents access to core pages
• A backup or rollback path is unavailable
• Security or privacy controls are incomplete

The homepage looking finished is not a launch criterion. The website is ready when the evidence confirms that its main customer, search, and business functions work.