SEO After a Site Redesign: Don’t Let Rankings Slip

Your site looks better. But your rankings don’t.

A site redesign can improve how your brand looks and works. But if SEO isn’t part of the plan, the launch can lead to a sudden drop in traffic or visibility.

It’s a common story. The design improves, but performance takes a hit. The good news? Most of the damage can be avoided with the right checks.

Here are the most common SEO problems after a redesign and how to prevent them.

1. URLs change without redirects

If your page URLs have changed and there are no redirects in place, search engines will treat the old pages as missing. That means a loss in rankings and traffic.

What to do:

• Keep a full list of old URLs
• Map them to the most relevant new pages
• Use 301 redirects, not temporary or wildcard ones
• Avoid redirecting everything to the homepage

2. Meta tags are lost or overwritten

New CMS platforms or templates can wipe out your original meta titles and descriptions. If these aren’t checked, it can hurt click-through rates and rankings.

What to do:

• Carry over key meta data from the old site
• Check for missing or duplicate tags
• Re-optimise pages if the structure or content has changed

3. Page speed and Core Web Vitals drop

A fresh design can bring in new fonts, animations or large images. These can slow things down and affect mobile performance, which Google considers in rankings.

What to do:

• Test your site speed before and after launch
• Optimise images and limit large scripts
• Use PageSpeed Insights and Search Console to track Core Web Vitals
• Fix any key issues as soon as they appear

4. Internal links are removed

During redesigns, it’s easy to remove links between important pages. This can harm crawlability, user journeys and SEO.

What to do:

• Keep links to key pages in place
• Use a crawler to find broken or dropped links
• Check that anchor text is clear and helpful
• Make sure your navigation supports the pages that matter most

How SEO and design work better together

Design and SEO can work side by side. The most successful redesigns are the ones where both are involved from day one.

Simple ways to improve collaboration:

• Involve SEO in the early planning stages
• Use data to shape structure and content decisions
• Test SEO basics before going live
• Keep page value in mind when making layout changes