GUIDES
Website relaunch: how do you keep your Google rankings?
Ben Schmidt, Owner of Flowrenix · Updated:
Short answer
Rankings are mainly lost in a relaunch when old addresses lead nowhere, content that ranks well disappears or titles and descriptions vanish without replacement. If you record all old addresses with their visitors beforehand, permanently redirect each one to the matching new page and measure in Google Search Console before and after, you avoid the most common mistakes.
Why rankings are lost in a relaunch
Google does not rate your website as a whole but individual addresses. A page that is found today for «hairdresser Wetzikon» has earned that position under its address. If it gets a new address in the relaunch and the old one leads nowhere, the new page almost starts from scratch. On top of that, links from other websites and bookmarks keep pointing to the old address.
The second cause is content. Anyone who shortens texts or merges subpages in a relaunch often takes away exactly what the page was found for. The third is technical: a test environment that was blocked for search engines and stays blocked at launch, or a new website whose content only appears via JavaScript.
Step 1: take stock before the relaunch
Before anything new is built, record what exists today and what of it brings visitors.
- Collect all addresses of the old website: from the sitemap, a crawl of the website and the «Pages» report in Google Search Console.
- For each address, note the clicks and impressions from the Search Console performance report and export the data; Search Console only shows the last 16 months.
- Save the title, description and main heading of every important page.
- Keep a copy of the content so nothing is lost after launch.
- Record how many enquiries or bookings come in through the website today.
Step 2: plan the redirects
The stocktake produces a list: old address on the left, new address on the right. Every old address that has visitors or is linked from outside is permanently redirected to the new page with matching content. The most reliable option is a redirect delivered by the server with status code 301 or 308. Before changing hosting, ask how the new provider lets you set up such redirects.
Do not redirect everything to the homepage across the board. Google often treats such redirects like a page that no longer exists. Avoid chains in which one redirect points to the next, and keep the redirects in place for a long time, at least a year, preferably permanently. If the domain also changes, additionally report the move with the change of address tool in Search Console.
Step 3: keep content and titles
Pages that are found today keep their content. You may improve it, but you should not remove it without reason. Carry over titles and descriptions, or deliberately replace them with better ones that cover the same search term. The same applies to main headings, image descriptions and structured data.
Also pay attention to internal linking. Pages that many links pointed to before should be easy to reach in the new structure too. If the website has several languages, the language versions have to reference each other correctly again.
Step 4: check the technology before launch
Shortly before launch I go through a fixed list. Most mistakes are trivial and can be fixed in a few minutes if they are found beforehand.
- The search engine block of the test environment is removed, and robots.txt does not block important pages.
- Every page points to itself with its canonical address, not to the test environment or the old website.
- The new XML sitemap contains only the new addresses and is submitted in Search Console.
- The website is reachable under one address only, with HTTPS, and the other spelling redirects.
- The core text of every page is in the delivered document and readable without JavaScript.
- All old addresses from the list are checked automatically: each must redirect and end on a page with content.
Step 5: measure before and after
Without a baseline you cannot tell after launch whether the relaunch has hurt or helped. So record beforehand: clicks, impressions and average position per important page, the most important search terms, the number of indexed pages and the enquiries via the website.
After launch I check Search Console regularly in the first weeks: do addresses show up that cannot be found? Are the new pages being indexed? Fluctuations in the first weeks are common after a move. What is meaningful is a comparison of equally long periods before and after, page by page.
How I support a relaunch
When I replace an existing website, the stocktake, the redirect list and the pre-launch check are part of the project. Beforehand I check how the chosen hosting implements the redirects and tell you openly where its limits are. Search Console runs in your name, and after launch we review together what has changed. More on this on the Visibility page.
How much effort the migration means depends mainly on the number of old addresses and on how much content is reworked. This is part of the capped price before we start.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Frequently asked questions
Not inevitably, but nobody can seriously guarantee it. Redirecting old addresses cleanly, keeping content that ranks well and checking the technology before launch avoids the most common causes of losses. Fluctuations in the first weeks after the move are common.
No. Every old address should point to the new page with matching content. Google often treats blanket redirects to the homepage like a page that no longer exists, and visitors do not find what they were looking for.
At least a year, preferably permanently. Links from other websites and bookmarks often still point to the old addresses years later.
Export the performance data before the relaunch, submit the new sitemap after launch and watch the reports on pages and indexing. If the domain also changes, additionally report the move using the change of address tool.
How much the migration of old addresses and content adds depends on the size of the old website. Before we start, you receive a capped price in writing.