About this template
Website redesigns lose 20–60% of organic traffic when they ship without a redirect map. They lose conversion when the new design ships without the things that made the old design work. This 10-week template covers a typical marketing-site redesign — audit, IA, design, development, content migration, SEO continuity, and the post-launch monitoring window where traffic recovers or does not.
How a 10-week redesign breaks down
Audit and strategy
Crawl the existing site (every URL, every page, every form). Pull analytics and search-console data — what pages drive traffic, what queries, what conversions. Document the things that are working so they are preserved in the new design. Strategy doc: redesign goals, success metrics, scope.
- Full site crawl
- Analytics and Search Console deep-dive
- Document top-performing pages
- Stakeholder interviews
- Strategy doc and approval
Information architecture
New sitemap based on user intent and the strategy doc. Page templates — how many distinct templates does the new site need (homepage, product, blog post, category, etc). URL structure decisions. Anything that changes URL has to land in the redirect map.
- New sitemap
- Page templates list
- URL structure decisions
- Redirect map (old → new)
- Navigation plan
Design
Visual design for each page template. Style guide: colors, typography, components, spacing. Responsive design (mobile-first usually). Accessibility designed in — color contrast, focus states, alt text plan. Prototype for stakeholder approval before development.
- Visual design — homepage
- Visual design — page templates
- Style guide and design system
- Responsive design
- Accessibility design pass
- Prototype and approval
Development
Build the CMS templates, components, and pages. Set up the build pipeline. Performance budgets — target LCP under 2.5s, CLS under 0.1, INP under 200ms. Forms and conversion events configured. Schema markup re-applied.
- CMS template build
- Component library
- Performance optimization
- Forms and conversion events
- Schema markup
- Internal QA on staging
Content migration
Move existing content into the new templates. This is rarely a clean port — most content needs trimming or restructuring for the new layout. Audit images, alt text, internal links. Set up canonical tags.
- Content port to new templates
- Image audit and optimization
- Alt text pass
- Internal linking pass
- Canonical tags
Launch and monitor
Final QA, 301 redirects in place, sitemap submitted to Search Console, robots.txt updated. Launch (off-hours to minimize impact). Monitor rankings, traffic, and 404s daily for 2 weeks post-launch. Most ranking drops recover within 4–6 weeks if redirects are clean.
- Final QA
- 301 redirects deployed
- Updated sitemap submitted
- robots.txt updated
- Launch (off-hours)
- Daily monitoring for 14 days
- 404 cleanup
Tips from redesigns that kept their traffic
- Build the redirect map BEFORE development starts. Every URL that changes needs a 301.
- Preserve high-performing pages. The redesign should not break things that already convert.
- Submit the new sitemap to Search Console on launch day. Faster re-indexing means faster recovery.
- Monitor 404s daily for the first 2 weeks. Missed redirects are the single biggest cause of traffic loss.
- Plan ranking recovery to take 4–6 weeks. Most rankings drop temporarily even with perfect redirects.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a website redesign take?
8–16 weeks for most marketing-site redesigns. This template targets the 10-week middle case. E-commerce sites and product-heavy sites usually need 12–20 weeks.
What is the most common cause of traffic loss after redesign?
Missing or incorrect 301 redirects. Every URL that changes needs a 301; sites that skip this lose 20–60% of traffic.
Should I launch on a weekend?
Yes, or in the late evening. Off-hours launch minimizes user impact during the inevitable first-day issues.