The Redirect Work Nobody Budgets For
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The failure is always redirects
A business redesigns, traffic halves, and everyone blames the new design. Almost always the cause is a few hundred URLs that changed with no redirect.
Every URL that changes without a redirect is a page that returns nothing to everyone who had linked to it or found it in search.
Before you launch
- Export every existing URL — from your sitemap, analytics and a crawl
- Map each to its new equivalent, or to the closest relevant page
- Set permanent redirects for every one that changed
- Test a sample, including your most-visited pages
- Keep the mapping file — you will need it in three months
Keep what is working
- Identify your top twenty pages by traffic and conversion before starting
- Do not remove content that is bringing in visitors
- Preserve the page titles and headings that are ranking
- Keep the internal links that pass authority to those pages
Redesigns often delete the unglamorous pages that were quietly doing the work.
Watch the first month closely
| Check | When |
|---|---|
| Crawl for broken links | Launch day |
| Search console coverage errors | Days 2–7 |
| Traffic against the previous month | Weekly for six weeks |
| Form submissions arriving | Launch day, then weekly |
Some fluctuation is normal for a fortnight. A sustained fall after three weeks is a problem to diagnose.
Test the forms
The single most common post-launch failure after redirects is a contact form that looks fine and delivers nothing.
Submit every form on the live site the day you launch. Two minutes, and it saves months of silent lead loss.
Frequently asked questions
Should we keep the same URLs?
How long do redirects need to stay?
How much traffic loss is normal?
Can we redesign without touching content?
Planning a redesign?
The redirect map is the part that protects your traffic. Happy to review the plan before you launch.