Inventory first
Pull a full list of current indexed pages from Search Console or a crawl tool before any redesign work begins. This becomes the backbone of the redirect map.
Written for site owners, not agencies
For content publishers
If you are the person responsible for the content, not the person building the new site, this page is written with you in mind.
Who is this page actually for?
Editors, marketing managers, small business owners, and anyone else who oversees a website's content but is not necessarily the one writing the redirect rules. Maybe a developer or an agency is already handling the technical build. That is fine. This page exists so the non-technical stakeholder in that relationship still knows which questions matter.
It is not a substitute for a developer's expertise. It is a way to walk into that conversation informed rather than passive.
A pre-launch checklist worth keeping close
Ask your developer these
- Will every old URL get a 301 redirect to its new equivalent?
- Is there a staging environment that search engines cannot crawl?
- Will the new sitemap be submitted the same day as launch?
- Who is checking Search Console daily during launch week?
- What is the rollback plan if something breaks badly?
Content that should not silently vanish
Check before the rebuild finalizes design
Pages with backlinks, pages ranking for meaningful queries, and long-form pages with accumulated comments or citations deserve a deliberate decision, keep, merge, or redirect, rather than being dropped because a new sitemap felt cleaner.
Launch day itself
Confirm redirects are live, submit the new sitemap, and check that the robots.txt file is not accidentally blocking the entire new site.
What should the first month after launch look like?
The first week deserves daily attention. Check Search Console's Coverage report for a spike in crawl errors, and spot check a handful of priority pages directly in search results. Weeks two through four can move to a lighter, twice-weekly cadence, watching for whether any dip in visibility is stabilizing or continuing to widen.
By week four, most of the noise from re-crawling should have settled. If rankings for previously stable pages are still sliding at that point, something in the redirect logic or the new site's structure likely needs a second look, not more patience.