URLs that change without redirects
The old page disappears, the new one starts from zero. The links and history are lost.
Home / Audits / Pre-redesign audit
Website redesign: don't lose what took you years to earn.
A redesign is when a website most often loses its SEO. Almost always for the same reason: nobody checked what was bringing results before changing everything.
- Rattle your competitors.
- Overtake them.
- Protect you from their attacks.
15 years in SEO
4 books on SEO and GEO
200+ sites tracked every day
1M / month visits to my e-commerce site
They trusted me with their visibility
Darty
Eurofins
Cegid
EBP
CNP Assurances
Ingram MicroWhat is a pre-redesign audit?
A pre-redesign audit lists what gives your current website its value in Google's eyes (pages, links, rankings) so nothing is lost in the switch. It provides the redirect plan and the checks to run before, during and after go-live.
The problem
How to lose half your traffic.
Pages deleted “because they were old”
Sometimes they were the ones bringing in the most visits.
The staging site left open, or the live one shut
One forgotten line in a file, and Google stops crawling everything.
The detail of this page
The redirect plan
In a redesign, page URLs change. Google only knows the old ones and keeps sending your visitors there. Put the new site live, then see where they land.
Old site, known to GoogleNew site
- /index.php?id=12/services
- /nos-metiers.htm/metiers
- /actus/2017/journal
- /contact-devis.htm/contact
- You/produit-phare.htm/produit-phareThe page that brought in the most visits.
Before go-live: five URLs to forward
Fig. 1. Five old URLs, five new ones. In between, for now, nothing. (Five arrows. That's a whole redirect plan, and it's what gets left behind in the moving box.)
What this means for you. Before the redesign, I list the pages that bring results and provide the redirect table, line by line. On go-live day, I check every arrow lands.
Your competitors all look alike. Good.
Fig. 2. Your market, as Google sees it. (You're the purple one. Or you could be.)The answer
The audit happens in three stages.
Preventing costs far less than recovering lost traffic.
- Before. An inventory of the pages that bring traffic, links and sales. Those are the ones we protect.
- During. Redirect plan, template review, staging site checks.
- Launch day. Go-live checks: redirects, indexing, tags, speed.
- After. Tracking rankings and errors in the following weeks, with fixes.
In detail
What the pre-redesign audit includes.
The URL inventory
The full list of current pages, each with its visits, links and enquiries.
Sorting
I sort the pages: keep as they are, merge, rewrite, delete without harm.
The mapping table
For each old URL, the new one. It's the document your web agency follows for the redirects.
Reviewing the mock-ups
I check the new templates keep the titles, copy and internal links that matter to Google.
Checking the staging version
Before launch, I go through the future site to find errors while they're still easy to fix.
Monitoring after launch
I compare rankings and visits with the previous period, and flag every abnormal gap.
Making the choice
Redesign without an audit, audit afterwards, or audit beforehand?
| Audit before the redesign | Audit after go-live | Redesign without an audit | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you know | Which pages to protect | What has been lost | Nothing until the first figures |
| Redirects | Planned and tested in advance | Restored in a hurry | Left to the developer, if they think of it |
| Cost of fixes | Built into the project | Development work to redo | Unknown |
| Traffic drop | Limited and monitored, never ruled out | Already under way | Discovered late |
| Relationship with the web agency | Clear instructions from the start | Blame after the fact | Nobody is responsible for SEO |
Even well prepared, a redesign shakes up rankings for a few weeks. The audit doesn't eliminate that risk. It reduces it and lets you react fast.
It's for you if…
- Your current website brings you customers through Google
- You're changing platform, domain name or site structure
- Your web agency told you SEO would be looked at later
- You want a named person responsible for SEO during the project
It's not for you if…
- Your current website gets almost no visits from Google
- You're only changing colours and images, without touching the URLs
- You won't accept the go-live date being up for discussion
- You want me to build the new website
In pictures
What well-run SEO looks like.
In practice
What you get.
- An inventory of pages to protect
- A complete redirect plan
- A checklist for your web agency
- A check on go-live day
- Monitoring after the switch
Pricing
What budget to safeguard a redesign?
I tell you the amount before starting. It rests on four factors.
- The number of URLs to map
- The scale of the change: design only, new platform, new domain
- The number of language versions
- How long monitoring lasts after launch
Together, let's devour your competitors.
One by one, and in order. Every spot gained makes the next one easier to take: that's why it keeps growing. See the method
Fancy a game?
Insert a coin.
Anyone who redesigns their site without an audit awakens old errors: forgotten redirects, deindexed pages. Take the coin and slide it into the machine.
Slide it into the machine
THE INCA CURSE
INSERT COINSLIDE THE COIN INTO THE SLOT
Credit: 0
Fig. 3. Sixteen seconds. Five curses, all avoidable.
Who you're talking to
Your SEO consultant: a business owner, not just an SEO.
My name is Kévin Papot. More than fifteen years in the job, four co-written books, and the Newp agency, co-founded in Charente. I also run my own online shops, in France and internationally: one of them went from zero to a million visits a month.
Before we talk tags, we talk margin, average basket and profitability. When you book a call, I'm the one who picks up.
FAQ
Pre-redesign audit: frequently asked questions.
When should I contact you?
As early as possible, ideally before the mock-ups are chosen. But even two weeks before go-live, we can avoid most of the damage.
Do you work with our web agency?
Yes. I don't rebuild the site: I give your agency the SEO instructions and check they're applied.
The redesign has already happened and traffic has dropped.
A good part of it can often be recovered by restoring the redirects and deleted pages. The sooner we step in, the better.
Can we change every URL on the site?
Yes, provided each old URL redirects to the page that replaces it. When nothing forces you to change a URL, I advise keeping it.
Should all the old content be kept?
No. Some pages are no use to anyone any more and can go. I tell you which ones, with traffic figures to back it up.
We're also changing domain name. Is that riskier?
Yes, that case needs more preparation. I plan the redirects from one domain to the other and the declarations to make to Google.
What day should the new site go live?
A day when your web agency and I are both available to check and fix. I avoid the day before a weekend and your busy periods.
How long do you monitor the site after launch?
Several weeks, long enough for Google to revisit most of the pages. We set the duration together before starting.
The new site will be faster and better-looking. Isn't that enough?
It's useful for your visitors. But Google ranks pages and URLs it knows. If they disappear without redirects, the quality of the new site doesn't make up for the loss.
See also
Audits
And next
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Be the one they remember.
Together we look at where you stand on Google and in AI, and what should change first.
Book a callFig. 4. A K. (The landscape was missing one.)