Website Relaunch.

A relaunch can go to different depths. In a pure redesign the structure stays and only the appearance changes. In a technical relaunch the system changes, for example from a builder or WordPress to a modern framework. In a full relaunch, design, structure, content and technology are renewed at the same time. The more that changes, the greater the opportunity — and the risk.

The biggest risk is lost addresses. Every page of the old website has a URL that Google knows, that may be linked to and through which visitors arrive. If this URL changes without a redirect, the visitor lands on a 404 error page and the old page's rankings are lost. That is why URL mapping is at the core of every relaunch: collect all old addresses — from the sitemap, a crawl and Search Console — assign each one a new address with matching content, and connect them via 301 redirect. How to protect rankings in a migration is explained in detail in the entry on the 301 redirect.

Content matters just as much. Pages that rank today should keep their core statements or be improved, not cut back for a slimmer design. Titles, headings and internal links shape how Google understands a page. Anyone who rewrites every text, merges pages and switches technology at the same time during a relaunch can barely tell afterwards which change had which effect.

After go-live the checking begins: test redirects, submit the sitemap in Search Console, watch error reports in the first weeks, test forms and tracking. Fluctuations in the first weeks are normal. If rankings remain clearly below the previous level after several weeks, the cause is usually a missing redirect, a blocked section or lost content.