The most expensive relaunch is the one that looks better and halves the traffic. It happens when URLs change without redirects, content is dropped without checking what ranked, and nobody measured the old site before replacing it.
When a relaunch is the right call
- the site cannot be edited without a developer
- it fails on mobile or loads slowly enough to lose visitors
- the structure no longer matches what the business sells
- security updates have been impossible for years
- the design actively undermines trust with the buyers you want
What we do before touching the design
We record what the current site is worth: which pages get traffic, which terms they rank for, which URLs have links pointing at them, and which pages produce enquiries. That inventory decides what must survive.
A page nobody visits can be retired. A page quietly generating a third of your enquiries cannot, however dated it looks.
Redirect mapping
Every retired URL gets a permanent redirect to its closest equivalent, not a blanket redirect to the home page, which search engines treat as a soft error. The map is built before launch and tested after, including the awkward cases: paginated archives, old campaign URLs and anything carrying parameters.
Keeping the content that earns
Content that ranks usually ranks because it answers something well. Rewriting it for tone alone is a common way to lose visibility. We improve structure and clarity while keeping the substance that made it work.
Launch and the weeks after
Launch is not the end of the project. We check indexing, redirects, canonicals, structured data and analytics afterwards, because that is when problems actually surface. A drop caught in week one is recoverable; the same drop noticed in month three is a much harder conversation.
FAQ
Will we lose rankings?
Some fluctuation for a few weeks is normal. A properly mapped relaunch should recover and then improve. Losses that persist usually trace back to missing redirects or removed content.
Can we keep our current platform?
Often yes. Replacing the platform is a decision on its own merits, not an automatic part of a redesign.
How long does it take?
Most business sites take four to eight weeks, depending on content volume and how much has to be rewritten.