Website Redesign Checklist

GoalA dated record of how the current site performs, and a list of every URL it has.

• Record sessions, conversions, top landing pages and the queries that bring leads, from analytics and Search Console, for one fixed date range. Baseline date
• Crawl the site and export every URL with its traffic, backlinks and conversions.
• Mark the protect list, the pages that earn traffic, links or leads. Each one keeps its URL or gets a 301.
• List what fails on the current site, such as slow templates, confusing navigation or forms nobody completes.

Critical: Take the baseline before anyone touches the site, and write the date on it. A baseline pulled after launch mixes old and new traffic and proves nothing.

Done when: A dated baseline, a full URL inventory and a protect list.

GoalEveryone agrees what the redesign must change, what it will not touch and who decides.

• Write two or three goals tied to the baseline, each with a measure and a review date.
• Name the main audiences and the task each one must complete on the new site.
• Review three competitor sites and note what to borrow and what to avoid.
• List the platform, integrations and features the new site needs, and write down what is out of scope.
• Name the stakeholders who give feedback and the one person who approves. Final approver

Critical: Name one approver now, and give new ideas a phase two list instead of a place in this project. Redesigns stall when several people can say no and nobody can say yes.

Writing the scope down in detail? Use the website requirements document template.

Done when: Written goals with measures, a scope with exclusions and a named approver.

GoalA new sitemap, a decision for every old URL and an owner for every piece of content.

• Decide keep, rewrite, merge or remove for every URL in the inventory.
• Draft the new sitemap and map each old URL that moves to its new address as a 301.
• Give every page of new copy and imagery an owner and a due date. Content due date
• Note the query each protect-list page ranks for, so the rewrite keeps the words that earn the ranking.

Critical: Ask for content before design starts. Layouts drawn around placeholder text break when the real copy arrives.

Done when: An approved sitemap, a redirect map covering every moved URL and a content plan with owners.

GoalThe approver has signed off every key template on mobile and desktop before build starts.

• Design the templates the site repeats, such as home, service, article and contact, with real content.
• Show mobile and desktop for each template, including menus, form errors and empty states.
• Check contrast, focus states and text size against WCAG 2.2 AA while changes are still cheap.
• Run one design review round with a deadline, then record the approver's sign-off. Design review deadline

Critical: Get the design approved in writing before build starts. A change after build means changing a template and every page that uses it.

Done when: Written approval of every key template, on mobile and desktop.

GoalThe new site works, is no slower than the old one and keeps what the old site earned in search.

• Test the main flows and every form on the browsers and devices your analytics show, failure paths included.
• Test every 301 in the redirect map, and crawl staging for broken links, missing titles and wrong canonicals.
• Compare load times on key pages with the baseline. The new site should not be slower than the old one.
• Check that each protect-list page kept its target query in the title, the heading and the copy.

Critical: Test the redirects twice, on staging and again on production. Each old URL should land on its new page in one hop, not through a chain and not on the homepage.

Running the full test pass? Use the website QA checklist.

Done when: Clean QA results, every redirect tested and key pages at least as fast as the baseline.