SEO before a website redesign: what to preserve and test

The useful starting points.

Inventory URLs, search performance, incoming links and important buyer journeys.
Map each old URL to the closest relevant destination, preserving useful pages where appropriate.
Check titles, descriptions, canonicals, internal links, image accessibility and structured data.
Test mobile journeys, forms, redirects, sitemaps and robots rules on the release candidate.

Put the guidance to work.

Inventory before changing

Record current URLs, relevant search queries, incoming links, useful content and conversion paths. Search Console data can help identify what needs protection. Do not assume that every old page should be removed or that the homepage is an adequate redirect destination.

Make one intent clear per page

Give primary commercial pages a distinct job. A core website-development page and a campaign landing-page service can coexist when they answer different buyer needs. Duplicating a page for every city or changing only its heading does not create useful coverage.

Test the release candidate

Verify status codes, canonical URLs, indexability, sitemap entries, internal links and mobile layouts. Test form receipt rather than only the button animation. Keep staging private and excluded from search; remember that noindex is not access control.

Review search and AI discovery separately

Useful, accessible and well-supported content remains the foundation. Review relevant search traffic and actual enquiries. Where available, Google Search Console’s generative AI report and Bing’s AI Performance report add visibility measures; they are not sales attribution or guaranteed inclusion.