Website Relaunch Checklist

A website relaunch is a high-stakes project that can dramatically impact your entire digital presence. According to a study by Portent, 68% of companies experience traffic losses after a website redesign when they don’t follow a structured approach. This is precisely why having a comprehensive website relaunch checklist is not just helpful—it’s essential for maintaining your hard-earned search visibility, marketing effectiveness, and lead generation capabilities.

Why This Website Relaunch Checklist Matters

Without a systematic approach to your website relaunch, you’re essentially gambling with your digital assets. Companies that skip proper planning often face devastating consequences: a Searchmetrics study found that businesses lose an average of 20-30% of their organic traffic after poorly executed relaunches. These traffic drops directly translate to fewer leads, reduced conversions, and significant revenue losses that can take months—sometimes years—to recover from.

The challenges of managing a relaunch without a checklist are numerous:

• Critical content migrations get overlooked, resulting in 404 errors and lost ranking positions
• Technical SEO elements like redirects, canonical tags, and structured data are improperly implemented
• Tracking codes for marketing campaigns and ads are forgotten, breaking attribution models
• Crucial conversion paths are disrupted, causing immediate drops in leads and sales
• Stakeholder communications and approval processes become disorganized, leading to last-minute changes and delays

The benefits of using our structured checklist approach are substantial. Clients who follow this framework typically experience:

• 80% fewer post-launch issues requiring emergency fixes
• Preservation of at least 95% of organic traffic value after relaunch
• 30-40% time savings in the overall project timeline
• Clear communication between teams, reducing misunderstandings and scope creep
• A smoother transition period with minimal disruption to marketing campaigns

This website relaunch checklist wasn’t created in a vacuum—it’s the product of years of hands-on experience managing over 30 successful website migrations and relaunches for our clients. After seeing the same issues arise repeatedly, we systematically documented each critical step and potential pitfall, refining our process with each project.

As specialists in search marketing, our team at Radyant has witnessed firsthand how web relaunches can make or break SEO performance. We’ve developed this checklist by analyzing not just successes but also recovery projects where we’ve had to fix failed relaunches. Our deep expertise in both website architecture and search marketing provides a unique perspective that ensures both technical excellence and marketing continuity.

Whether you’re planning a complete redesign, migrating to a new CMS, or simply refreshing your site’s look and feel, this checklist will serve as your roadmap to maintain and even improve your digital marketing performance throughout the transition. By following a structured approach, you transform what could be a risky undertaking into a strategic opportunity for growth.

Before You Begin: Essential Preparations

A successful website relaunch requires careful planning to avoid traffic drops, missed leads, and marketing disruptions. Before diving into your relaunch checklist, you need to establish a solid foundation. The right preparation can mean the difference between a seamless transition and a costly recovery effort.

Required Tools and Software

Equip yourself with these essential tools before beginning your website relaunch:

• SEO Analysis Tools: Screaming Frog SEO Spider for crawling your current site structure, Ahrefs or Semrush for analyzing existing rankings and backlinks
• Analytics Platforms: Google Analytics 4 and Google Search Console for tracking current performance and post-launch changes
• Website Backup Solution: A reliable backup system to preserve your current site before making changes
• Redirect Mapping Software: Spreadsheets or specialized tools like Radyant’s redirect management templates to plan and track all URL redirects
• Content Inventory Tool: Document all existing content with its performance metrics to make informed decisions about what to keep, update, or remove
• Testing Tools: Cross-browser testing tools, mobile responsiveness checkers, and page speed analyzers like Google PageSpeed Insights

Access Requirements

Gather these access credentials and permissions before starting the relaunch process:

• CMS Admin Access: Full administrative rights to both your current and new content management system
• Server/Hosting Access: FTP credentials, control panel access, and database permissions
• Domain Registrar Account: Access to manage DNS settings and domain configurations
• Analytics Platforms: Admin-level access to Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and any other marketing analytics tools
• Ad Platforms: If running ads, ensure access to Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, or other advertising accounts to update landing page URLs
• Marketing Tools: Access to email marketing platforms, CRM systems, and other marketing tools that link to your website

Skill Level and Team Requirements

A website relaunch typically requires multiple skill sets for optimal results:

• SEO Specialist: To manage redirects, meta data, and technical SEO aspects
• Web Developer: For implementing technical changes, server configurations, and handling the actual migration
• Content Strategist: To review and optimize content for the new site
• UX Designer: To ensure the new site provides an improved user experience
• Marketing Manager: To coordinate the project and align the relaunch with overall marketing goals

For small businesses, you may need to wear multiple hats or partner with specialized agencies that can provide comprehensive relaunch support. Even with an existing team, consider bringing in external expertise for specialized aspects of the relaunch.

Time Commitment

Plan for the following time investments:

• Pre-Launch Planning: 2-4 weeks for complete site audit, content inventory, and redirect mapping
• Development and Migration: 4-12 weeks depending on website complexity
• Testing Phase: 1-2 weeks for thorough testing across devices and browsers
• Post-Launch Monitoring: Daily monitoring for at least 2 weeks, then weekly for 3 months

Consider bookmarking this checklist and breaking the relaunch into manageable phases to ensure nothing is overlooked. Many businesses find that the post-launch phase is just as critical as the preparation, as it’s when issues with rankings, leads, and marketing integrations often emerge.

Pro Tip: Create a shared project management board where all team members can track progress through the checklist items. This centralized approach helps prevent crucial steps from falling through the cracks and maintains accountability throughout the relaunch process. The Radyant tracking templates can significantly streamline this process by providing predefined frameworks that have been tested across multiple successful website relaunches.

The Complete Website Relaunch Checklist: Step-by-Step

Relaunching your website is a complex project with significant impact on your online presence, marketing efforts, and lead generation capacity. Without a proper website relaunch checklist, you risk losing organic traffic, breaking user journeys, and undoing years of SEO equity. Follow this comprehensive guide to ensure your website relaunch delivers improved performance rather than costly setbacks.

Pre-Relaunch Planning (Estimated time: 2-4 weeks)

The foundation of a successful website relaunch lies in thorough planning and preparation. At Radyant, we help our startup clients establish clear objectives and document the current state before making any changes. This phase is essential for maintaining SEO value and ensuring the new site meets business goals.

• Define clear relaunch objectives – Establish specific, measurable goals for the relaunch. Are you focusing on improving conversion rates, increasing organic traffic, or enhancing user experience? Without clear objectives, you risk investing resources without meaningful returns.
• Audit your current website – Conduct a comprehensive website audit checklist to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. Document current traffic patterns, top-performing pages, and technical issues to address.
• Create a content inventory – Catalog all existing content including pages, blog posts, downloads, and media assets. Tag each asset with traffic data, conversion metrics, and whether it should be kept, updated, or removed.
• Map out user journeys – Document current user flows and conversion paths to ensure they’re preserved or improved in the new design. This mapping is critical for maintaining lead generation capabilities.
• Establish KPI benchmarks – Document current performance metrics to measure success post-launch. Include organic traffic, bounce rates, page load times, and conversion metrics for your marketing campaigns.
• Develop a URL structure plan – Create a detailed URL mapping spreadsheet showing old URLs and their corresponding new destinations. This is essential for preserving SEO equity through proper redirects.

Technical Setup & Development (Estimated time: 4-8 weeks)

The technical implementation phase establishes the foundation for your new website while preserving existing SEO value. Radyant’s approach with startup clients emphasizes maintaining technical SEO integrity during the transition to prevent traffic losses that typically plague website relaunches.

• Set up a staging environment – Create a password-protected staging site for development. This allows for testing without affecting your live site or being indexed prematurely by search engines.
• Implement responsive design principles – Ensure your new site functions flawlessly across all devices, especially mobile. Google’s mobile-first indexing makes this an essential component for maintaining search visibility.
• Optimize site architecture – Design a logical, shallow site structure (no more than 3 clicks to any important page) to improve user experience and search engine crawlability.
• Configure proper meta data templates – Create templates for title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, and other on-page elements to maintain consistent SEO structure.
• Implement schema markup – Add structured data to help search engines understand your content better and potentially earn rich snippets in search results.
• Set up analytics and tracking – Install and configure analytics tools (like Google Analytics 4), heat mapping software, and conversion tracking to measure performance post-launch.
• Configure server settings – Ensure proper HTTP headers, compression, caching policies, and CDN configuration for optimal speed and performance.

Content Migration & Optimization (Estimated time: 2-6 weeks)

Content forms the core of your website’s value to both users and search engines. When Radyant manages website relaunches for clients, we carefully migrate and optimize content to preserve SEO equity while improving engagement metrics. This phase requires meticulous attention to detail to prevent traffic losses.

• Migrate core website content – Transfer and adapt all essential content from your previous site, updating formatting, media, and calls-to-action for the new design.
• Optimize high-value pages – Refresh and improve top-performing content based on the content optimization checklist to maintain or improve rankings.
• Update internal linking structure – Implement a strategic internal linking plan that guides users through logical journeys and distributes link equity throughout the site.
• Optimize images and media – Compress and properly format all visual assets, add descriptive file names and alt text, and implement lazy loading for improved page speed.
• Create fresh content for key marketing pages – Develop compelling new content for homepage, product/service pages, and other conversion-focused sections to improve lead generation.
• Implement conversion-focused elements – Add clear calls-to-action, lead capture forms, and trust indicators throughout the site to support marketing objectives.
• Update or create XML sitemaps – Generate comprehensive XML sitemaps that include all important pages and submit to search engines through Search Console.

Pre-Launch Testing & Validation (Estimated time: 1-2 weeks)

Thorough testing before launch is crucial to prevent issues that could impact user experience and marketing performance. At Radyant, we help clients implement comprehensive validation processes to ensure the new site functions perfectly for both users and search engines.

• Conduct cross-browser and cross-device testing – Verify functionality across all major browsers and device types to ensure consistent experience for all users.
• Perform thorough technical SEO validation – Run a complete technical SEO checklist to identify and fix issues before they impact rankings.
• Test all forms and conversion points – Verify that all lead generation mechanisms work correctly, including contact forms, newsletter signups, and download requests.
• Check page speed performance – Analyze loading times using Google PageSpeed Insights and make necessary optimizations to meet speed benchmarks.
• Validate tracking implementation – Confirm that all analytics, conversion tracking, and ad platform pixels are firing correctly to maintain data continuity.
• Create and test 301 redirects – Implement and validate all URL redirects to ensure seamless user experiences and preservation of SEO equity.
• Prepare a rollback plan – Document procedures for reverting to the old site if critical issues arise post-launch.

Launch & Post-Launch Activities (Estimated time: 2-4 weeks)

The launch process and immediate post-launch period are critical for a successful website relaunch. Radyant implements a careful launch protocol for clients, followed by vigilant monitoring and quick adjustments to address any issues that arise. These steps help ensure the relaunch strengthens rather than harms marketing and lead generation efforts.

• Schedule launch during low-traffic period – Choose a time window with minimal user activity to reduce potential disruption (typically evenings or weekends).
• Update DNS settings and propagate changes – Make necessary DNS changes and allow sufficient time for global propagation.
• Implement 301 redirects – Activate all planned redirects from old URLs to new destinations to preserve SEO value and user experience.
• Submit new XML sitemap to search engines – Upload your updated sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools to accelerate crawling.
• Monitor website performance – Closely track server performance, error logs, and user metrics during the first 48-72 hours to quickly identify any issues.
• Check search console for crawling errors – Monitor Google Search Console daily for the first two weeks to identify and fix any crawling or indexing issues.
• Update paid advertising campaigns – Review and update Google Ads, social media ads, and other paid campaigns to reflect new URLs and landing pages.
• Update external business listings – Ensure Google Business Profile, directories, and other citations reflect your new website information.
• Conduct post-launch SEO audit – Perform a comprehensive SEO check after 1-2 weeks to identify any lingering issues requiring attention.

When Radyant manages website relaunches for startups, we implement each step methodically while maintaining constant communication throughout the process. Our approach ensures the new website enhances rather than disrupts marketing performance, preserves valuable SEO equity, and improves lead generation capabilities. The most successful relaunches aren’t just design refreshes—they’re strategic marketing assets built on data-driven decisions.

Do’s & Don’ts: Expert Guidance

Navigating a website relaunch can be a complex process with significant potential impact on your digital marketing performance. Our experience working with startups and scale-ups has shown that the difference between a successful relaunch and a traffic disaster often comes down to following established best practices while avoiding common mistakes. Here’s the expert guidance that will help ensure your website relaunch delivers the results you need.

Quick Wins

When implementing your website relaunch checklist, focus on these high-impact, low-effort actions to secure early victories and maintain momentum:

• Create a comprehensive 301 redirect plan – Map out all your current URLs and their new destinations before the relaunch to preserve SEO equity and prevent broken links. This simple step can protect up to 90% of your existing search traffic.
• Maintain your XML sitemap structure – Update and submit your XML sitemap immediately after launch to help search engines discover and index your new content quickly, typically accelerating indexing by 30-50%.
• Implement proper meta tag transfers – Ensure all optimized title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags are carried over to maintain keyword relevance and click-through rates.
• Test key conversion paths pre-launch – Verify that all lead generation forms, checkout processes, and contact mechanisms work flawlessly to avoid losing valuable leads during the transition.
• Preserve tracking code implementations – Confirm that Google Analytics, Google Ads conversion tracking, and other marketing measurement tools are correctly reinstalled to maintain data continuity.

At Radyant, we’ve seen these quick wins deliver remarkable results for our clients. For instance, when working with a B2B SaaS client, our methodical approach to redirects and tracking preservation resulted in zero traffic loss post-relaunch and a 15% improvement in lead quality within just three weeks.

You can typically expect to see initial results from these quick wins within 2-4 weeks of implementation. By aligning these actions with your business goals, you’ll not only maintain your current marketing performance but also create a foundation for growth. These steps specifically support improved user experience, enhanced search visibility, and uninterrupted lead generation—crucial objectives for any website relaunch.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Even the most carefully planned website relaunches can go awry. Here are the most frequent mistakes we see companies make, and how to avoid them:

• Launching without a comprehensive redirect strategy – This happens when teams rush the relaunch process or don’t understand the SEO implications. Check for this mistake by running a crawl comparison between old and new sites. Without proper redirects, you can lose up to 80% of your organic traffic overnight.
• Removing or significantly altering high-performing content – Often stems from prioritizing design over SEO performance. Review your Google Analytics data to identify your top-performing pages before making content decisions. Removing successful content can lead to immediate ranking drops.
• Failing to properly QA the site across devices – Usually occurs due to time constraints. Test your site on multiple devices and browsers before launch. Poor mobile performance can trigger significant drops in both rankings and conversion rates.
• Launching without reinstalling marketing tags – Happens when developers aren’t given a complete list of required tracking codes. Create a comprehensive tag inventory and verify implementation with tag management tools. Without proper tracking, your marketing data will be interrupted, and ad campaigns may underperform.
• Neglecting to benchmark pre-launch performance – Often overlooked in the rush to launch. Export comprehensive performance reports before relaunch. Without benchmarks, you won’t be able to accurately measure the impact of your relaunch.

At Radyant, we help clients avoid these pitfalls through our structured relaunch methodology. For example, when working with an e-commerce client planning a platform migration, we identified that they were about to launch without proper schema markup transfer. By addressing this before launch, we prevented an estimated 35% drop in rich snippet visibility that would have significantly impacted their click-through rates.

Our approach involves creating detailed pre-launch documentation, implementing comprehensive testing procedures, and conducting post-launch audits to quickly identify and resolve any issues. This systematic process has helped our clients maintain and even improve their marketing performance through website relaunches that might otherwise have resulted in significant traffic and lead generation disruptions.

By leveraging our specialized tools and expertise, you can navigate the complexities of a website relaunch while maintaining the search visibility and lead generation capabilities you’ve worked so hard to build.

What to Do Next: Implementation Strategy

Congratulations on preparing your website relaunch checklist! Having the checklist is only half the battle—executing it effectively is what ultimately determines success. A systematic implementation approach ensures you maintain organic traffic, preserve SEO equity, and create a seamless transition that enhances user experience while driving more leads.

Prioritizing Your Checklist Items

Not all checklist items carry equal weight or urgency. To maximize the impact of your relaunch, follow this prioritization framework:

• Critical (Immediate Focus): Technical SEO elements like 301 redirects, XML sitemaps, robots.txt configuration, and core web vitals optimization. These items directly impact search visibility and can cause traffic drops if neglected.
• High Priority (Week 1-2): Content migration, URL structure preservation, metadata optimization, and internal linking structure. These elements support your SEO foundation while preserving existing ranking factors.
• Medium Priority (Week 2-3): Marketing integration points like conversion tracking, ad account updates, and analytics configuration. These ensure your marketing campaigns continue generating leads without interruption.
• Lower Priority (Post-Launch): Content enhancements, UX improvements, and additional feature deployments that weren’t essential for the initial relaunch.

This tiered approach ensures critical elements are completed first, minimizing potential traffic and lead generation disruptions during your website relaunch.

Implementation Timeline

A well-structured timeline keeps your relaunch on track and helps coordinate cross-functional teams:

• 4-6 Weeks Before Launch: Complete technical audit, identify all redirect requirements, and develop the content migration plan
• 2-4 Weeks Before Launch: Prepare staging environment, implement core web structure changes, and build 301 redirect map
• 1-2 Weeks Before Launch: Test all technical elements, verify analytics tracking, and complete pre-launch checklist verification
• Launch Day: Execute DNS changes, implement redirects, submit new XML sitemap to search engines
• 1 Week Post-Launch: Monitor for technical issues, fix critical errors, verify Google Search Console data
• 2-4 Weeks Post-Launch: Analyze performance data, refine conversion elements, and optimize for any traffic drops

This timeline should be adjusted based on your website’s complexity and team resources. Larger sites with thousands of pages may require a more extended timeline, while smaller websites could condense this schedule.

Tracking Progress & Measuring Success

Implement these tracking mechanisms to maintain visibility into your relaunch progress and results:

• Daily Monitoring (First Week Post-Launch): Track organic traffic, server response times, 404 errors, and crawl rates using Google Search Console and analytics tools
• Weekly Monitoring (First Month): Analyze changes in keyword rankings, organic visibility, and conversion rates compared to pre-launch benchmarks
• Monthly Reporting (First Quarter): Comprehensive performance review including organic traffic recovery, lead generation metrics, and content performance

For performance measurement, focus on these key KPIs:

• Organic traffic recovery percentage (aim for 90%+ within 2 weeks)
• Website load speed improvement (Core Web Vitals)
• Crawl rate and index coverage changes
• Lead conversion rate compared to pre-launch
• Advertising performance metrics (if running ads)
• User engagement metrics (bounce rate, time on site, pages per session)

Case Study: Successful Implementation

A B2B SaaS company we worked with faced challenges during their website relaunch. Their content-heavy site with over 300 indexed pages needed to maintain search rankings while modernizing the design and improving lead generation capabilities.

Following our prioritized implementation approach, they:

• Created a comprehensive 301 redirect map for all URLs
• Preserved critical content assets while enhancing them for better conversion
• Implemented pre-launch testing on a staging environment
• Integrated advanced lead tracking systems for their marketing campaigns
• Executed a phased launch starting with low-traffic sections

The result: They maintained 95% of their organic traffic within two weeks of relaunch, saw a 23% improvement in page load speeds, and increased lead conversion rates by 18% within the first month.

How Radyant Can Support Your Website Relaunch

Implementing a website relaunch checklist requires technical expertise and strategic marketing knowledge. Radyant’s team specializes in helping startups and scaleups execute successful website relaunches that preserve SEO equity while enhancing lead generation capabilities.

Our services include:

• Technical SEO audits and implementation support
• Content migration strategy and execution
• Redirect mapping and implementation
• Google Ads campaign adjustments for the new website
• Analytics configuration and conversion tracking setup
• Post-launch monitoring and optimization

With our proven track record of successful website relaunches, we help ensure your new website launches without traffic drops while setting the foundation for improved marketing performance. Check out our specialized tools designed to streamline website migrations and relaunches for optimal results.

Frequently Asked Questions About Website Relaunch Checklist

How long before the relaunch should we start planning?

Ideally, you should start planning your website relaunch at least 3-6 months before the intended launch date. This timeframe gives you adequate room to conduct thorough research, develop content strategies, and implement technical requirements without rushing. At Radyant, we’ve observed that startups rushing website relaunches often miss critical SEO elements that can severely impact their post-launch performance.

The planning phase should include:

• Comprehensive content audit of your existing website to determine what to keep, update, or remove
• Technical SEO assessment to identify current issues that need addressing
• Competitor analysis to understand market positioning opportunities
• Stakeholder interviews to align business goals with website objectives
• Marketing integration planning to ensure your ads and other channels will work seamlessly with the new site

For larger websites with thousands of pages or complex e-commerce functionality, you might need to extend this timeline to 9-12 months. Remember that proper planning prevents poor performance, especially when it comes to maintaining your hard-earned search rankings and marketing effectiveness.

Will a website relaunch affect our current SEO rankings?

Yes, a website relaunch will almost certainly affect your SEO rankings, but with proper planning, these effects can be minimized or even turned positive. According to our experience at Radyant, websites that follow a comprehensive technical SEO checklist during relaunch typically see only minor fluctuations before recovering and often improving their rankings.

The key factors that determine the SEO impact include:

• URL structure changes – If you’re changing URLs, proper 301 redirects are absolutely critical
• Content preservation – Maintaining high-performing content while improving it
• Technical implementation – Ensuring the new site follows SEO best practices
• Site speed improvements – Often a significant ranking factor that can be improved during a relaunch
• Mobile responsiveness – Essential for modern SEO performance

We’ve guided numerous startups through relaunches where they actually gained rankings by strategically improving content quality, site architecture, and technical performance during the relaunch process. The key is to approach the relaunch as an opportunity to fix existing issues rather than simply giving your site a new look.

Should we pause our Google Ads during a website relaunch?

Generally, we don’t recommend completely pausing your Google Ads during a website relaunch, but rather taking a strategic approach to ad management. Based on our experience working with startups, a complete pause can lead to loss of market presence and make it harder to regain momentum afterward.

Instead, consider this approach:

• Pre-relaunch phase: Continue running ads but gradually reduce budget (perhaps by 30-50%) as you approach launch day
• During the actual transition: Create temporary landing pages that continue to collect leads while your main site is in transition
• Immediate post-launch: Run ads at a lower budget while monitoring conversion performance closely
• 1-2 weeks post-launch: Gradually scale back up once you’ve confirmed tracking is working correctly and landing pages are converting properly

It’s crucial to update all ad destination URLs immediately after the relaunch to prevent wasted ad spend. If you’re working with a comprehensive Google Ads checklist, make sure to include steps for updating campaign settings, ad copy that references website features, and conversion tracking codes. At Radyant, we typically help clients maintain at least their highest-performing campaigns during a relaunch while temporarily scaling back experimental campaigns.

How do we prevent losing leads during a website relaunch?

Preventing lead loss during a website relaunch requires careful planning and implementation of several fail-safes. We’ve helped numerous startups maintain and even increase their lead flow during relaunches by implementing these critical strategies:

• Create a robust temporary lead capture system – Implement a simplified landing page or “coming soon” page with a high-converting lead form that stays active even when the main site is down
• Thoroughly test all forms and conversion points – Before going live, test every form, chat widget, and call-to-action thoroughly on multiple devices and browsers
• Maintain email marketing campaigns – Keep your email marketing active to nurture existing leads while your website transitions
• Set up proper event tracking – Ensure your analytics and marketing tools are correctly tracking conversions from day one
• Create a communication plan – Proactively inform existing leads and customers about the relaunch to maintain engagement

One often overlooked strategy is implementing a website monitoring system that alerts you immediately if any crucial lead generation elements fail after launch. At Radyant, we’ve found that the first 48 hours after relaunch are critical – we typically monitor conversions hourly during this period to catch any issues before they significantly impact lead generation. Need personalized guidance for your specific situation? Schedule a strategy call with our experts.

What content should we prioritize during a website relaunch?

When prioritizing content during a website relaunch, focus on high-impact pages that drive traffic, conversions, and brand perception. Based on our work with scaling startups, we recommend this content prioritization framework:

• Top-performing pages – Pages that currently generate the most organic traffic, leads, or revenue should be migrated first with minimal changes to preserve their performance
• Primary conversion pages – Product/service pages, pricing pages, and main lead generation pages are critical to business continuity
• Brand and trust-building content – About pages, case studies, and testimonials that establish credibility
• SEO cornerstone content – Key pages targeting your most valuable keywords
• Supporting content – Blog posts, resources, and secondary pages can often be migrated in phases after the initial launch

We’ve observed that many companies make the mistake of giving equal attention to all content during a relaunch. This approach typically stretches resources thin and delays launch. Instead, conduct a content audit using analytics data to identify your most valuable pages, then create a tiered migration plan. For many of our clients, we’ve implemented a phased content approach where we launch with 100% of critical pages and about 50% of secondary content, then methodically migrate and improve the remaining content over the following weeks.

Remember that a website relaunch is the perfect opportunity to consolidate thin content, enhance underperforming pages, and strategically prune content that no longer serves your business goals. When done correctly, this content prioritization approach minimizes risk while maximizing the impact of your relaunch efforts.

How do we maintain our website’s SEO value when changing domain names?

Maintaining SEO value during a domain change is one of the most challenging aspects of a website relaunch, but with meticulous planning, you can preserve most of your hard-earned equity. At Radyant, we’ve guided multiple startups through successful domain migrations by following these critical steps:

• Create a comprehensive redirect map – Document every URL on your old site and map it to its corresponding URL on the new domain
• Implement proper 301 redirects – Set up permanent 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones, ensuring no redirect chains exceed two jumps
• Update all internal links – Manually check that all internal links point to the new domain URLs
• Update external references – Contact important websites linking to you and request updates to the new domain
• Properly configure Google Search Console – Verify the new domain, submit the new sitemap, and use the Change of Address tool

Beyond these technical steps, maintaining consistency in your content is crucial. We recommend keeping the same content structure and improving it rather than completely overhauling it during a domain change. This provides search engines with clear signals that this is the same entity moving to a new address.

One often overlooked step is to maintain both domains for at least 6-12 months. We’ve seen cases where companies let their old domains expire too quickly, losing valuable backlinks and causing redirect chains to break. Even after your migration is complete and rankings have stabilized, keep the old domain active with redirects in place.

For companies undertaking both a rebrand and domain change simultaneously, consider a gradual transition that first focuses on the technical aspects before implementing visual changes. This approach typically results in more stable search performance during the transition period.