Describe the problem before choosing a new design.
Try to describe what a visitor cannot understand or do today. Are services unclear, is the contact option hard to find on mobile, or is information out of date? Identify the problems the new website should solve and connect each one to a specific page.
Separate content, functionality and design. A visual change does not automatically make your offer clear, and new text will not fix a broken form. Improving a few pages may be enough. If the system or scope needs to change, explain why in the brief.
- The visitor needs to be able to: ____.
- This is not clear today because: ____.
- The most important page or contact route to improve: ____.
Review what already has value.
List existing service pages, common questions, images and downloads. Check what is still accurate and what customers use. If measurement is available, find out which pages receive search impressions, clicks or other relevant visits.
Save a Search Console baseline before the redesign: which queries and pages appear, and what do clicks and impressions look like? This supports decisions and follow-up. A page does not need to disappear simply because you want to change its typography or imagery.
Give every important page a clear visitor task.
A tradesperson’s visitors need to understand services, service areas and how to ask about a job. Salon customers need to compare treatments and find booking options. For a consultancy, the page needs to explain needs, projects and contact. Choose content around your own business.
Plan headings, detail and next steps. Use your own material where it fits and decide what needs to be created. If several services share one page, customers should still be able to tell them apart. A separate page should give a useful answer, not just rename the same text.
In our Reflink project, organisers and referees received separate contact routes. This shows how one website can give different visitors the right next step. Use your own customers’ questions to decide whether your pages need new entry points.
Complete a page inventory for the redesign.
Copy the rows below and complete an inventory for each important existing page. Start with services and contact. Choose keep, improve, merge or remove, and explain why. The purpose of the new page should be understandable before anyone sees a design preview.
Choose someone to check the facts and approve changes. Mark anything undecided too. This helps an agency scope its work and lets you judge whether the delivery solves the problem that prompted the project.
- Current URL and page name: ____.
- The visitor’s question or task on this page: ____.
- Content, materials and contact options to keep: ____.
- Items to improve, replace or remove: ____.
- Page decision: keep / improve / merge / remove. Reason: ____.
- URL after the redesign: ____. Any redirect: ____.
- Checks to complete before launch: ____.
- Person responsible for content, approval and follow-up: ____.
Keep URLs where appropriate and plan the changes.
For a permanent URL change, Google recommends a server-side redirect such as 301 or 308. Connect the old URL to the relevant new page. Update your own internal links too, so visitors can reach the current page directly.
Google advises against redirecting many old pages to an unrelated homepage. This can confuse visitors and be treated as a soft 404. Content that is genuinely merged can, however, share a relevant destination. Check each decision in your page inventory.
Review the new website before launch.
Ask someone unfamiliar with the business to read the site on a phone. Have them explain the offer and find the main contact option. Then check the content against your page inventory. Items you wanted to keep should still be there, and priority problems should have a clear answer.
When moving a site, Google recommends planning major changes in separate steps where possible. Changing the domain, system and layout at once makes more things depend on one another. Decide what must change together and what can wait.
- Test navigation, contact forms, phone links and any booking links.
- Check retained URLs and redirects for changed pages.
- Check that important public pages are accessible and that indexing blocks from the test environment are not carried over by mistake.
- Confirm who will update the content and provide help after launch.
Monitor usage and search traffic after the changes.
Check the main pages and contact routes after publication. Monitor clicks, impressions and relevant queries in Search Console, and record enquiries separately. Compare equivalent periods and account for changes to your offer or the season before drawing conclusions.
Google explains that major changes can cause rankings to fluctuate while the site is processed. A new design does not guarantee more traffic, and a completed migration does not guarantee unchanged rankings. Use follow-up to find specific problems and improve what customers need.
What can a redesign with Nolera include?
We start with your current website and what visitors need to be able to do. A clearly scoped new build of 1–5 information pages may suit our €29/month package, excluding VAT, with no setup fee or minimum commitment. The initial build and one consolidated round of revisions before launch are included within the package scope.
Reusing materials, migration, redirects and technical dependencies must be described for your particular project. The monthly price does not automatically include all migration work. Larger websites, booking systems, e-commerce and integrations receive a separate quote. Domains, external services and ongoing content work follow the agreed terms.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need to rebuild the whole website?
Not always. Start with the problems to solve and what already works. Improving content, navigation or a contact route may be a smaller project than a new build.
Can existing text and images be reused?
Yes, when they are accurate, suit the new delivery and you are entitled to use them. Before ordering, we review what to keep, adapt or replace.
Will we keep our Google rankings?
That cannot be guaranteed. Keep useful content and URLs where appropriate, plan necessary redirects and monitor search performance after publication.
Do we have to change domain or email service?
A redesign does not, by itself, require a new domain or email provider. If hosting, DNS or other services will change, those parts need a specific plan. See our guide to changing web agency for a handover worksheet.