Why rankings get lost in a relaunch
Google knows your existing pages by their addresses. If these addresses change without a redirect, visitors and search engines land on an error page. The signals a page has collected over years are lost.
Other common causes are deleted content that ranked well, a new structure without clear topic pages, slower loading times and forgotten technical settings such as a noindex left over from the staging environment.
Before the relaunch: take stock
Before you change anything, you need to know what you have. Create a complete list of all existing URLs and note which of them bring visitors, rankings and enquiries.
Good sources are Google Search Console, your web analytics, the existing XML sitemap and a crawl of the website with an SEO tool. That way you also see pages that are no longer linked in the menu but still get visitors from Google.
- All URLs of the old website, including PDFs and images with traffic
- Pages with the most clicks and impressions in Search Console
- Pages with external backlinks
- Important search terms and current positions
- Titles and meta descriptions of the top pages
URL mapping and 301 redirects
The heart of a safe relaunch is the URL mapping: a table that assigns each old address the matching new address. Wherever a URL changes, a 301 redirect is set up. It tells Google that the page has moved permanently.
Always redirect to the page with the closest matching content, not wholesale to the home page. Google often treats a blanket redirect to the home page like a deleted page. Also avoid redirect chains, where one address is passed on through several stops.
Where possible, simply keep URLs that rank well. Not every address has to change just because the website is new.
For old pages whose content no longer exists and for which there is no suitable new page, an honest error page is better than a forced redirect. Make the 404 page helpful, with search and links to the most important sections, so visitors don’t just leave.
Carry over content and technical settings
Pages that rank well should keep the core of their content. You can improve and expand them, but don’t cut blindly just because the new design allows for less text. The titles, headings and meta descriptions of important pages also deserve attention.
On the technical side, this includes clean canonical tags, an up-to-date XML sitemap, correct hreflang tags on multilingual websites and fast loading times. Structured data that existed before should not disappear.
Staging environment and go-live
The new website is usually built in a staging environment. This should be blocked for search engines, ideally with password protection. At go-live, this block must be reliably removed; a forgotten noindex is one of the most common and most costly mistakes.
Test the redirects before and immediately after launch using the list from the URL mapping. Every old URL should lead to the right new page in a single hop.
- Remove noindex and password protection from the staging environment
- Check robots.txt to make sure no important areas are blocked
- Test all 301 redirects, both by sampling and automatically
- Submit the new XML sitemap in Search Console
- Update internal links to the new URLs
After the relaunch: monitor and fine-tune
Fluctuations are normal in the weeks after launch. Google first has to re-crawl the new website. Keep an eye on indexing, error pages and the development of clicks and impressions in Search Console.
If 404 errors appear, add the missing redirects. If individual important pages drop, compare the old and new versions: is content missing, has the title changed, is the page less well linked? The old redirects should stay in place for the long term.
Typical mistakes that cost rankings
Many ranking losses after a relaunch could have been avoided. Often, SEO only becomes an issue after go-live, when visitor numbers are already falling. By then, fixing it is more work than planning it would have been.
Relaunches where the domain, structure, content and technology all change at the same time are particularly tricky. The more that changes at once, the harder it is to find the cause of a drop. Where possible, don’t change everything at once.
Design can also affect rankings: content hidden away in sliders or accordions, large unoptimised images or a heavy page build slow the website down. You will find the basics Google pays attention to in the article SEO for SMEs.
- No redirects, or blanket redirects to the home page
- Well-ranking pages deleted without replacement
- noindex carried over from the staging environment
- Titles and meta descriptions not carried over
- Search Console not checked after launch
- Domain, structure and content changed at the same time
Key takeaways
A relaunch doesn’t have to cost rankings if SEO is planned in from the start. In our projects, URL mapping, redirects and checks in Search Console are a fixed part of the process. If you are planning a relaunch, let us show you in the free initial consultation what matters for your website.
- Record all existing URLs and their performance beforehand
- Redirect every changed URL with a 301 to the matching new page
- Keep and improve well-ranking content instead of deleting it
- Block the staging environment and remove the block at go-live
- Submit the sitemap and watch Search Console for weeks
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take for rankings to recover after a relaunch?
If done properly, fluctuations usually even out after a few weeks. If losses persist longer, this points to missing redirects or content.
What is a 301 redirect?
A 301 redirect permanently forwards an old address to a new one. Visitors automatically land in the right place, and Google transfers the signals of the old page to the new one.
Is there anything special to consider when changing domains?
Yes. In addition to the redirects, you should verify the new domain in Google Search Console and report the change of address there.
