Website redesign checklist: what to save before you change anything

How to use this checklist

This checklist has 30 steps: 15 before you change anything, 7 during the work and 8 after launch. Most redesigns that lose traffic or leads fail on something nobody saved, not on the new design.

It works for all four ways to change a site you already have. The table shows how much of it you need. Not sure which option fits? Start with our decision guide, update, redesign, migrate or rebuild, then come back here.

Before: what to save first (15 steps)

Do these while the current site is still live and untouched. Keep everything in one shared folder and one spreadsheet.

1. Collect every login. You need working access to the domain registrar, the DNS host, the hosting account, the platform admin and any paid apps. Use accounts in the business’s name, not a former designer’s.
2. Confirm you control the domain. Check that the registrar account is yours and note the renewal date. If a past agency or the builder holds it, fix that first; our guide to transferring a domain shows how. The transfer itself can wait until after the redesign.
3. Get into Google Search Console and GA4. You want owner access to Search Console and admin access to Google Analytics 4. If neither is set up, add them now, so you have a few weeks of before numbers to compare against.
4. List every URL from your sitemap. Open yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml and copy every address into a spreadsheet. Add columns for page title, meta description, new URL and action (keep, merge or drop). Titles and descriptions rarely survive a redesign unless someone copies them.
5. Add pages from Search Console. Export the Pages report. It often lists indexed pages, PDFs and old posts the sitemap misses.
6. Mark your top pages. In the Search Console Performance report, sort pages by clicks over the last 12 months. These are the pages you change least and test first.
7. Note the pages other sites link to. Search Console’s Links report shows your most-linked pages. A link from another site stops helping you if its page disappears without a redirect.
8. Export content and download images. Run every export the platform offers and check that the files open. Two gaps to plan for: Squarespace has no bulk image download, and Wix says blog posts can’t be exported to other platforms. Our guide to leaving your website builder lists what each platform exports.
9. Map every form. For each form, write down its fields, which inbox or CRM receives the entries, and any automatic reply. Download old submissions, since they don’t always move with the site.
10. Save every DNS record. DNS is the address book that points your domain at your website and your email. Screenshot or export every record, especially the MX records (where email is delivered) and the TXT records for SPF, DKIM and DMARC. Lose these and email stops arriving.
11. Copy your legal pages. Save the privacy policy, terms, cookie notice and any accessibility statement, with their URLs. Later, check that they still describe the forms and tracking the new site uses.
12. List every tracking code. That means GA4, Google Ads and Meta conversion tags, call tracking, chat and booking widgets, and the Search Console verification tag. A redesign that drops these leaves you guessing where leads come from.
13. Take a full backup. On WordPress, which we build on every week, that means the files and the database, plus a note of your PHP version. WordPress.org recommends PHP 8.3 or greater, and php.net lists PHP 8.1 as end of life since December 31, 2025. On Squarespace or Wix, duplicate the site (a Squarespace copy is a new trial site that needs its own billing plan). Neither copy includes orders or contacts, so export those separately. More in our website backups entry.
14. Screenshot the old site. Capture every key page on a computer and on a phone. When someone asks in two months what the old page said, you’ll have the answer.
15. Record a speed baseline. Save the scores for your top pages from Google’s PageSpeed Insights or the Search Console Core Web Vitals report. Google’s good thresholds for Core Web Vitals are Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less, Interaction to Next Paint of 200 ms or less and Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less.

During: build without breaking anything (7 steps)

1. Work on a copy, not the live site. Build on a staging site, a duplicate or the builder’s preview address, and block search engines from it. Write yourself a reminder to remove that block at launch.
2. Keep URLs the same wherever you can. Squarespace’s own help center warns that changing your URL structure can affect rankings. Every address you keep is one less redirect. On Squarespace 7.1, where you can’t switch templates, a redesign through site styles usually leaves every address as it was.
3. Build the 301 map for URLs that must change. Fill in the new URL column of your spreadsheet. Point each old page at its closest new match, not the home page, and use permanent 301 redirects: Google says temporary ones keep the old page showing in search results. Redirect straight to the final URL. Platform limits to know: Squarespace URL mappings hold about 2,500 lines, Wix allows 5,000 redirects per site, and Shopify only redirects from URLs that no longer load a page.
4. Change one big thing at a time. Google’s site-move guide says to plan changes one after the other, not everything at once. Treat a new domain, a new platform and a new design as separate launches. If you are migrating, move first and redesign once traffic settles. Our website migration guide covers the platform move step by step.
5. Carry over what already works. Move the titles, meta descriptions, headings and main text of your top pages with little change. Update internal links to the new URLs so visitors don’t bounce through redirects.
6. Rebuild forms and tracking, then test on the copy. Send a test entry through every form and confirm it lands where your form notes say it should. Re-add each tracking code on your list.
7. Check phones, speed and accessibility. Google mainly crawls and indexes the mobile version of a site, and mobile accounted for 49.1% of US web page views in September 2026, according to StatCounter. Compare speed with your baseline. For web accessibility, check image alt text, color contrast and heading order, and make sure menus and forms work with a keyboard. The Justice Department’s guidance says the ADA covers goods and services businesses offer on the web and points to WCAG as helpful guidance. This is general information, not legal advice.

After launch: test, watch, then cancel (8 steps)

1. Remove the search-engine block. Check that robots.txt and the page settings no longer tell search engines to stay away. This one leftover setting can hide a whole site.
2. Test your redirects. Open your top 20 old URLs in a browser. Each should land on the right page in one hop, through a 301, not a 302 or a not-found page.
3. Submit the new sitemap. Google lists this as a site-move step: submit the sitemap in Search Console. If no URLs changed, check that the sitemap still loads and lists every page.
4. Use Change of Address only for a new domain. Search Console’s Change of Address tool is for moving from one domain or subdomain to another. For new paths on the same domain, Google says to add redirects and update your sitemap.
5. Test forms, email and tracking on the live site. Submit every form, send and receive email from your business address, and confirm GA4 shows your own visit in its realtime report.
6. Watch Search Console for 404s. Check the Pages report weekly for the first month or two and add a redirect for every old URL that shows up as not found. Google says search visibility may fluctuate during a move with URL changes, and a medium-sized site can take a few weeks or more before the new URLs start showing.
7. Keep the redirects. Google’s site-move guide says generally at least a year. The Change of Address help page says at least 180 days, and longer if the old URLs still get search traffic. Longer is safer, so there is little reason to remove them early.
8. Cancel the old plan last. Once everything above checks out, take one final export, then cancel and turn off auto-renew. For a hosting move with the same URLs, Google’s advice is to shut down the old hosting once its traffic reaches zero. Our redesign cost guide covers paying for both plans during the overlap.

Who should do what

If you hire a designer, split the list. The owner keeps anything that would be hard to get back; the builder does the technical work.

• The owner: holds the logins, owns the domain, Search Console and GA4, approves the redirect map, tests forms and email from a real inbox, and cancels the old plan.
• The builder: runs the exports and backup, builds the copy, sets up redirects and tracking, checks phones, speed and accessibility, and fixes 404s in the first weeks.

Have the builder work inside your accounts, not theirs. Where the platform allows it, add them as a user instead of sharing your password, so you can remove access when the job ends.

What to do next

• Still choosing an option? Read should you update, redesign, migrate or rebuild.
• Setting a budget? See what a website redesign costs, from a DIY update to a full rebuild.
• Changing platforms? Follow the 10-step migration guide and our glossary entry on website migration.