The problem
The single most common way a redesign goes wrong has nothing to do with how it looks. Old pages get deleted, the URLs change, and nobody maps redirects. Google keeps sending people to addresses that no longer exist, and every ranking those pages held drains away over the following months.
This is not hypothetical and it is not rare. It happened on this very site. Three client pages were deleted during a rebuild, and they were still holding rankings, including one at position 10.5 and another with the best click-through rate on the whole domain. The fix was to rebuild them at their original URLs rather than let the equity go.
The second failure is more subtle. A site gets redesigned to look better, the structure is carried over unchanged, and six months later nothing has improved. The old site did not underperform because it was ugly. It underperformed because everything sat on one page and Google had nothing specific to rank.
A redesign that changes the appearance and keeps the architecture is an expensive way to stand still.
How a redesign is handled here
The visible part is the easy part.
Audit before anything
What currently ranks, what earns traffic, and what is quietly worth keeping. You cannot protect what you have not measured.
Redirect mapping
Every old URL mapped to its new home before launch, as 301s. This is the step that gets skipped and it is the one that costs the most.
Restructured, not restyled
Rebuilt around what people actually search for, with a page per service and per area, rather than the old structure in new clothes.
Content carried across
Pages that already earn traffic get preserved and improved rather than thrown out because they were on the old site.
Mobile-first rebuild
Most sites needing a redesign were never really designed for phones, which is typically a third to a half of the traffic. If you have 20 or more employees in Ontario, see what AODA requires of your website.
Launch without downtime
Built alongside the live site and switched over, rather than taking you offline while it is assembled.
What a rebuild can move
Both of these replaced outdated template sites that did not work on mobile. Figures from the clients' own Search Console.
None of these came from the site looking better. They came from restructuring around how people search. Mungar, James Deep and High Reach case studies.
Common questions
Will I lose my Google rankings?
Not if redirects are mapped properly. Every old URL gets a 301 to its new home before launch. Sites usually dip for a couple of weeks while Google reprocesses, then recover and improve.
How do I know if I need a redesign?
Send us the URL. Sometimes the answer is a rebuild, sometimes repair, and sometimes the site is fine and the problem is that nothing links to it and there are no pages to rank. All three answers are free.
Can you keep my existing content?
Yes, and usually should. Pages already earning traffic get carried across and improved. Throwing out ranking content because it was on the old site is a common and expensive mistake.
How long does a redesign take?
Two to three weeks for most, same as a new build. The audit and redirect mapping add a little at the start, and they are worth it.
Will my site go down during the switch?
No. It gets built alongside the live site and switched over when it is ready.
What if I like how my site looks?
Then we keep the look and fix the structure. Appearance and architecture are separate problems and you are not obliged to change both.
Find out what is holding your site back
Send us your URL and we will send back a plain-English audit of what is working, what is not, and what it would take to fix. No charge, no pitch deck.