Website redesign checklist for a clearer project scope

Audit before drawing new pages

A redesign starts with the existing routes, content, integrations and failure points. Removing a page without checking inbound links can create avoidable search and customer-service problems.

Inventory URLs, forms, assets, owners and known issues; separate content changes from layout and technical work.

Inventory current routes, templates, forms, downloads and integrations before drawing a new sitemap. Add traffic or enquiry evidence where it is available, but keep missing evidence visible. Mark pages that must stay, merge, change purpose or redirect. This prevents the redesign from silently deleting a useful entry point or recreating several pages that answer the same question under slightly different titles.

Define the journeys that matter

The new structure should support specific visitor questions and business actions. A service business may need people to compare scope and send an enquiry, while a store needs product discovery and checkout.

Choose a small set of priority journeys and map the information, decisions and error states in each.

Write the problems in observable terms. Examples include visitors missing a service boundary, mobile navigation hiding a key route, editors being unable to update a template or a form failing after submission. Avoid conclusions such as 'the site feels old' without showing what needs to change. Specific findings lead to design and development tasks that can be estimated, tested and accepted.

Design with final content constraints

Placeholder text hides title length, translation, legal and editing problems. A card that works with six words may break when the real service name needs two lines in German or mobile.

Use approved or representative copy, images and validation messages during component acceptance.

Protect working equity during redesign. Preserve search-relevant URLs where possible, map every changed path to a suitable destination and carry confirmed metadata into the new templates. Keep analytics definitions comparable when tracking already exists. A new visual system should not erase content that answers real customer questions or remove the route through which staff currently receive valid enquiries.

Protect the migration

The release plan needs redirects, metadata, analytics continuity and checks for forms and integrations. A visually successful redesign can still lose discoverability when URLs change without mapping.

Define acceptance by template and journey. Review final copy, responsive states, keyboard use, forms, performance and browser support on representative pages. Include migration checks, redirects, sitemap output and post-launch monitoring. Assign content owners and technical owners separately. The finished redesign should be judged against the documented problems and required journeys, not only against a set of desktop mock-ups.