Website redesign checklist for organizations.

Most redesigns start with how a site looks. The ones that work start with what the site is for, who it serves, and what it already does well. Use this checklist to plan a redesign that improves the experience without throwing away what search engines already know about you.

1. Goals

• Write down what the website should achieve — enquiries, applications, fewer support calls, recruiting.
• Decide how you’ll know it’s working, and note today’s numbers if you have them.
• List what works on the current site and should be kept.
• List what visitors and staff complain about.

2. Audiences

• Name the main groups who visit: customers, partners, applicants, the public.
• For each group, write the questions they arrive with and the action you want them to take.
• Check which pages each group actually uses most, if analytics are available.

3. Content inventory

• List every page on the current site, with its address.
• Mark each page keep, improve, combine, or retire.
• Identify missing content: questions people ask that no page answers.
• Decide who will write, review, and approve content, and when.

4. Structure and navigation

• Group pages around what visitors are looking for, not your internal departments.
• Keep the main navigation short and clearly labeled.
• Plan page addresses that are short, readable, and stable.
• Make sure every important page is reachable through links, not only through search.

5. Search visibility

This is where redesigns most often go wrong. Search engines have learned your current pages; changing addresses without care can make them forget.

• Map old addresses to new ones. Every page that moves or is retired gets a permanent (301) redirect to its closest new equivalent.
• Keep what ranks. Pages that bring visitors from search keep their focus and, where possible, their address.
• Write unique titles and descriptions for each page, describing what it offers.
• Use one clear main heading per page and a sensible heading structure below it.
• Add structured data where it fits: your organization, services, and frequently asked questions.
• Publish an XML sitemap and submit it in the search engines’ webmaster tools.

6. Accessibility and speed

• Check color contrast, keyboard navigation, form labels, and alternative text for images.
• Make sure layouts work on phones, tablets, and desktops.
• Keep pages light: compressed images, minimal scripts, and sensible caching.
• Test with real devices, not only a desktop browser.

7. Launch

1. Back up the current site before anything changes.
2. Test every redirect from the address map.
3. Check that forms deliver to the right people.
4. Confirm the site isn’t accidentally blocked from search engines.
5. Check secure (HTTPS) delivery on every page.
6. Submit the new sitemap.

8. After launch

• Watch the search engines’ webmaster tools for crawl errors and missing pages, and fix them quickly.
• Compare visits and enquiries with the numbers you noted at the start.
• Ask a few real visitors to complete common tasks, and fix what slows them down.
• Keep content current — a website is never really finished.