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Types of migration

Website relaunch

Also known as: website redesign, site relaunch, relaunch

A website relaunch is the overhaul of an existing website in which several layers change at once, for example design, structure, content, CMS, or domain. In US English the same project is usually called a website redesign. For SEO, a relaunch becomes risky as soon as URLs change, because search engines have to find the new addresses and transfer the signals of the old ones.

At a glance

Type
project to renew an existing website
Affects
design, structure, content, technology, often URLs
SEO risk
mainly when URLs change
When URLs change
Google's site move guide applies
Docs
Site moves with URL changes

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Relaunch, redesign, migration

The distinction below is industry convention, not a definition from Google.

A redesign in the narrow sense changes mainly the look, while URLs and content stay the same. A relaunch goes deeper and often affects navigation, page structure, and technology. A migration means that the technical base or the addresses change, for example a new domain, a switch from HTTP to HTTPS, or new URL paths. Many relaunches include a migration.

What matters for SEO?

Google treats changed URLs as a site move and recommends these steps:

  • a complete mapping of every old URL to its new URL
  • server-side permanent redirects (301 or 308) straight to the target, without chains
  • a robots.txt and meta robots setup that doesn’t block the new site
  • an updated XML sitemap with the new URLs
  • the Change of Address tool in Search Console when the domain or subdomain changes

Google advises keeping the redirects as long as possible, generally at least one year. Rankings can fluctuate while Google recrawls and reindexes the site. For a medium-sized website, Google says it can take a few weeks for most pages to move.

Example

A store moves from shop.example.com/catalog/product.php?id=481 to www.example.com/running-shoes/trail-x/. Without a redirect, the old address returns a 404 and links from other sites lead nowhere. A 301 redirect from the old product URL to the new one lets Google connect the two pages. Redirecting all old URLs to the home page doesn’t do that job, and Google may treat such redirects as soft 404 errors.

Checklist

These points follow Google’s guide to site moves with URL changes. They apply as soon as a relaunch changes URLs.

Before launch

  • The important old URLs are collected, for example from sitemaps, server logs, and analytics.
  • Every old URL is mapped to a matching new URL, and dropped content returns 404 or 410.
  • New pages have self-referencing canonicals, and internal links point to the new URLs.
  • Both the old and the new site are verified in Search Console.

At launch

  • Server-side 301 or 308 redirects lead straight to the target.
  • noindex and robots.txt blocks that were only needed for preparation are removed.
  • Sitemaps with the new URLs are submitted.

After launch

  • The Sitemaps, indexing, and performance reports in Search Console are monitored.
  • Server logs show whether Googlebot runs into errors.
  • The redirects stay in place for at least one year.

Common mistakes

The first three points are based on practical experience. Google’s site move documentation says to remove noindex or robots.txt blocks that were needed just for the move, and it lists the last point as a frequent mistake.

  • The staging site’s noindex or robots.txt block is carried over to the live site at launch.
  • Content is dropped during the rebuild without checking which pages had traffic or links before.
  • Internal links still point to old URLs and cause unnecessary redirects.
  • Redirects lead to new URLs that don’t exist.

FAQ

Does a website redesign affect SEO? In our assessment, a purely visual redesign with unchanged URLs and content usually has little effect. Changes to URLs, content, internal links, or rendering can affect rankings, and Google expects fluctuations during a site move.

How do you redesign a website without losing SEO? There is no guarantee. Based on Google’s site move guidance, the main levers are a complete URL mapping, permanent redirects, carrying over content that had traffic, and checking the new site before and after launch.

More on the searchVIU blog

Sources

  1. Site moves with URL changes – Google Search Central (last updated 2026-08-20)developers.google.com
  2. Redirects and Google Search – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com

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