Website relaunch checklist: How to plan your relaunch properly

1. Initial audit: Really understand the old site

Data sources for a reliable audit

• Google Search Console: Top pages, top keywords, clicks, impressions, crawl errors
• Google Analytics or Plausible: Traffic sources, conversions, bounce rates
• Screaming Frog or a similar crawler: Internal links, redirect chains, metadata, duplicate content
• PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse: Core Web Vitals, accessibility, best practices (our guide Accessible websites: What the BFSG requires from 2025 explains the specific BFSG requirements)
• Backend analysis: Editorial workload, maintenance obstacles, outdated plugins

Our questionnaire at a glance

1. What works particularly well on the current site?
2. Which pages generate the most traffic and conversions?
3. What frustrates you in the backend or in day-to-day content management?
4. Which features are missing that your competitors already offer?
5. Where does the visual design no longer represent you?
6. Which content is outdated, redundant or simply no longer correct?
7. Which URLs consistently bring you organic traffic and are essential?

2. Goal setting: What should the relaunch achieve?

3. When does a website relaunch really make sense?

• The site is more than five to seven years old and technically outdated.
• The design no longer fits the current brand or target audience.
• Mobile performance and Core Web Vitals are consistently poor.
• The CMS is confusing, insecure or no longer maintained.
• New requirements such as a shop, customer portal or AI search cannot be integrated properly.
• Achieving BFSG accessibility compliance is not economically viable with the current setup.
• The site is outgrowing its structure and becoming difficult to navigate.

4. Costs: What you should realistically expect

5. Timeline: How long does a relaunch take?

6. Concept and clickable design: Experience it before it is built

7. Technical update: Faster, more secure, ready for the future

Core Web Vitals as firm targets

8. SEO relaunch: Protect and improve rankings

• URL strategy: Short, descriptive URLs, consistent separators, no session IDs.
• Information architecture: Topic clusters with clear hub and detail pages rather than a disorganised mix.
• Metadata: Titles below 60 characters, descriptions below 160, a clear hierarchy with a single H1 per page.
• Internal linking: New internal links to revenue-driving pages, no isolated content.
• Structured data: Schema.org for organisations, products, articles, FAQs and reviews.
• Indexing controls: Properly maintained robots.txt, XML sitemap and canonical tags.
• AI search signals: Clear answers in the opening paragraphs, definitions, lists and tables.

9. Redirect management and content migration: No link should lead nowhere

10. Accessibility: BFSG as a requirement, not a bonus

• Colour contrast in line with WCAG 2.2 AA (at least 4,5:1 for body text).
• Keyboard accessibility: All interactive elements accessible without a mouse.
• Semantic HTML: Landmarks, heading hierarchy, correct form labels.
• Alt text for all images relevant to the content.
• Visible, consistent focus states.
• Videos with subtitles, complex content with text alternatives.

11. GEO and AI search: Visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews

• Direct answers in the first 100 words of every page.
• Short-answer boxes and definitions as standalone blocks.
• FAQ sections with structured data using FAQPage schema.
• Visible authorship and E-E-A-T signals on every post.
• llms.txt or similar controls for AI crawlers.
• Clear topic clusters rather than disconnected individual pages.

12. Launch: As little downtime as possible

Launch-day checklist

1. Backup of the old site and database created.
2. DNS TTL set to a low value 24 hours before launch.
3. SSL certificate configured and tested on the new hosting.
4. Redirect matrix live and verified through spot checks.
5. XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console.
6. Analytics and Tag Manager checked on the new site.
7. Contact forms, payment flows and external integrations tested live.
8. 404 monitoring enabled.

13. After launch: Ongoing support, not abandonment

• Search Console: Crawl errors, coverage, lost keywords.
• 404 logs: New dead links from external references.
• Core Web Vitals in the field: Real-world data from the CrUX report.
• Conversion paths: Form completions, CTA clicks, drop-offs.
• Rankings: Comparison of weeks 1, 4 and 12 against the baseline.

14. The most common website relaunch mistakes

• No SEO audit before concept development, resulting in the loss of ranking URLs.
• Content last rather than first, resulting in a launch with half-finished pages.
• Redirect chains instead of clean 1-to-1 redirects.
• Design before structure, resulting in attractive pages without clear user journeys.
• No staging environment, with development carried out directly on the live system.
• No content freeze: Editors change content during migration.
• No post-launch monitoring, leaving gradual traffic losses unnoticed.
• Accessibility treated as a retrofit rather than considered from the start.

15. Master website relaunch checklist: The complete overview

Frequently asked questions

What is a website relaunch?+

A website relaunch is a fundamental overhaul of an existing website, with a new design, new structure, technical updates and often new content. The aim is to improve performance, user journeys and visibility.

When does a website relaunch make sense?+

A relaunch makes sense when the current site is technically outdated, no longer visually aligned with the brand, difficult to maintain, has consistently poor Core Web Vitals or no longer delivers the desired conversions. Usually, more than one of these applies at the same time.

What does a website relaunch cost?+

Small company websites typically cost between 6.000 and 15.000 EUR, mid-sized corporate websites between 15.000 and 40.000 EUR, and complex platforms with a shop or portal start at 40.000 EUR. The actual cost depends on the scope, features and data migration.

How long does a website relaunch take?+

Depending on complexity, a relaunch takes between four weeks and several months. Small sites can be completed in four to eight weeks, mid-sized projects take two to four months, and complex platforms take six months or longer.

How often should you relaunch a website?+

As a rule of thumb, every five to seven years. Exceptions: if the business model, brand or technical requirements change significantly, an earlier relaunch may make sense.

Can I preserve my SEO rankings during a relaunch?+

Yes, if you carry out an SEO analysis before launch, redirect old URLs to relevant new pages, and migrate content and metadata correctly. Without redirect management, there is a risk of significant ranking losses in the first few weeks.

What is redirect management during a relaunch?+

Redirect management ensures that old URLs lead to the relevant new pages via 301 redirects. This preserves Google rankings, inbound backlinks and visibility in AI search.

What happens after launch?+

Launch is followed by a monitoring phase of at least 12 weeks. We check load times, indexing, 404 errors, rankings and conversion paths. We offer maintenance or SEO packages where needed.

Does my website have to be accessible under the BFSG?+

Accessibility has been a legal requirement for many B2C services since 28. Juni 2025. A relaunch is the most cost-effective time to implement WCAG 2.2 AA from the ground up rather than make fixes afterwards.

How do I prepare my website for AI search?+

Clear answers in the opening paragraphs, well-organised topic clusters, structured data for FAQs and articles, visible authorship and semantically correct HTML are the most important measures. We incorporate these signals into every relaunch.

Do I need to change hosting provider when relaunching?+

Not necessarily. However, switching providers can make sense if the current host is slow, insecure or no longer meets the new requirements, such as server-side rendering or high traffic volumes.