Does a Website Redesign Hurt SEO?
When handled correctly, a website redesign should not result in ranking losses. A proper SEO-safe redesign includes mapping all existing URLs, preserving metadata, implementing 301 redirects, and following established best practices for rebranding or domain changes.
Problems arise when a redesign is mishandled. Removing pages, changing URLs without redirects, or accidentally blocking search engine indexing can cause significant ranking and traffic losses that may take months—or even years—to recover.
Example: If a business launches a new site on a different domain without redirecting the old URLs, Google treats the site as entirely new. Existing rankings disappear and organic traffic drops sharply. Proper URL mapping and redirects prevent this by transferring search authority to the new pages.


