Planning a website relaunch in five steps

A website relaunch is above all a migration project. Without a plan for goals, content and redirects, you lose visibility and enquiries.

Rising bounce rates, outdated technology or content that no longer matches what you offer are typical reasons for a relaunch. Alongside design and navigation, technology, content and search engine optimisation all come under scrutiny. This guide shows how to plan a relaunch step by step and which mistakes to avoid.

Relaunch or redesign

A redesign mainly renews the visual design. Structure, content and technology largely stay as they are. A relaunch goes further: it also reworks the information architecture, the content and often the content management system. This makes it more complex, but offers the chance to solve structural problems.

What a relaunch costs

Costs cannot be quoted as a flat figure. They depend mainly on four factors:

• the goals of the relaunch

• the chosen CMS and whether a system change is required

• the state of the existing technology

• the scope of pages, content and features

Announcing the relaunch

Announce the relaunch in advance so that existing customers can place the new website straight away. Give a date and use newsletters and social networks such as LinkedIn. That way your customers know what to expect.

Five steps to a relaunch

The goal of a relaunch is clearer navigation that leads to more reach and more enquiries. The following five steps form the roadmap.

1. Measure the starting point

Before the relaunch, record the key metrics of your website:

• visitor numbers and traffic sources

• bounce rate and time on page

• enquiries, sign-ups and conversions

• load times and Core Web Vitals

• rankings of the most important pages

These values are the benchmark for success. They show where improvements will have the greatest impact.

Also analyse your strongest competitors. What content do they offer, how do they guide visitors, what are they missing? Copying is not the goal. The gaps in their offering show you where you can stand out.

2. Set goals

Derive specific goals from the analysis, for example more reach, more leads, better visibility or a new positioning. Two rules apply.

The goals must be realistic. A regional business will hardly beat large platforms on generic search terms.

The goals need an order of priority. Not everything can be achieved at once. Start with the shortcomings that triggered the relaunch.

3. Evaluate visitor behaviour

Web analytics shows where visitors come from, where they click and where they drop off. With tools such as Google Analytics 4 you can see how well the main pages lead to enquiries. In the EU, tracking requires consent, so this belongs in the plan.

Add direct feedback to the numbers. Customers quickly notice when prices or product details are missing. Chat, phone and email are good channels for this. Every reported shortcoming is a pointer for the new plan.

4. Create the plan

The plan covers structure, design and search engine optimisation.

Plan the structure

New visitors only find their way around if the structure is clear. List all existing and planned pages and check their value for visitors and the brand. Group them into topics and link related pages to one another.

Define which goal each page contributes to. Add clearly visible calls to action that lead to the next step. Revise or remove pages that serve no purpose. A blog or knowledge section can answer questions that FAQs and service pages cannot cover.

Create a design guide

A relaunch is the right time to revise the style guide. It defines colours, typefaces and spacing. It also describes audiences and the intended effect of the brand.

The design must work on all devices and guide visitors clearly. Wireframes and clickable prototypes make decisions visible early, before development begins. Plan accessibility to WCAG from the outset. Since June 2025, it has been mandatory for many online shops and digital services under the European Accessibility Act, implemented in Germany as the BFSG.

Safeguard search engine optimisation

The best structure is of little use if the website cannot be found. The success of a relaunch therefore depends heavily on rankings. These points belong in the plan:

• Research search terms with relevant search volume and compare them with those of your competitors.

• Check that each page meets the search intent of its most important term.

• Apply the patterns of your most successful content to the new content strategy.

• Remove pages that neither help visitors nor generate enquiries.

• Set up a 301 redirect from every old URL to the matching new page. This preserves rankings and backlinks.

• Build backlinks through specialist portals, industry networks and partnerships.

5. Testing before launch

Test new designs and structures during development, ideally with A/B tests against the recorded metrics. This way you measure the effect instead of assuming it.

Before launch, check all common devices, screen sizes and browsers. Pay attention to rendering, load times and image quality.

What else to look out for

Review the content

Good content is more than a collection of keywords. Review all existing content: what stays, what is revised, what goes? Many texts are outdated in language, subject matter or technology. And some content is missing altogether.

Fix broken links

Links that lead to a 404 error page interrupt the visit and damage the impression you make. A crawler finds broken links before and after launch. Also check that all redirects work correctly.

Build topic clusters

Group articles on one topic into a cluster. An overview page introduces the topic and links to all related articles. This helps readers and search engines alike. It works particularly well with evergreen content. Extensive clusters can also be offered as an e-book, for example in exchange for a newsletter sign-up.

Conclusion

A relaunch determines visibility, navigation and enquiries for years to come. If it goes wrong, it costs visitors, time, budget and trust. With clear goals, a clean migration and testing before launch, the risk remains manageable.

If you are planning a relaunch, we support you from analysis through to operations. You can request an initial call via our contact form.