How to Redesign Your Liverpool Business Website Without Killing Your Google Rankings

Table of Contents

• Why Website Redesigns Tank Your Rankings
• The Pre-Redesign SEO Audit
• Protecting Your URL Structure
• The 301 Redirect Strategy
• Content Preservation Rules
• Technical SEO Checklist
• Local SEO During Redesign
• Post-Launch Monitoring
• What Merseyside Businesses Get Wrong

Why Website Redesigns Tank Your Rankings

You’ve finally decided to give your business website a facelift. The design looks dated, the mobile experience is awful, and you’re ready to start fresh. But here’s the problem: most web designers in Liverpool, Warrington, or anywhere else aren’t thinking about Search Engine Optimisation when they rebuild your site.

They care about aesthetics. You care about phone calls.

When a website redesign goes wrong, the damage is immediate. Your traffic drops by 30%, 50%, sometimes 70% within weeks. Enquiries dry up. You’re paying for a shiny new website that nobody can find on Google.

The worst part? Most business owners don’t realise the damage until it’s too late. By the time you notice your traffic has tanked, you’ve already lost months of ranking power that took years to build.

Here’s what typically kills your rankings during a redesign:

• Deleting old URLs without redirecting them
• Removing content that was already ranking well
• Changing URL structures completely
• Launching with broken internal links
• Forgetting to migrate meta descriptions and title tags
• Losing backlinks because old pages return 404 errors

If you’re running a business in Merseyside: whether you’re in Southport, Chester, Widnes, or anywhere across the region: you cannot afford to lose visibility during a redesign. The good news? Every single one of these mistakes is preventable.

The Pre-Redesign SEO Audit

Before your designer touches a single line of code, you need to know exactly what’s working on your current website. This isn’t optional. It’s the difference between improving your rankings and torching them.

Start by documenting every page that’s sending you traffic. Use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to identify:

• Your top 20 landing pages by organic traffic
• Pages ranking in positions 1-10 for valuable keywords
• Content that’s earning backlinks from other websites
• Blog posts or service pages generating enquiries

For a typical Merseyside business, this might include your homepage, key service pages (like SEO Warrington or SEO Southport), and any blog content that’s built authority over time.

Create a spreadsheet with these columns:

This audit becomes your roadmap. Any page on this list needs special treatment during the redesign. You’re either keeping it exactly as is (with design updates only) or you’re mapping it to a new URL with a proper 301 redirect.

Checkout some of our satisfied SEO clients

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Protecting Your URL Structure

Your URLs carry ranking power. Google has spent months or years understanding what each page is about, tracking how users interact with it, and assigning it authority based on backlinks and engagement signals.

When you change a URL, you’re essentially asking Google to start from scratch. Unless you tell Google where the old page has moved, you lose all that accumulated authority.

The golden rule: keep your URL structure identical wherever possible.

If your current service page lives at yoursite.co.uk/plumbing-services, keep it there. Update the content, improve the design, optimise the page: but don’t change the URL just because your new designer prefers yoursite.co.uk/services/plumbing.

For Liverpool and Merseyside businesses specifically, this matters even more if you’ve built local landing pages. A page targeting SEO Liverpool that’s ranking well shouldn’t suddenly become /services/liverpool-seo unless you have a very good reason and a redirect strategy in place.

When URLs must change, follow this hierarchy:

1. Exact content match: Redirect old URL to the new page covering identical content
2. Relevant alternative: Redirect to the most closely related page if exact match doesn’t exist
3. Category/parent page: Redirect to a broader category page as a last resort
4. Never to homepage: Redirecting everything to your homepage is lazy and damages rankings

According to Search Engine Journal, preserving URL structures during migrations is one of the most critical factors in maintaining organic visibility.

The 301 Redirect Strategy

A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect that tells search engines “this page has moved permanently to this new location.” It passes roughly 90-95% of the ranking power from the old URL to the new one.

Think of it like forwarding your mail when you move house. Without a forwarding address, letters get returned to sender. Without a redirect, visitors and search engines hit a dead end.

Here’s how to implement redirects properly:

Step 1: Export Your Current URL List

Use a crawler like Screaming Frog or your sitemap to get every URL on your current website. You need the complete list: every service page, blog post, category, and location page.

Step 2: Map Old URLs to New URLs

Create a redirect mapping document that pairs every old URL with its new destination:

• Old: /services/seo-services → New: /search-engine-optimisation
• Old: /blog/seo-tips-2024 → New: /blog/seo-tips-2026
• Old: /contact-us → New: /contact

Step 3: Implement in .htaccess or Server Config

For WordPress sites, redirects go in your .htaccess file or through a redirect plugin. For other platforms, work with your developer to implement them at server level.

Step 4: Test Before Launch

Before the new site goes live, test every single redirect. Use a redirect checker tool to verify that old URLs are properly forwarding to new ones without redirect chains (where one redirect leads to another redirect).

What about pages you’re deleting completely?

If you’re removing a page because the content is outdated or irrelevant, you have two options:

1. Redirect to the most relevant alternative page (if the topic is related)
2. Let it 404 (if the content is completely obsolete and you have no relevant alternative)

Never redirect unrelated pages to your homepage just to avoid 404s. Google sees through this, and it damages user experience.

Content Preservation Rules

Your existing content has value: even if it looks dated. Every page Google has indexed, every keyword you’re ranking for, every backlink pointing to your website is tied to that content.

Priority 1: Keep high-performing content intact

If a blog post about “AI SEO Merseyside” is ranking on page one and driving enquiries, don’t delete it or completely rewrite it during the redesign. You can:

• Update statistics and outdated information
• Improve formatting and readability
• Add new sections to make it more comprehensive
• Enhance internal linking

But the core content, keyword targeting, and URL should remain unchanged.

Priority 2: Consolidate thin content

If you have multiple weak pages covering similar topics, the redesign is your opportunity to merge them into one authoritative piece. For example:

• /tips-for-seo (150 words, barely ranking)
• /seo-advice-for-small-business (200 words, no traffic)
• /seo-help-guide (180 words, occasional traffic)

Merge these into one comprehensive guide at /seo-guide-for-small-businesses, then 301 redirect all the old URLs to the new consolidated page.

Priority 3: Update location pages properly

If you’re serving multiple areas like Bootle, Ormskirk, Crosby, or Maghull, your location-specific pages need careful handling. These pages often rank for “[Service] + [Location]” searches, which are high-intent local queries.

Keep the structure. Keep the local content. Just improve the quality and design.

Technical SEO Checklist

Beyond content and URLs, your redesigned website needs to maintain (or improve) technical SEO fundamentals. This is where most web designers in Wirral, Warrington, and beyond drop the ball.

Pre-Launch Technical Requirements:

• Title tags and meta descriptions: Migrate all custom titles and descriptions to the new site. Don’t let them reset to defaults.
• XML sitemap: Generate a new sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console immediately after launch.
• Robots.txt: Ensure it’s not accidentally blocking important pages. Check that staging/development directives are removed.
• Mobile responsiveness: Test on real devices (not just desktop browser tools). Google prioritises mobile-first indexing.
• Page speed: Run Lighthouse or PageSpeed Insights tests. Your new design shouldn’t be slower than the old one.
• Structured data (schema markup): If your old site had schema for local business, reviews, or FAQs, implement it on the new site too.
• Internal linking: Ensure navigation and contextual links match your old structure. Broken internal links damage crawlability.
• HTTPS: If you’re not already on HTTPS, the redesign is the time to migrate. Just ensure proper redirects from HTTP to HTTPS.
• Canonical tags: Prevent duplicate content issues by setting self-referencing canonicals on all pages.

For businesses offering services across Merseyside: from St Helens to Wigan to Crewe: technical SEO isn’t optional. One misconfigured setting can tank your visibility across every location you serve.

Local SEO During Redesign

If you’re relying on local search traffic (and most Merseyside businesses are), your redesign must prioritise local SEO elements.

Google Business Profile Integration

Make sure your new website links prominently to your Google Business Profile. Use schema markup to connect your website to your GBP listing, which helps Google understand your business location and service areas.

NAP Consistency

Your Name, Address, and Phone number (NAP) must remain identical across your website, Google Business Profile, and local directories. If your redesign changes how you display this information, you risk local ranking drops.

Location Pages

If you serve multiple towns or regions, maintain dedicated location pages for each area. A business serving Skelmersdale, Widnes, and Chester should have unique, valuable content for each location: not thin templated pages.

For businesses working with an SEO agency in Liverpool, this is where professional guidance prevents costly mistakes. Local SEO requires nuance that most web designers don’t understand.

Post-Launch Monitoring

The redesign isn’t finished when the new site goes live. The next 30-90 days are critical for identifying and fixing issues before they cause permanent damage.

Week 1: Immediate Checks

• Crawl the entire new site for 404 errors
• Verify all redirects are working correctly
• Check Google Search Console for crawl errors
• Confirm Analytics tracking is properly installed
• Test forms and conversion points

Week 2-4: Traffic Monitoring

• Compare organic traffic week-over-week
• Watch for sudden ranking drops on key terms
• Monitor conversion rates (enquiries, calls, form fills)
• Check for indexing issues in Search Console

Month 2-3: Performance Analysis

• Measure organic traffic against pre-redesign baseline
• Identify any pages that lost significant rankings
• Track keyword position changes for priority terms
• Analyse user behaviour (bounce rate, time on site)

If you notice drops:

• Check for missing redirects or broken links
• Verify content hasn’t been accidentally removed
• Ensure technical SEO elements are properly implemented
• Look for indexing issues in Google Search Console

Most ranking drops after a redesign are fixable if you catch them quickly. Wait three months and the damage may be irreversible.

What Merseyside Businesses Get Wrong

After working with businesses across Liverpool, Wirral, Chester, Warrington, Southport, and beyond, these are the most common website redesign mistakes we see:

1. Trusting the designer to “handle SEO”

Most web designers understand visual design, not search engine optimisation. They’ll make your site beautiful but destroy your rankings in the process. Help with SEO should come from an SEO specialist, not a graphic designer.

2. Launching without redirect mapping

“We’ll sort the redirects after launch” is a disaster waiting to happen. By the time you “sort” them, Google has already deindexed your old pages and traffic is gone.

3. Changing everything at once

New brand, new URLs, new content, new hosting, new domain: all launched simultaneously. When rankings tank, you have no idea which change caused the problem.

4. Ignoring content that “looks old”

That blog post from 2019 might look dated, but if it’s ranking #2 for “Website SEO Audit Liverpool” and driving qualified leads, keep it. Update it if needed, but don’t delete it.

5. Not testing before launch

Launching a redesigned website without thorough testing is like opening a new restaurant without tasting the food. You’ll find out there’s a problem when customers complain.

6. No post-launch monitoring plan

If you’re not watching your traffic, rankings, and conversions after launch, you won’t notice problems until they’ve cost you months of business.

3 Steps to SEO success

1. Contact us for a free, deep-dive SEO audit where we look at exactly what’s holding your site back.
2. We present our findings and get to work fixing the technical issues and optimising your content.
3. Your business gets found on Google, climbs the rankings, and starts generating more local leads.

Get Expert Help With Your Website Redesign

If you’re planning a website redesign for your Merseyside business and don’t want to gamble with your Google rankings, we can help. At Mersey SEO, we specialise in protecting (and improving) search performance during website migrations.

Our approach is simple: data-driven strategies with no long-term contracts. You get live reporting through Google Analytics and Search Console so you can see exactly how your organic traffic performs throughout the redesign process.

Whether you’re in Liverpool, Wirral, Chester, Warrington, Southport, Bootle, Ormskirk, Widnes, St Helens, Wigan, Crosby, Maghull, Skelmersdale, or Crewe, we’ve helped businesses across the region navigate redesigns without losing visibility.

If you’re planning a redesign and want to protect your rankings from day one, we can support the migration properly and keep performance visible with live reporting (Google Analytics and Search Console) and no contracts. The simplest way to start is to use Contact Mersey SEO or email info@merseyseo.co.uk, and if you’d rather talk it through, call 0151 402 0925 and we’ll point you in the right direction. If you want a related read before you brief your designer, take a look at Google zero-click searches Liverpool to understand how click behaviour is changing and why protecting visibility matters during a rebuild. You can also follow us on Mersey SEO on Facebook, Mersey SEO on X (Twitter), and Mersey SEO on Instagram for more updates.