Will my Google rankings drop after a redesign?

Google says to expect temporary fluctuation while it processes a site move. Mapping every old URL to a relevant new one with permanent redirects is how you avoid a lasting loss. No one can promise rankings either way.

Can you keep my existing content?

Yes, where it works. We carry over what is accurate and useful, rewrite what is not, and never invent anything to fill a page.

Do I have to change my domain?

No. Most redesigns keep the domain. If you are changing it, the same redirect discipline applies, and it matters even more.

How long do the redirects need to stay?

Google's guidance is generally at least a year, and longer is better for anyone following an old link. We leave them in place.

Website redesign in Malta

Website redesign, without losing what works.

A redesign should make a site better at its job, not just newer. made.mt redesigns websites for businesses in Malta and Gozo from a blank page, and protects what the old site has already earned: the pages Google knows, the links that point at them and the searches they appear for.

Why redesigns lose traffic

The most common way a redesign hurts a business is invisible on launch day. Pages move to new addresses, the old addresses stop working, and the visitors and search rankings attached to them drain away over the following weeks. The new site looks better and brings in fewer people.

Google documents how to avoid this in its guidance on site moves: map every old URL to its new home, use permanent server-side redirects, avoid chains of redirects, do not send everything to the homepage, keep the redirects in place for at least a year, and submit the new sitemap. It also says to expect some fluctuation while Google catches up. We follow that guidance on every redesign.

How we redesign

Inventory: every page of the current site, and which ones people and Google actually use.
Brief: what the site gets wrong today and what it has to do better.
Design from a blank page, seen on your phone before we build.
Content carried over where it works, rewritten where it does not, never invented.
A redirect map from every old URL to the most relevant new page.
Titles and descriptions that already work kept, or improved deliberately.
Launch with the new sitemap submitted and Search Console watching for errors.

Bring search in at the start

Google's own advice to anyone hiring for search is that the best time is when you are considering a redesign, and the earlier the better. That is because the decisions that matter most for search, the page structure and the URLs, are made in the first weeks of a redesign. At made.mt SEO is part of every project from the first wireframe, so there is no separate SEO stage to schedule.

When a redesign is not the answer

Sometimes a site needs new content, faster images or a better enquiry form, not a new design. If that is what we find, we will tell you. A redesign is a big job and it should be done for a reason you can name.

After launch

We watch the new site in Search Console after launch for crawl errors and pages that did not redirect, and fix them. If you want, we look after the site every month afterwards: hosting, changes and updates.