**Keep your existing URLs and valuable content wherever possible, and test the new site before launch.** You can reduce the risk substantially, but nobody can guarantee unchanged rankings; Google warns that significant changes can cause temporary fluctuations. [Google’s migration guidance](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes)

Use this checklist:

1. **Record what’s working.** Save your top landing pages, search queries, clicks and conversions from Search Console and analytics. Use these as your baseline after launch.
2. **Preserve your strongest pages.** Keep useful content, descriptive titles, headings and internal links. Avoid deleting pages that attract search traffic just to simplify the design.
3. **Redirect any changed URLs individually.** Use permanent server-side **301 or 308 redirects** to the closest matching replacement. Avoid sending everything to the homepage or creating redirect chains. Keep redirects for at least a year.
4. **Check Google can access the finished site.** Remove staging-only `noindex` tags and crawl blocks at launch. Check canonical tags—the preferred URL for each page—update internal links and submit an updated sitemap. Test important pages using Search Console’s URL Inspection tool.
5. **Keep the mobile version complete.** Google uses mobile content for indexing and ranking. Don’t remove important text, images or links from mobile layouts; expandable sections can help preserve content while keeping the design tidy. [Google’s mobile guidance](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/mobile/mobile-sites-mobile-first-indexing?swcfpc=1)
6. **Protect speed and usability.** Test loading, responsiveness and layout stability. Large images, videos and animations can make a redesign slower. Good Core Web Vitals support search performance, but don’t guarantee rankings. [Google’s page-experience guidance](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/page-experience?roistat_visit=2540962)
7. **Monitor after launch.** Watch search clicks, indexing and broken pages, especially for your previous top performers. Investigate drops promptly.

If you’re also changing the domain or CMS, separate major changes where practical so problems are easier to diagnose. Items 1–4 and 7 follow [Google’s migration checklist](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes).

## SOURCES:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/site-move-with-url-changes
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/mobile/mobile-sites-mobile-first-indexing?swcfpc=1
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/page-experience?roistat_visit=2540962