Guide · Websites & tracking
Roofing Website Redesign SEO: Before, During and After Launch
Redesigns are where many roofing sites lose visibility. Most losses come from changed URLs without redirects, which is preventable.
By the Lead Engine Sales and Marketing team · Updated
Quick answer
To redesign a roofing website without losing SEO, record a baseline and full URL inventory before anything changes, map every old URL that gets traffic or links to its closest new equivalent, set up permanent redirects, keep important content, check canonicals, noindex tags and internal links on the staging site, then launch, submit the sitemap and monitor Search Console closely for several weeks.
Before
Before: inventory and baseline
- Export every indexed URL (Search Console pages report, a crawl, the old sitemap).
- Record clicks, impressions and top queries per page for a recent period.
- Record leads by page if tracking allows.
- Note which pages have external links pointing to them.
- Save copies of title tags, descriptions and main content of important pages.
During
During: mapping and staging checks
- Map old to new. Each important old URL points to the most relevant new page. Avoid sending everything to the homepage.
- Keep what works. Don't drop service or area content that ranks just because the new design is shorter.
- Check staging. Staging should be blocked from indexing, and that block must be removed at launch.
- Check canonicals and internal links. Canonicals should point to the live new URLs; internal links shouldn't point at redirects or old addresses.
- Preserve tracking. Analytics, call tracking and conversion events carried across.
After
After: launch monitoring
- Test a sample of old URLs to confirm redirects work.
- Remove any staging noindex and confirm robots.txt allows crawling.
- Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.
- Watch indexing and 404 errors weekly for several weeks.
- Compare clicks and leads with the baseline, allowing for seasonality.
If the domain itself changes, follow Google's site move guidance and use the change of address tool where applicable.
Questions
Common questions
Pages with traffic, links or a clear new equivalent should. Truly obsolete pages with no equivalent can return a not-found status.
Some fluctuation is common while Google processes changes. A large, lasting drop usually points to missing redirects or blocked pages.
Sources
Official references
Platform rules change. These are the primary sources this guide relies on; check them for current details.
Related reading
New website or repair? Decide whether your existing site can be improved or genuinely needs rebuilding before SEO work.Choosing a website platform Choose a platform by the SEO capabilities you need, not by a brand name or a 'best platform' list.Rankings dropped Check measurement, seasonality, site changes, migrations, competitors and manual actions before blaming an update.Roofing SEO audit Technical, content and local checks.Choosing a website platform Choose a platform by the SEO capabilities you need, not by a brand name or a 'best platform' list.
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