A page can look dated and still help customers find your business. Before you delete it during a website redesign, check which searches bring people there and what happens after they arrive.
I would want to see that evidence before deciding the page has no place on the new site. An old layout needs design work. Useful content deserves a separate decision.
For business owners planning a website redesign, this means reviewing search traffic, inquiries and existing page addresses before approving a shorter page list. You can replace the layout, improve the mobile experience and update the information without discarding the parts that answer customers’ questions.
Find the pages people already discover through Google
Start with Google Search Console. Its Search results performance report shows clicks, impressions and the searches associated with your website. Clicks represent visits from Google results. Impressions record appearances in those results.
For a first review, I recommend the last 90 days. Then examine a longer period, ideally a full year when available, so a quiet month does not decide the fate of a seasonal service page.
- Open the Search results report and select your date range.
- Choose the Pages tab and sort by clicks.
- Select a page to filter the report, then open Queries to examine its searches.
- Export the results and record the date range alongside them.
Look beyond the homepage. A service explanation, pricing guide or older project page may answer a specific question that your homepage barely mentions. Separate searches for your company name from searches for a service. They tell you different things about how people discover you.
Keep the evidence tied to each page. A sitewide traffic total will not tell your designer which paragraph, service detail or project example needs closer review.
Check whether those visits lead to useful inquiries
Search traffic is one part of the decision. You also need to know whether a page helps someone request an estimate, book a service or buy a product.
In Google Analytics 4, or GA4, the Landing page report shows where visits begin. Add Session source / medium to distinguish search visits from other sources. Review relevant key events, which are actions you have marked as important, alongside those landing pages.
Check the tracking before trusting the numbers. A click on a phone number is not proof of a completed call. A form event is not proof of a qualified lead. Compare recorded actions with actual messages, bookings and sales records where the connection is available.
Consider a hypothetical Tampa contractor. An older repair page receives 60 search visits and produces four suitable estimate requests in a month. A general advice article receives 600 visits but no identifiable inquiries. I would protect the repair page’s useful information first, then investigate the article’s audience and purpose.
Those figures are an illustration, not an IMS client result. The point is to judge pages against the work you want to sell, rather than rank them by traffic alone.
Give every existing page a decision
Create a page inventory before the redesign starts. Record each address, page purpose, search clicks, relevant queries, tracked inquiries, known links from other sites and proposed action.
I recommend four decisions:
- Keep: The page serves a current need and its content remains accurate.
- Improve: The subject belongs on the site, but the design, wording or inquiry process needs work.
- Merge: Two pages answer substantially the same need. Combine their useful material into one clear replacement.
- Remove: The content has no continuing purpose and no suitable replacement.
A low-traffic page is not automatically a removal candidate. It may support an important service, answer a question during a sales conversation or receive referrals that search reports do not describe. Review those roles before cutting it.
Also check whether the page has enough history to judge. A recently published service page and an abandoned promotion from several years ago need different treatment.
This is the stage to involve your search engine optimization (SEO) specialist. Ask for a page-by-page recommendation with a reason for each removal. A shorter menu does not require deleting every page that moves out of the main navigation.
Improve the presentation without losing the answer
Imagine an older roofing page that explains repair options, inspection steps and the difference between repairing a leak and replacing a roof. Its photographs are small, the paragraphs are crowded and the contact form is hard to find.
The redesign can solve those problems. Give the photographs more room, break up dense paragraphs, update the service details and place the estimate request where readers can find it. Keep the information that helps them decide whether to contact the roofer.
Compare the old and new versions side by side. Check that specific answers have survived the rewrite. Replacing a detailed explanation with a slogan such as “Quality you can trust” removes information rather than improving it.
Keep an existing page address when there is no practical reason to change it. A new color palette, navigation layout or WordPress theme does not require a new address for every service.
Ask your website designer to separate presentation changes from content and address changes in the project brief. That makes it easier to review what will stay, what will improve and what will move.
Map changed addresses to relevant replacements
When an address must change, list the old URL and its replacement before launch. A URL is a page’s web address. For a permanent move, Google recommends a server-side permanent redirect, such as a 301 or 308. It sends visitors and search engines to the new location.
These are example paths, not pages on the IMS website:
| Existing address | Decision | Destination or response |
|---|---|---|
/roof-repair/ |
Keep the address | Redesign the existing page |
/services/leak-fixes/ |
Move or merge | /roof-repair/, if it covers the same service |
/commercial-roofing-old/ |
Move | /commercial-roofing/ |
/expired-giveaway/ |
Remove with no replacement | A genuine 404 or 410 response |
Do not send every deleted page to the homepage. Someone following a roof-repair link expects roof-repair information. Google’s site migration guidance warns that unrelated redirects can confuse visitors and may be treated as soft 404 errors, meaning Google treats the destination as an error despite the redirect.
Several old pages can point to one replacement when that replacement genuinely combines their content. That is different from directing unrelated services to a general homepage.
For content you have deliberately removed without a replacement, return an appropriate 404 or 410 status. A useful error page can still offer navigation and contact details. It should not pretend the missing page exists.
Keep the mapping in a shared project document. Add columns for who implemented each change and who tested it.
Test the old addresses before launch and after it
Have your developer test the redirect rules in a staging environment before launch, then repeat the checks on the public domain. Do not assume that a successful test on a temporary address proves the live configuration works.
For each mapped address, check that it reaches the intended replacement directly, without a loop or an unnecessary sequence of redirects. Confirm that the destination returns a 200 success response and displays the expected content.
Update navigation, page links and the sitemap to the final addresses. Google recommends retaining redirects for at least a year, and longer where old links still serve visitors. These steps belong in the migration and redirect plan.
Inspect the live site’s indexing controls too. A noindex instruction tells Google not to include a page in search results. Check that development-only exclusions have not carried over to public pages that should appear in search.
Finally, submit the contact form, test the phone link and complete a test booking or purchase where relevant. Confirm that the message reaches the business and the intended tracking event records. A page that loads correctly can still have a broken inquiry process.
Review results against the baseline you saved
Record the launch date. I recommend checking technical problems immediately, reviewing inquiries during the first week and comparing page-level search performance weekly during the first month.
Use equivalent date ranges and account for seasonal demand. Where a page moved, assess the old and new addresses together. A decline at the retired address alone does not tell you whether the replacement is working.
Google notes that rankings can fluctuate during a migration as it processes the changes. A redirect plan reduces avoidable mistakes, but it does not guarantee unchanged traffic or rankings.
If an important page loses visits, check its replacement, content, indexing controls and tracking before rewriting it again. Keep a record of each correction so you can distinguish a technical fault from a change in demand.
For a redesign of your business website, contact Innovative Marketing Solutions with your current website address and the services you want the new site to support. Ask to include a page audit, content decisions, redirect mapping and launch checks in the written scope.
