I lost my search traffic after a redesign
A traffic drop after a launch is almost never a penalty. It is a continuity problem: search engines knew a set of addresses, they ask for them again, and the new site no longer answers the same thing. As long as the fix comes within the following weeks, recovery is usually possible.
Five causes to rule out, most frequent first
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The site is still closed to robots
A staging site is built deliberately blocked from indexing. If the block ships to production with the rest of the files, the site disappears within days. The most frequent cause, and the quickest to fix.
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Old addresses are not redirected
A redesign changes the address structure. Without a permanent redirect from each old address to its equivalent, everything that was indexed returns a not-found page, and the accumulated value is not passed on.
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Content was shortened
A visual redesign often replaces detailed descriptions with imagery. Pages then lose the substance they ranked on, without anyone feeling they deleted anything.
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Title tags were regenerated automatically
Many redesigns rewrite titles and descriptions from a single template, overwriting tags written one by one over years.
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The site is slower or less stable than before
A heavier theme, extra scripts, unchanged hosting: the new site can be objectively less performant than the old one.
How to check with no paid tool
Three checks are enough to frame the situation. First the file telling robots what they may crawl: open it directly in a browser at the site root. Then the indexing tags in the page code: a directive forbidding indexing is often left behind in the template. Finally the behaviour of old addresses: take ten addresses that received traffic before the redesign and open them. If they return a not-found page, the cause is found.
Google’s search console then gives the exact measurement: pages indexed, pages excluded and the reason for exclusion. It is the only place where you can tell an uncrawled page from a page crawled then set aside, and that distinction completely changes the fix required.
What can be recovered and what cannot
- An indexing block lifted quickly: recovery is generally complete.
- Redirects put in place late: value still transfers, but the traffic missed in between is gone.
- Deleted content: it has to be rewritten, it does not come back on its own.
- A redesign that changed domain with no redirects and no declaration: the longest case to make up.
I never promise a return to a stated figure. What I can do is restore technical continuity, and give the site back the conditions that let it be found.
Carry on with the right page
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Migrating without losing search visibility
The full method, for use before a redesign as much as after.
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Keeping search visibility on PrestaShop
Friendly URLs and category addresses during a migration.
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404 errors after migration on WordPress
If old addresses return a not-found page on the WordPress side.
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The 301 redirect
Why the type of redirect chosen changes what gets passed on.
Describe your need in one minute
A few targeted questions so I can reply with an estimate rather than another questionnaire.