What is the most common mistake during a relaunch?

Missing 301 redirects. When URLs change without old addresses being forwarded, rankings and backlinks are lost and visitors land on 404 pages.

How long should a relaunch be monitored after go-live?

At least two weeks closely. That window reveals crawl errors, traffic drops and performance problems most clearly.

When is external support worth it for a relaunch?

Whenever a domain change, large URL restructuring or GDPR-relevant integrations are involved. Systematic planning prevents costly errors here.

Ten Checks for a Website Relaunch Without Losses

A relaunch carries both opportunity and risk. These ten checks prevent the most common mistakes and keep the go-live calm and controlled.

Published on August 26, 2025Updated on December 1, 20253 min read

A relaunch is both opportunity and risk

A website relaunch resembles a move into a new office. Everything is meant to improve. But if half the files go missing during the move, a real problem emerges. With the right preparation, the typical mistakes can be avoided, and that is exactly where this checklist comes in. It follows our guiding idea of going one step further, turning plain execution into a controlled transition.

The ten checks

1. Set up 301 redirects

The single most common relaunch mistake. When URLs change, and they almost always do, old URLs must redirect to the new ones via 301. Otherwise three concrete consequences follow.

The Google rankings of the old pages are lost.
Visitors hit 404 errors.
Backlinks lead nowhere.

A complete URL mapping table (old to new) should be in place before go-live.

2. Carry over SEO elements

For every page, the following points belong under review.

Title tags, optimised and unique
Meta descriptions, concise and with relevant keywords
H1 structure with exactly one H1 per page
Alt text for all images
Intact internal linking

3. Update Google Search Console

Several tasks come up after the relaunch.

Submit the new sitemap
Run URL inspection for important pages
Monitor indexing status
Trigger a property move in case of a domain change

4. Measure load times

We test with Google PageSpeed Insights and WebPageTest and orient ourselves around the Core Web Vitals.

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) under 2.5 seconds
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) under 0.1
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) under 200 milliseconds

5. Check the mobile view

Tests belong on real devices, not only in browser DevTools.

iPhone (Safari) and Android (Chrome)
Different screen sizes
Landscape and portrait
Sufficiently large touch targets

6. Test forms and functions

It sounds obvious and is still forgotten often.

Contact forms, do the emails arrive?
Newsletter sign-up, does the integration work?
Cookie consent, are settings stored?
Web analytics, is data being recorded?

A relaunch is the right moment for a data protection check.

Cookie consent banner correctly implemented
Privacy policy up to date
Legal notice complete
No external resources loaded without consent
Contact forms with a consent notice

8. Check accessibility

At least the fundamentals need to hold.

Sufficient contrast ratios (WCAG AA)
Alt text for all images
Keyboard navigation possible
Forms labelled correctly

9. Back up the old site

Before go-live, a full backup of the old website is essential.

All files and media
Database, where present
Analytics data exported
Content inventory documented

10. Monitor after launch

The work does not end at go-live. The first two weeks call for close observation. This is the point where execution turns into going further in operation.

Search Console for crawl errors
Analytics for traffic drops
Server logs for 404 errors
Core Web Vitals for performance problems
Rankings of the most important keywords

The most common relaunch mistakes at a glance

Mistake	Consequence
No redirects	30 to 80 percent traffic loss
Robots.txt blocks Google	Site disappears from the index
Staging domain stays reachable	Duplicate content
HTTP instead of HTTPS	Security warning in the browser
Forgotten analytics code	No data for weeks

Conclusion

A relaunch without a checklist stays a gamble. With systematic preparation it becomes the chance to make everything better without losing anything. That is exactly how we at Plaximo understand the ambition of going one step further.

Planning a relaunch? Plaximo guides the way from planning to go-live, so nothing gets lost.