Answer · Website Redesign
What Happens to My Existing Traffic During the Redesign?
The short answer
Your existing site stays live throughout the redesign. We build the new site on staging in parallel. The traffic experience doesn’t change until launch day. Post-launch, traffic flows to the new site via 301 redirects with a 2-3 spot dip for 1-2 weeks during reindexing.
№ 01The longer answer
Traffic flow during the build: zero impact. Your live site continues serving visitors normally. We work on staging (a separate environment that mirrors production). Visitors never see the staging URL. Analytics continues collecting baseline data on the live site, which we’ll need for post-launch comparison.
Traffic flow at launch: DNS swap or hosting cutover happens during a planned launch window (typically 1-2 hours, Tuesday or Wednesday morning). During the swap, visitors experience either the old site or the new site — no broken state. Some visitors may see the old site for an extra 1-4 hours during DNS propagation; this is normal and doesn’t cause issues.
Traffic flow post-launch: every old URL redirects to its new destination via 301. Visitors who bookmark old URLs land on the right new pages. Google reindexes via the 301 chain, which takes 1-2 weeks. During reindexing, primary keyword rankings dip 2-3 spots, then recover.
Conversion impact post-launch: the dip in rankings is real but minor. Total lead volume during the 1-2 week reindexing window typically drops 10-15% vs baseline, then recovers and surpasses by week 4. Across 200+ builds, we’ve never had a project where the launch-window dip didn’t fully recover.
№ 02Will my paid ads still work?
Yes, with one prep step. Make sure your ad destination URLs are in the 301 map. If they aren’t, the ads land on 404 pages and Quality Score drops. We catch this in the pre-launch checklist.
№ 03Can I see the new site before it goes live?
Yes — the staging URL is shared at Day 11 demo. You can review every page, fill out every form, and click every CTA before launch. Two revision rounds available.
№ 04What if traffic drops more than expected?
Within 48 hours of detecting a larger-than-2-3-spot drop, we audit free of charge. Usual culprit: a missed 301, a schema regression, or a robots.txt change. Most issues are fixable in 24-48 hours.
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