Redirecting everything to the homepage
The most damaging shortcut in a relaunch. Google treats a bulk redirect to the homepage as a soft 404 and the page's ranking disappears. Map each URL to its closest real equivalent, or let it 404 honestly.
Decision guide · Updated August 2026
Redesign or rebuild? Six tests that answer it
Most people asking for a rebuild need a redesign, and a smaller number asking for a redesign are about to spend money papering over software that's already failing. The difference is diagnosable in an afternoon.
Diagnosis
Six symptoms, and what each one points to
Find the row that matches your situation. If two or more say rebuild, that's your answer — a redesign will just delay the same spend.
| What's wrong | Verdict | Why |
|---|---|---|
| It looks dated but works fine | Redesign | Visual refresh on the existing structure. Cheapest and lowest-risk option, and more sites need this than need a rebuild. |
| Traffic is fine, enquiries are not | Redesign | A conversion problem, not a technical one. Messaging, page structure and calls to action — not a new codebase. |
| Slow, and optimisation hasn't fixed it | Depends | Try image compression, caching and removing unused plugins first. If speed is still poor afterwards, the platform is the problem. |
| Every change needs a developer and breaks something | Rebuild | Fragile code compounds. You'll pay the cost of a rebuild in change requests within eighteen months anyway. |
| Running on unsupported software | Rebuild | An unmaintained framework or abandoned plugins is a security exposure, not an aesthetic issue. This one isn't optional. |
| The site needs to do something new | Rebuild | Bookings, accounts, payments, dashboards. New capability rarely fits comfortably into a structure built for something else. |
What it costs
Three routes, priced honestly
The middle row covers most businesses. Rebuilds get proposed far more often than they're genuinely needed, usually by whoever would be building it.
| Route | Cost | Timeline | What you're getting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visual refresh | ₹60,000 – ₹2,50,000 | 2 – 4 weeks | New look, same structure and platform. Very low SEO risk because URLs don't move. |
| Full redesign | ₹2,00,000 – ₹8,00,000 | 4 – 10 weeks | New design and page structure on the existing platform. Moderate SEO risk — plan redirects. |
| Rebuild | ₹4,00,000 – ₹20,00,000 | 8 – 20 weeks | New platform, new code, usually new design. Highest SEO risk and the reason the checklist below exists. |
Planning ranges from Indian market pricing. The rebuild figure varies most because it depends entirely on how much functionality the site carries — a brochure site rebuild sits near the bottom of that range, one with accounts and payments near the top.
Protect your rankings
Six steps that keep a relaunch from costing you traffic
Do these in order. Steps one and two must happen before anyone touches the current site — after that, it's too late to capture what you need.
- 1
Export every current URL before you touch anything
Crawl the live site and save the full URL list with its titles and meta descriptions. You cannot build a redirect map from a site that no longer exists, and people discover this at exactly the wrong moment.
- 2
Record which pages actually earn traffic
Pull your top 50 pages by organic traffic from Search Console. These are the pages a relaunch must not damage. Everything else is negotiable; these are not.
- 3
Map old URLs to new ones, one to one
Every changed URL needs a 301 to its closest equivalent. Not to the homepage — that's treated as a soft 404 and loses the ranking entirely. If a page has no equivalent, that's a decision to make deliberately.
- 4
Keep the content on your best pages
The most common way a redesign destroys traffic is cutting word count on pages that ranked because of that content. Redesign the presentation, not the substance, on anything already performing.
- 5
Test redirects on staging before launch
Run your full old-URL list against staging and confirm each one lands where it should. An hour of work that prevents the single most expensive relaunch mistake.
- 6
Resubmit and watch for four weeks
Submit the new sitemap in Search Console on launch day, then check coverage and rankings weekly. Some fluctuation for two to three weeks is normal. A decline still deepening at week four is not.
Common mistakes
Four ways relaunches go wrong
Every one of these is avoidable, and we've watched each one cost a business months of traffic.
Cutting content from pages that rank
Designers reduce word count for visual balance, and traffic falls the following month. Before removing anything, check whether that page brings organic visits — if it does, keep the substance and redesign around it.
Launching without a rollback plan
Keep the old site available on a staging URL for at least a month. When something is badly wrong on day two, being able to restore in an hour is worth a great deal.
Relaunching with no measurement in place
If analytics and Search Console aren't recording before the switch, you have no baseline and no way to know whether the relaunch helped or hurt. Set this up weeks before launch, not after.
Questions
What people ask before relaunching
Not covered here? Ask us directly — we answer scoping questions without putting you into a sales sequence.
What is the difference between a website redesign and a rebuild?
A redesign changes how the site looks and how content is arranged, keeping the existing platform and codebase. A rebuild replaces the underlying technology — new code, usually a new platform, often a new structure. Redesigns cost ₹60,000 to ₹8,00,000 and take two to ten weeks; rebuilds cost ₹4,00,000 to ₹20,00,000 and take eight to twenty weeks.
How do I know if I need a redesign or a rebuild?
Ask what's actually wrong. If the site looks dated but functions properly, or gets traffic without producing enquiries, that's a redesign — the problem is presentation and messaging. If every change requires a developer and breaks something else, the software is unsupported, or the site needs new capability like bookings or accounts, that's a rebuild.
Will a website redesign hurt my SEO?
It can, and the damage is almost always self-inflicted rather than inevitable. The two common causes are changing URLs without one-to-one 301 redirects, and cutting content from pages that were ranking because of that content. Export your full URL list and your top 50 organic pages before starting, and both risks become manageable.
How much does a website redesign cost in India?
A visual refresh keeping the existing structure costs ₹60,000 to ₹2,50,000 over two to four weeks. A full redesign with new page structure costs ₹2,00,000 to ₹8,00,000 over four to ten weeks. A complete rebuild on a new platform costs ₹4,00,000 to ₹20,00,000 over eight to twenty weeks, depending on how much functionality it carries.
How long does traffic take to recover after a relaunch?
With redirects done properly, expect two to three weeks of fluctuation before rankings settle, and often a net improvement if speed and structure improved. If traffic is still falling at week four, something is wrong — usually missing redirects or removed content — and it needs investigating rather than waiting out.
Should I redesign or fix my site's speed first?
Fix speed first, then decide. Most slow websites are slow because of unoptimised images, excessive plugins and poor caching rather than the platform itself, and those are cheap to fix. Once speed is addressed, you'll know whether the remaining problems are cosmetic, structural or technical — and that answers the redesign-versus-rebuild question properly.
Get a straight answer before you spend
Send us your URL. We'll tell you whether it's a redesign, a rebuild, or a speed problem you can fix for a fraction of either — and we'll say so plainly when a rebuild isn't warranted.
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