Sample Scenario: Website Redesign and SEO Recovery
A professional services firm launches a beautiful new website — and loses 60% of its organic traffic in six weeks. Here is how a forensic recovery engagement rebuilds what the redesign broke.
The prettiest site their customers could no longer find
The redesign changed every URL without redirects, dropped 40+ ranking pages as “outdated,” and shipped templates that were slow and thin. Google responded predictably: rankings collapsed, leads followed, and nobody on the project could explain why.
This is the most preventable disaster in SEO — and one of the most common engagements we run.
Where things stood
- ! Organic traffic down roughly 60% in six weeks
- ! Every URL changed with no redirect map
- ! Dozens of ranking pages deleted in the redesign
- ! New templates slower than the old site
Forensics first, then methodical repair
Recovery is not magic — it is reconstruction. The plan: diff the old site against the new to find every lost URL and page, rebuild the redirect map, restore the content that earned rankings, fix template speed, then resume forward SEO once the bleeding stopped.
- Crawl archive vs. live-site diff of every URL
- Complete redirect map, old structure to new
- Restoration of deleted ranking content
- Template speed and Core Web Vitals repair
- Ongoing SEO once recovery stabilized
Nine months from triage to new highs
Recovery
- 300+ redirects mapped and implemented
- 45 ranking pages restored or rebuilt with intent intact
- Schema and internal linking reinstated
- Search Console errors worked to zero
Rebuild & growth
- Template speed overhaul to green Core Web Vitals
- Content refreshed around current search intent
- New service pages targeting unclaimed keywords
- Monthly recovery reporting against the pre-redesign baseline
What success looks like in this scenario
Illustrative metrics shown to demonstrate the reporting format — these will be replaced with verified client results.
What this scenario teaches
Redesigns need SEO supervision
Every redesign is a migration. Treat it like one, or pay for it in traffic.
Redirects are not optional
A complete redirect map is the cheapest insurance in digital marketing — and the most skipped.
Recovery is methodical, not magic
Diff, map, restore, repair — the discipline is boring and it works.
Lost traffic after a redesign or migration?
Request a free recovery audit. We will diagnose exactly what broke — and give you the honest timeline to get it back.