How a Company Lost 10 Years of Work in a Few Days (And How Your Redesign Can Avoid It)
A long-established company practically disappeared from Google after its website was redesigned. Not because of competitors or a Google update. Because of mistakes that happen in redesigns far more often than most people think.
A few days ago, a long-time client called us.
A company that has been on the Slovenian market for decades. A recognised brand. A serious business.
The question was simple:
"Can you check what's going on? We're not on Google anymore."
Not on the first page. Not on the second page. This wasn't a slightly lower ranking. They had practically vanished from Google.
How it happened
Years ago we built their website. Later we redesigned it. Then we added more features. The system ran stably, with no problems.
Planning a redesign or a move? Get the free check on the current site first, a short report by email in a few minutes, so you know what it does well before anything changes. If the rankings have already gone, Store Rescue is how we bring a store back.
Some time ago they decided on another redesign. That in itself isn't a problem.
The problem starts when a website is treated as a graphic design project.
Google doesn't judge beauty. Google judges structure, content, links, speed, accessibility and hundreds of other signals.
Forget about SEO during a redesign, and a company can lose in a single day what it took a decade to build.
Your website is not a cost. It's a salesperson.
The biggest misconception is that a website is just an expense.
For many companies, the website is a salesperson that works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Switch that salesperson off and you won't feel it right away. By the time you notice, the damage is usually already done.
The question we ask before every redesign
We never start with "What will the new look be?"
We start with:
"What in the current site works, and how do we make sure we don't destroy it?"
In practice, that means checking these before anything goes live:
- Every old address still leads somewhere. Pages that moved get a permanent redirect to their new address, so Google and your visitors don't land on "page not found".
- The content that ranks stays. Texts, headings and product descriptions that bring visitors are carried over, not replaced with shorter "cleaner" copy.
- Titles and descriptions are kept. Every page keeps its title and meta description, or gets a better one.
- Nothing is hidden from Google by accident. The new site is not blocked from search engines, which happens more easily than you'd think when a test site goes live.
- It's at least as fast as before. A beautiful site that loads slower loses visitors and rankings. We measured exactly that on a recent store upgrade; the before and after is on our results page.
- Someone watches Google after launch. Search Console is checked in the days after the switch, so a problem is caught in days, not months.
Bottom line
A good redesign isn't the one that changes everything.
A good redesign is the one where your customers notice the improvements, and Google doesn't notice a disaster.
Planning a redesign? Talk to us first.
Before you switch to a new website, we'll check what your current one is doing right, so you keep your rankings and your customers. If a redesign has already gone wrong and the orders have stopped, our Store Rescue is built for that situation, and there is an emergency service if the site is down altogether.