Who this is for

Founders or marketing leads planning a website rebuild in the next 6 months. Use this before you start, not during.

Pre-decision (the most important section)

• Document the actual business problem the new site is solving. "It looks dated" is not a business problem.

• Define success metrics BEFORE the build: lead volume, conversion rate, time on site, organic traffic, etc.

• Audit current site: top traffic pages, top converting pages, organic keyword positions, backlink profile.

• Identify pages with traffic + low conversion (those need rebuild) vs pages with traffic + good conversion (do not touch).

• Get realistic cost via the Website Cost Calculator before getting agency quotes.

Strategy + content

• Sitemap planned BEFORE design.

• Page-by-page goals + primary keyword target + CTA.

• Copywriting scoped separately (this is what kills most projects).

• Brand voice + positioning locked before copy starts.

Design + UX

• Mobile-first wireframes.

• Above-the-fold conversion path on every page.

• One primary CTA per page, plus secondary.

• Accessibility (AODA / WCAG-AA) audit planned.

• Forms scoped: short forms, clear required fields, success states.

Build + dev

• Platform decision documented and locked.

• CMS workflow: who edits what, how often.

• Performance budget: page load under 2s on mobile.

• Core Web Vitals targets defined.

• Image optimization pipeline.

SEO migration (the silent killer)

• 301 redirect map: every old URL → new URL.

• Title, meta, H1 preserved or improved on every page.

• Canonical tags set correctly.

• Schema markup ported and improved.

• XML sitemap regenerated.

• Robots.txt verified.

• Search Console: submit new sitemap day one.

Launch QA

• Mobile QA on iOS + Android.

• Form submissions tested end-to-end (and going to the right inbox/CRM).

• Analytics events firing: page view, form submit, CTA click.

• GA4 + GSC confirmed receiving data on new site.

• Privacy policy + cookie banner updated if functionality changed.

• Backup of old site captured before DNS cutover.

Post-launch (often ignored)

• Day 1: spot-check live URLs for 200s + redirects.

• Day 7: GSC coverage report — any 404s, indexing issues?

• Day 30: traffic comparison vs same period prior.

• Day 60: conversion rate review.

• Day 90: SEO position recovery check.

Talkerstein recommendation

Most rebuilds lose 20–40% of organic traffic in the first 90 days because of missed redirects, lost schema, or stripped content. Do the SEO migration block FIRST and budget 15–25% of build cost for post-launch optimization.

Related

• Website Cost Calculator Canada

• Website Migration Checklist (SEO equity preservation)

• Talkerstein Website Rebuilds service

Plan your website rebuild

15 minutes. We pull your current site, your traffic, and your business goals — and tell you whether a rebuild is the right move and what it should actually contain. Book →