Planning a Website Relaunch: The arocom Guide

A relaunch makes sense when:

The technology is outdated and an upgrade (e.g. Drupal 7 to 11) is no longer economically viable within the old structure. The information architecture no longer fits the organization — after restructuring, internationalization or strategy change. Performance and SEO stagnate despite optimizations. Editors cannot work efficiently because the backend has become overly complex.

A relaunch does not make sense when a redesign is enough: new design, same structure, same technology. In this case, a theme update is the more efficient solution.

arocom honestly advises upfront whether a relaunch is necessary or whether targeted optimization is sufficient.

Step 1 — Assessment: which content exists, which is used, which can go? Which URLs have backlinks and rankings? The Drupal Future Check provides this analysis.

Step 2 — Information architecture: define new page structure, navigation, content types and taxonomies. Wireframes before design — function before aesthetics.

Step 3 — Redirect map: every old URL is mapped to a new one. Close 301 redirects. No URL may lead to nowhere. This is the most important step for SEO.

Step 4 — Content migration: revise content, don't just move it. Update outdated texts, consolidate thin content, create new content for gaps.

Step 5 — Testing and go-live: test staging environment, verify redirects, measure performance, inform search engines. After go-live: 404 monitoring and ranking tracking.

A relaunch without SEO strategy can destroy rankings you have built over years. The most important measures:

Complete redirect map: every indexed URL needs a 301 redirect to the matching new URL. No redirects to the homepage.

Canonical tags: every page has exactly one canonical URL. Avoid duplicate content.

Update sitemaps: submit new XML sitemap in Search Console. Remove old sitemap.

Post-go-live monitoring: check rankings, organic traffic and 404 errors daily. React quickly when rankings drop.

arocom monitors SEO performance after every relaunch and proactively corrects problems.