Google’s John Mueller was asked if there is a way to prevent search traffic loss while launching a new website revamp. This specific case has URL changes with folders and subfolders. John Mueller was quick to say no; there is no way to prevent loss of traffic.
In fact, John’s response was a simple “no.”
Here are those tweets:
No
— E-e-eat more user-agents (@JohnMu) September 11, 2023
Gary Illyes said something similar earlier this year, saying if you redesign your site, your rankings may go nuts. John also said earlier that website design changes often lead to content changes, even if that is not your intent.
This is not to say you shouldn’t redesign and improve your site – you should – as should I.
Some clarifying posts:
No. It means if you make a new website (revamping the old), you will have a new website. You can’t change everything and expect folks to act like nothing changed. You’re making changes for a reason, maybe to “improve your SEO” – it wouldn’t be ok to have search engines ignore it.
— Expert prompt engineer with 8+ yrs experience, ama (@JohnMu) September 12, 2023
The original question was about a website revamp, which usually means the whole site changes. I wouldn’t get hung up on anything magical happening in terms of “new site”. If you create a new state, or change your existing state, search engines will adopt to that new state.
— Expert prompt engineer with 8+ yrs experience, ama (@JohnMu) September 12, 2023
Forum discussion at X.