How to Prepare Your Content Before a Website Redesign

ByCarolina Shores

Launching a new website is exciting—it’s a fresh start, a modern look, and a chance to improve user experience. However, many organizations make the mistake of waiting until the new design is complete before scrambling to fill it with content.

This “content-last” approach often leads to delays, mismatched messaging, and a final product that looks beautiful but fails to convert.

The secret to a smooth, successful website launch? Treat your content as a foundational element, not an afterthought.

Here is your comprehensive checklist for preparing content before your website redesign project officially begins.

1. Conduct a Thorough Content Audit

You can’t build a new home without knowing what furniture you already own. A content audit is the process of inventorying, assessing, and analyzing all existing content on your current site.

What to Do:

  • Inventory: Create a spreadsheet and list every single page (or a core selection of key pages) on your site. Include columns for the URL, Page Title, Date Published/Last Updated, and Traffic/Conversions data.
  • Assess & Grade: Review each piece of content and assign it a grade or status:
    • Keep: High-performing, up-to-date, and relevant. Needs minor edits or a transfer.
    • Revise: Valuable, but outdated, needs a major rewrite, or requires restructuring.
    • Archive/Delete: Low-traffic, redundant, obsolete, or inaccurate content. This helps streamline your new site.
  • Identify Gaps: Note the topics your audience searches for that you currently don’t have content on. These are your new content priorities.

2. Define Your New Content Strategy & Goals

A redesign is the perfect opportunity to align your content with your current business objectives. Your new website must serve a purpose beyond looking good.

What to Do:

  • Clarify Audience & Messaging: Who are you trying to reach, and what is the single most important message you need them to understand? Create Content Personas that map the information needs of your target users.
  • Establish Key Goals: Determine what success looks like for the new site. Are you aiming for more leads? Higher average order value? Lower bounce rate?
  • Map Content to the Funnel: For every page you plan to keep or create, define its role in the buyer’s journey (Awareness, Consideration, Decision). This ensures every piece of content has a clear Call-to-Action (CTA).

3. Plan Your New Information Architecture (IA)

Your Information Architecture is essentially your site map and navigation structure. It determines how users find information. This must be designed before the visual design, as it impacts everything else.

What to Do:

  • Develop a New Site Map: Based on your content audit and strategy, sketch out the ideal structure. Use Card Sorting or Tree Testing (simple user experience methods) to validate the structure with real users.
  • Determine URL Redirects: For every page that is being deleted or changing its URL, you must create a 301 Redirect plan. This preserves your valuable SEO link equity and prevents users from hitting frustrating “404 Page Not Found” errors. This step is critical for SEO.

4. Prioritize and Create New Content

With a defined strategy and structure, you now know exactly what content needs to be written or updated.

What to Do:

  • Start with Core Pages: Focus on the pages that will anchor your site and provide the most value: your Homepage, Product/Service Pages, About Us, and Contact Page. These are often the first to be designed and require the most careful messaging.
  • Optimize for SEO: As you write, integrate target keywords into your titles, headings, and body copy based on your research. Use a consistent voice and tone that reflects your brand.
  • Prepare Media Assets: Don’t forget non-text content! Gather or commission all necessary images, videos, infographics, and downloadable PDFs. Ensure they meet new, high-quality standards and are optimized for fast loading times.

Contact us to get started today!
Dennis@carolinashoreswebscapes.com
239-304-8026

Note: This article was put together with the assistance of AI.

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