Measure your website before a redesign

Key takeaways

Before a redesign, record 12 months of qualified enquiries, enquiry rate on key pages, search clicks and impressions, top landing pages and mobile Core Web Vitals. Export and save them, because analytics settings can change during the project. If enquiry tracking is missing, fix it and collect at least a month of data first.

• 12 months of enquiries by month and source.
• Enquiry rate on the top 5 landing pages.
• Search Console clicks, impressions and top queries.
• Mobile Core Web Vitals for key templates.

Why measure before a redesign?

A website baseline is a saved record of how the current site performs, taken before any change. Without it, nobody can say whether a redesign improved enquiries, and every opinion about the new site is as valid as any other.

• Signs your business needs a new website

What should the baseline include?

Measure the outcomes you want to change, plus the diagnostics that explain them.

• Qualified enquiries by month and source, 12 months.
• Enquiry rate on the top 5 landing pages.
• Search clicks, impressions and position for core queries.
• Top 20 landing pages by traffic and enquiries.
• Mobile Core Web Vitals for homepage and key templates.
• Share of mobile vs desktop visits and enquiries.

• Website metrics that signal a redesign is due

What if enquiries are not tracked?

Fix tracking first. Set up form submissions, phone taps and WhatsApp clicks as key events in GA4, and keep a simple log of phone enquiries and their source. Collect at least a month of data before the redesign starts, and ideally a quarter.

• Track every website enquiry to its source
• GA4 setup for small business websites

How should you save the baseline?

Export it to a spreadsheet, not just a dashboard. Save Search Console exports for pages and queries, GA4 reports for landing pages and key events, and PageSpeed Insights results. Note the date and any known tracking gaps.

How do you compare after launch?

Compare the same months year on year to remove seasonality, using the same definitions. Check at 30 days for problems and at 90 days for results. Note any changes in marketing spend or tracking that could distort the comparison.

• How to measure website redesign success

What can distort the comparison?

Changes in consent banners, tracking set-up, ad spend, seasonality or market demand. Record them in a simple change log so the post-launch comparison accounts for them.

Who should keep the baseline?

The business, not the supplier. Save the exports in a folder you control, with a short note describing what each file is, the date range and any known gaps. If the supplier changes or analytics accounts are rebuilt, the baseline must survive.

Give one person responsibility for the baseline and the post-launch comparison. It is usually the same person who owns the redesign goals, so the questions 'what did we set out to achieve' and 'did we achieve it' are answered by the same numbers.

• Store exports in a folder the business controls.
• Note date ranges and known gaps.
• Name one person responsible.
• Use the same definitions after launch.

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern in UK e-commerce: a new site launches and sales fall, but nobody saved pre-launch conversion data and the old analytics property was deleted. There is no way to tell whether the site or the season caused it. A saved baseline would have answered the question in minutes.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses

Baseline checklist

Complete before the project starts.

• Confirm enquiry tracking works for forms, calls and WhatsApp.
• Export 12 months of enquiries by month and source.
• Export Search Console pages and queries.
• Export top landing pages from GA4.
• Save PageSpeed Insights results for key templates.
• Start a change log.

Next step

If you are planning a redesign, we will set up and save your baseline with you in a 30-minute call.