How is this different from a general SEO audit?

This is recovery work tied to a specific change window. The job is to compare the old and new estates route by route until the technical cause of the drop is clear, not to produce a broad list of generic SEO recommendations.

Can you still help if the old platform is no longer live?

Usually yes, as long as there is enough evidence from redirects, launch artefacts, cached pages, sitemaps, analytics, or deployment history to compare what important routes used to do with what they do now.

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Traffic Dropped After a Redesign or Replatform

Traffic drops after a redesign, rebuild, or platform change usually need a technical explanation of what changed, not a generic SEO audit detached from the launch.

Recover organic traffic after a redesign or replatform by isolating what changed in URLs, templates, rendering, metadata, or crawl signals before the drop compounds.

Short Answer

A redesign or replatform can look fine in the browser whilst search traffic drops because URLs, templates, internal links, or rendered signals changed underneath the visual layer. Recovery starts by comparing the old and live estates, including URL and canonical mapping, rendered HTML, metadata parity, structured data, sitemap, and robots behaviour, then prioritising fixes by commercial route value rather than running a generic SEO audit.

Typical Symptoms

Traffic, rankings, or indexed coverage dropped shortly after a redesign or replatform launched.
Some template groups or route families were hit much harder than others after release.
The site looks visually fine, but discovery, rendering, or URL behaviour no longer matches the previous estate.

Likely Causes

Redirects, canonicals, internal links, or sitemap coverage changed more than expected during the launch.
The new templates are rendering weaker metadata, thinner content, or less crawlable HTML on important routes.
The redesign or rebuild shipped without route‑by‑route parity checks against the previous platform.

What I Look at First

Use the Traffic Drop Triage Checklist to compare high‑value pre‑launch URLs with the live versions for redirects, canonicals, rendered HTML, and internal‑link changes.
Use the Rendered HTML Migration Comparison Worksheet when the drop appears tied to changed templates, content, metadata, schema, or crawler‑visible links.
Which route families lost the most traffic first and whether the drop lines up with one template or one change type.
What changed in the release across metadata, URL policy, rendering, and crawl discovery.

How I Help Fix This

Trace the traffic drop back to the technical changes most likely to have commercial impact.
Fix the route families and templates most likely to recover visibility first.
Validate the recovery work so the team stops guessing.

When to Look at This

As soon as the drop is visible and the launch window is still clear enough to inspect properly.
When the redesign or replatform is live but nobody has a trusted parity view of what changed technically or a Website Replatforming Risk Register to work from.

What Gets Resolved

Traffic loss is tied back to changed routes, templates, redirects, metadata, crawl signals, or content rendering.
Pre‑launch and live URL estates reconcile through correct redirects, canonicals, sitemap entries, and internal links.
High‑value templates restore missing body content, headings, metadata, structured data, and crawler‑visible links.
The team knows whether the loss is technical, editorial, measurement‑related, seasonal, or external instead of treating every decline as the same SEO fault.
Recovery releases target the affected route families and can be measured against the available pre‑launch evidence.

How This Usually Works

Technical Diagnostic
A focused review to establish what is happening, where the risk sits, and what should happen next, ending with a prioritised plan the team can take into delivery.
Recovery Sprint
A short, concentrated engagement to isolate a defined problem, stabilise the immediate situation, and move the first fixes into delivery.

Common Questions

How is this different from a general SEO audit?: This is recovery work tied to a specific change window. The job is to compare the old and new estates route by route until the technical cause of the drop is clear, not to produce a broad list of generic SEO recommendations.
Can you still help if the old platform is no longer live?: Usually yes, as long as there is enough evidence from redirects, launch artefacts, cached pages, sitemaps, analytics, or deployment history to compare what important routes used to do with what they do now.

Need help with search visibility?

Tell me which pages have been affected, what changed, and when you first noticed the problem. I'll read it and suggest the next step.

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