A redesign should replace the weak parts of an old site without casually destroying useful URLs, content and search history.
Make an inventory of the existing pages, titles, links, forms and files. Some old pages may look dated but still receive traffic or backlinks. Others may be unrelated leftovers that should disappear.
Decide whether each URL will be retained, rewritten, merged or redirected. This is much safer than building a new navigation first and discovering later that valuable pages vanished.
If an old URL still matches the new topic, keeping and improving that URL is often simpler than changing it just to make the filename look newer.
An old page can keep its URL while receiving completely new content and design. What matters is that the new page still satisfies the reason someone would visit that address.
When several thin old pages cover essentially the same subject, merging them into one stronger guide and redirecting the retired URLs can create a cleaner site.
An old “directory” page can become a curated resources page if the links are still useful. The new page should explain why each resource belongs there instead of preserving a raw list.
Use permanent redirects when a page has genuinely moved. Redirect an old page to the closest relevant replacement, not automatically to the homepage. A corporate-service page should not redirect to an unrelated wedding article just because both exist on the same domain.
Test redirects after upload. Server configuration varies, and an aggressive rewrite file can cause loops or server errors if the hosting environment does not support the expected module.
Crawl the new site for broken internal links, verify canonical URLs, open the mobile navigation, submit every important form and confirm the sitemap contains only the pages you actually want indexed.
Older websites often carry Flash files, obsolete JavaScript libraries, duplicate stylesheets and images that are no longer used. Removing that baggage can make the rebuild easier to maintain and significantly lighter.
A redesign is a good opportunity to consolidate shared CSS, use semantic HTML, improve keyboard navigation and make images responsive.