What Is A Website Relaunch?

Date First Published: 28th January 2023

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: Web Development

Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 3/10

Learn more about what a website relaunch is in this article.

A website relaunch is a complete revamp of a website. This basically replaces the existing website with a better and newer version and includes changing the technical properties of a website, such as the URL structure, CMS, server setup as well as the design, content, and features. When relaunching a website, the four main elements that need to be considered are the design, content, features, and technical properties. A complete website relaunch does not happen that often and is less common than a website redesign, but it can happen for the reasons below.

Reasons For A Website Relaunch

The reasons for a website relaunch include:

• Unsuitable structure - Services, such as Google Analytics can measure visitor behaviour and engagement, which can be used to determine if the target audience is acting effectively. If the structure of the site does not suit the target audience or does not engage them, modifications need to be made to achieve a suitable and effective structure. For these types of problems, it may be better for the website to get rid of its previous unsuitable structure by performing a complete relaunch.
• Changes to the corporate design - Brands can sometimes change their corporate design. This may include mergers and acquisitions. A business website needs to match the overall design of its branding. Due to this, corporate rebranding may require a website relaunch.
• Outdated technology and design - An outdated design may no longer follow the current web standards or reflect the brand. If the technology the website is using is outdated (e.g. the CMS is a few versions behind the current standard), this can lead to an unstable website. Making small changes will usually not solve these problems and a relaunch may be required.
• Adding extra functionality to a website - As a website grows, extra functionality will need to be added to the site to fulfil the expectations and needs of new visitors. If the technology, such as the CMS and server setup no longer supports the functionality the website needs, a website relaunch may be required.

SEO

Before performing a website relaunch, SEO will be considered. If the relaunch involves moving the website to a new address, then a 301 redirect will need to be put in place to redirect visitors from the old web address to the new one. Rankings and external link authority will need to be transferred. Also, website owners will need to make sure that search engines and users still end up where they should. If this is not done in the correct way, there is a risk that visitors and search engines will end up on an error page, which will irritate website visitors and result in a loss of search engine rankings.

When changing the server setup, it is important to plan. Without a proper plan, there is a risk of negative effects, such as downtime, which will make the website inaccessible to users and search engines. If the website is down for an extended period of time, search engines will start to deindex the webpages when they notice that they are inaccessible and it may take a while for them to get indexed again, resulting in a great loss of organic traffic.

Difference Between A Website Relaunch and A Website Redesign

The main difference between a website relaunch and a redesign is that a website relaunch describes a complete revamp of a website that results in a replacement of a website and a website redesign only focuses on visual changes or upgrades to the design of a website. A website redesign does not change any technical properties, such as the URL structure, CMS, and server setup.

Benefits and Risks

Relaunching a website comes with a number of benefits. An error-free and updated website that suits the needs of users will help it stand out from the competition. However, there are also some risks of a website relaunch. Existing visitors that are used to the current layout or technical properties might not like the new website or might find it confusing. This can lead to a decline in the number of visitors which is why it is important to plan the relaunch of a website and ensure that the relaunch will not push users away from the website.