Before commissioning a custom website redesign, inventory the URLs people rely on, the tasks they must complete, and the routines staff use to publish information. This gives the redesign team a practical basis for deciding what to preserve, change, redirect, or retire—and helps prevent a cleaner-looking site from breaking a useful customer path or internal process.
Treat the inventory as a redesign requirement
Before a custom website redesign, document which URLs serve a purpose, what visitors need to accomplish, and how content gets published. That inventory helps distinguish material to preserve from material to combine, retire, or rebuild. It also reveals operational dependencies that a visual review alone can miss.
A redesign can change navigation, page structure, forms, and publishing tools at once. If teams discover late that a bookmarked application link, approval step, or search landing page has disappeared, they may have to retrofit the new system under pressure. Inventory is not paperwork for its own sake; it is input to architecture, scope, and launch planning.
Build a reliable URL map
Start with a crawl of the live site, then compare it with analytics, search performance data, sitemaps, and server logs where available. Each source has blind spots: a crawl may miss unlinked pages, analytics may omit rarely visited resources, and logs can reveal automated or direct requests without explaining their purpose. Include subdomains and authenticated areas if they are in scope.
For each URL, record its page type, business purpose, audience, content owner, and proposed action: keep, revise, merge, redirect, or remove. Flag URLs that receive meaningful visits, appear in search, have external links, or are used in email, printed materials, or customer support. A low-traffic page can still be operationally important, such as a form used only during annual enrollment.
Do not assume that every old URL needs a one-to-one replacement. Map retired pages to the closest useful destination, not automatically to the homepage. Capture query-string behavior too when parameters select a product, report, or campaign; preserve only parameters that have a defined purpose and handle unknown values safely.
Inventory customer tasks, not just screens
List the jobs visitors and staff complete, then trace each from entry point to confirmation. Examples include finding a service, requesting a quote, submitting a document, checking an order, resetting an account, or routing an inquiry to the right team. Note the required information, permissions, validation, and what happens when a step fails.
Pay attention to edge cases: a customer submits twice, a required attachment is missing, an account lacks permission, or an integration is temporarily unavailable. Record whether the system should prevent a duplicate, save a draft, offer a retry, or direct the person to staff. These behaviors often depend on business rules and data ownership, not page design.
For each task, identify its owner and system of record—the authoritative place where the data is maintained. If the website sends information to a CRM, database, or third-party service, clarify which system controls status and what staff need to see. That prevents a redesign from creating conflicting records or unclear responsibility.
Map publishing routines and dependencies
Publishing is a workflow. Document who drafts, edits, reviews, approves, and publishes each content type, and whether different roles can change navigation, pricing, policy information, or technical resources. Note scheduled publishing, recurring updates, and content that depends on another page or data feed.
Ask where content comes from and who corrects it. Some information may be entered in the website; other information may flow from an inventory system or be maintained in a shared database. Identify integrations, manual copy-and-paste steps, and email notifications that keep the current process working. A new content management setup should fit those responsibilities rather than simply reproduce the old screens.
Also record what staff must be able to do without developer help and what changes require technical review. This distinction informs permissions and the editing interface. Too little control creates a publishing bottleneck; too much control can let routine edits damage shared layouts or critical information.
Turn findings into redesign decisions
Use the inventory to shape page templates, navigation, forms, permissions, integrations, and migration scope. Give every important URL a destination and every key task a tested path. When content is merged, decide which details survive and who approves the consolidated version. When a workflow changes, make the new responsibility and failure handling explicit.
Prepare a redirect map for changed URLs and test it before launch. Check that redirects point to relevant pages, avoid loops or chains, and preserve useful query behavior. Keep an exception list for URLs that must remain stable because external systems, customer bookmarks, or printed materials depend on them. Redirects help route visitors but do not replace reviewing internal links and updated communications.
Set launch checks around real use: access by role, form validation, confirmation messages, integration failures, mobile task completion, and representative publishing changes. Compare important old and new URLs, inspect server errors, and review analytics and search signals after release. Decide in advance who will investigate a broken path and how long the team will monitor it.
Example: a service request changes shape
Hypothetical example: a service company replaces several separate request pages with one guided form. Its URL inventory shows that a downloadable checklist is linked from support emails, while its task map shows staff need to route requests by region and service type. The publishing inventory reveals that regional managers update availability on a schedule.
The redesign team can then decide whether the checklist remains a distinct destination, how old request URLs redirect, which form fields determine routing, and who maintains availability. Before launch, staff can test valid submissions, incomplete requests, duplicate attempts, and a temporary downstream outage. The team should measure completion, routing errors, support questions, and publishing effort rather than assume that consolidation alone improved the process.
Pre-redesign inventory checklist
- Export current URLs from the website and compare them with analytics, search data, and server logs to find pages each source misses.
- For every important URL, record its purpose, audience, owner, traffic or search role, inbound links, and intended replacement or retirement action.
- Document the steps customers and staff complete, including forms, account access, downloads, payments, approvals, and error recovery.
- List publishing roles, approval steps, content dependencies, and any scheduled or integrated updates.
- Assign an owner to decide redirects, retained content, and post-launch checks for each high-value page or task.
Questions about this approach
Should every old page be carried into the redesigned site?
No. A URL may have no measurable traffic and still be important to a customer, staff member, external system, or recurring process. Review purpose, links, ownership, and dependencies before deciding whether to retire it.
Is a website crawl enough to inventory URLs?
A crawl is a useful starting point, but it cannot reliably reveal pages that are unlinked, access-controlled, or used only in occasional workflows. Compare it with analytics, search data, server logs, sitemaps, and input from people who use the site.
How much detail should we capture about staff workflows?
Include them if the redesign changes a step, permission, or data handoff in the process. Document where information is entered, which system owns it, how staff handle exceptions, and what the visitor sees when something goes wrong.
For help applying this approach to your systems, explore our custom web design & website redesign services.
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