Website Relaunch - Rebuilding Your Site Without Losing Rankings

mindmelt is an owner-managed advertising and web agency based in Frankfurt. We rebuild existing websites from the ground up - without sacrificing organic traffic. SEO migration, redirect mapping and Search Console monitoring are standard on every relaunch. Since 2002, over 70 relaunches. No lasting ranking drops.

When a website relaunch is overdue

There are three signs it's time. Enquiries are down compared to two years ago. Every text change needs an agency ticket. And on mobile, the site looks like it was built in 2018.

Most businesses respond by briefing a redesign. That's the wrong starting point. New colours, new images, new layouts don't fix any of those problems - they just transfer them to a fresh surface. What's actually needed is a full relaunch: new structure, new technology, proper SEO migration.

Start with an audit. Which pages drive traffic? Which keywords rank? What happens to your 280 existing URLs when the new structure has 40? Without clear answers, you'll lose 30 to 60 per cent of your organic traffic at launch. That's not a worst-case scenario - it's what routinely happens when relaunches skip SEO migration.

At mindmelt, every relaunch starts with exactly that audit. Before we talk colours, we talk URLs, redirects and site architecture.

30 to 60 per cent traffic loss - the standard result without SEO migration

Relaunching a website without a redirect map is like moving house without setting up mail forwarding.

Every URL with inbound links needs a 301 redirect pointing to the new destination. Link equity stays intact. Rankings stay stable. At mindmelt, SEO migration is built into every relaunch - no add-on, no extra charge.

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Why SEO Migration Makes or Breaks a Relaunch

Most website relaunches don't fail because of the design. They fail because of the SEO migration. Or more precisely: because there wasn't one.

What a proper SEO migration looks like

Every old URL gets a destination URL via 301 redirect. Link equity is preserved. The keyword inventory from the old site is mapped to the new structure. Schema.org, hreflang, robots and sitemap are rebuilt from scratch before go-live. And Search Console is monitored daily for four weeks before launch and eight weeks after.

What happens without one

No redirect map means losing every URL that carries inbound links. Google finds the new pages, but the old rankings are gone. Best case: it takes six months to get back to where you were. Worst case: the rankings don't come back at all - because a competitor has already filled the gap.

Relaunch Case Study: Rhein-Main Energy Provider

The situation: Regional energy supplier, 320 staff. A 2017 TYPO3 website with broken mobile rendering, two IT staff as the only people who could update it, and a contact form that worked intermittently. Job applications had halved over two years.

What we did: Ran a workshop with the managing board, marketing and HR. Rebuilt the site architecture around four clear sections - residential customers, business customers, careers, and service. Migrated to an open-source CMS with proper role-based access. Created a full 301 redirect map for 280 legacy URLs. Rebuilt the careers section with genuine employee portraits.

Results after six months: Contact enquiries up 40%. Page load time cut from 6 seconds to under 2. Applications doubled within four months. SEO visibility up 22%. The team now handles all updates internally.

Total project length: five months from the first workshop to stable go-live.

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Five Phases: From Audit to Stable Launch

This is how a website relaunch works at mindmelt. No step skipped. No step handed off.

Audit and Discovery

A full SEO audit of your existing site. Which URLs are ranking, which backlinks matter, what can't be touched. Takes two weeks.

Strategy and Redirect Map

New site architecture, keyword mapping, and a 301 redirect map for every existing URL. Content audit: what stays, what gets rewritten, what goes. Timeline: 3 weeks.

Design and Development

Screen design built on the new structure. Mobile-first, Core Web Vitals from day one. Development in an open-source CMS, content running in parallel. Timeline: 8 to 12 weeks.

Go-Live and Monitoring

We handle migration, activate redirects, and monitor Search Console daily for eight weeks. If rankings dip, we act fast. Total project timeline: five to seven months.

Over 70 relaunches since 2002. Not one with lasting ranking loss.

What does a website relaunch cost?

A website relaunch with mindmelt starts from €11,900 net for standard projects (up to 30 pages, CMS migration). Business relaunches with extended functionality from €18,900. Enterprise projects with API integration, login areas and full data migration from €24,900. The discovery phase adds from €2,500; ongoing SEO management is optional from €790/month. All prices are fixed-fee, confirmed after audit.

Will a relaunch hurt our Google rankings?

Not if the migration is handled properly. Every mindmelt relaunch we've run has held or improved search visibility within 12 weeks. That requires a complete 301 redirect map, keyword mapping, and Search Console monitoring before and after go-live.

How long does a website relaunch take?

Typically 5 to 7 months from first audit to stable live operation. The development phase itself takes 8 to 12 weeks. Everything before that - audit, strategy, design - adds another 9 to 10 weeks. The biggest variables: how quickly you provide feedback, and whether content is produced in-house or externally.

What happens to our existing backlinks?

Saved. Every URL with inbound links gets a 301 redirect to the new destination. Link equity retention stays above 90 per cent. Before the relaunch, we run a full backlink analysis and map every relevant link to the new structure.

Does our current website stay live during the relaunch?

Your existing site stays live and untouched until launch day. The relaunch is built on a separate staging environment. On go-live day, we switch over. The old site remains available as a backup in case anything needs attention in the first few days.

Can you work with our existing CMS?

Yes. We work with all the major platforms: WordPress, TYPO3, Joomla, Drupal, Shopify, and bespoke builds. Most of our relaunch projects migrate from TYPO3 or WordPress to an open-source CMS with a German-language back end. That said, if your existing system does the job, we'll build on it.

Who's responsible for your relaunch

mindmelt is an owner-managed web design agency based in Frankfurt am Main, Zeil 46. We've delivered over 70 website relaunches - not one has resulted in lasting ranking loss. The agency is run by Ingo Krumm.

A relaunch is the riskiest moment for your organic visibility. Start without an SEO audit, and you'll know it three months later.

You speak directly with the person who knows your project and works on it - not someone who manages it from a distance.

Phone: 069 21936250 ·

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Book a Relaunch Audit

60 minutes. We analyse your current site - SEO status, technical debt, maintainability. Afterwards, you'll know whether a relaunch is needed and what it'll cost.

Call 069 21936250

All Web Design Services from mindmelt

Web Design Frankfurt - Full overview of mindmelt's web design services.

What Does a Website Cost? - Clear pricing, packages and an interactive budget check.

Get a Website Built - Professional, owner-managed, fixed price.

Corporate Website - Business websites built on SEO-first architecture for mid-market and B2B.

Web Development & API - Bespoke web applications, integrations and custom modules.

Search Engine Optimisation - Technical SEO, content strategy and local SEO in Frankfurt.

Generative Engine Optimisation - Visibility in AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overview.

Website Support - Ongoing maintenance, updates and technical support after launch.

Updated: May 2026