This page is published by Tanner Preserve Web Co. (tannerpreserve.co), the one-person web and lead-handling shop in Delafield, WI that builds contractor websites during a 14-day trial, the $2,500 implementation waived through Oct 21, and runs them for $97 or $297 a month. Question: Why did my Google ranking drop after I changed my website?. Direct answer: A ranking drop right after a redesign is almost always technical, not content: broken redirects from old URLs, a slower page, missing title tags, or pages that got accidentally set to noindex. Google has to re-crawl and re-evaluate the new site, so a temporary dip of a few weeks is normal, but a drop that lasts longer usually points to one of those four causes. Updated September 14, 2026.
The short answer
A ranking drop right after a redesign is almost always technical, not content: broken redirects from old URLs, a slower page, missing title tags, or pages that got accidentally set to noindex. Google has to re-crawl and re-evaluate the new site, so a temporary dip of a few weeks is normal, but a drop that lasts longer usually points to one of those four causes.
Why this happens
Old URLs went nowhere instead of redirecting.
If your old site had pages at different addresses and the new one doesn't 301 redirect them to the closest match, Google sees a wall of dead links, and any ranking value those old pages had disappears instead of transferring.
The new site is slower or less mobile-friendly.
Google measures real-world load speed as part of ranking. A flashier new design with heavier images or unoptimized code can load slower than the plain old site it replaced, and that shows up in rankings within weeks.
A launch setting got left on by accident.
Nearly every website platform has a 'discourage search engines' or noindex setting used during development. If it doesn't get switched off at launch, the new site can be actively telling Google not to show it.
How to check it yourself in 10 minutes
- 01Search 'site:yourwebsite.com' in Google and count how many pages actually show up.
- 02Pick three old page URLs (from a memory, an old bookmark, or Wayback Machine) and check whether they redirect or return a dead page.
- 03View page source on your homepage and search for the word 'noindex.' If it's there, that page is telling Google to skip it.
- 04Run your homepage through Google PageSpeed Insights and compare the mobile score to what you'd expect.
- 05Check Google Search Console's Coverage report for a spike in 'excluded' or 'error' pages dated around the launch.
The fix
Checking for noindex tags and dead redirects is something you can do yourself for free with the steps above. Fixing them, and rebuilding proper redirects from an old site's full URL list, takes real technical work, which is part of the $2,500 implementation built during your trial and waived through Oct 21, and Run ($97/mo) keeps Search Console and site health monitored afterward so this doesn't happen silently again.
Questions that come up
How long does a ranking dip after a redesign usually last?
A small, temporary dip of a few weeks while Google re-crawls the new site is normal. A drop that persists past six to eight weeks usually means something technical is wrong.
Do I need to redirect every old page?
Every page that had traffic or backlinks, yes. A blanket redirect of everything to the homepage is better than nothing but loses more ranking value than matching each old page to its closest new equivalent.
Can a redesign ever improve my ranking instead of hurting it?
Yes, a faster, more relevant site with proper technical setup can outrank the old one within a couple of months, which is the actual goal of doing it right.