Wix · New site or in place redesign, page SEO parity, indexing toggles and 301 redirects
A Wix redesign comes in two very different forms. Restyling the existing site keeps its pages, slugs and SEO settings. Building a new site from another template and moving the domain across starts every SEO setting from zero.
Know which kind you are doing before you start. Then save a baseline, carry every page's URL and metadata into the new design, and compare crawls after launch.
Baseline crawl→Choose redesign type→Carry over SEO→Add 301s→Launch→Crawl and compare
What can go wrong after a Wix redesign
Risk depends on how much of the old site survives into the new one.
| Redesign type | Risk level | What usually breaks |
|---|---|---|
| Restyle in place, same pages | Low | Heading levels change in new sections, text moves into images, alt text lost on replaced images |
| Restructure in place | Medium | Pages merged or renamed without redirects, menu links to deleted pages |
| New Wix site, domain moved across | High | Page slugs, titles, descriptions, indexing toggles, redirects and custom schema all start empty |
| New site plus Wix Studio or new apps | Highest | All of the above, plus new blog or store URL prefixes and new default schema |
What stays with the old Wix site
Page SEOTitles, meta descriptions and social images set in each page's SEO panelDefault titles
Indexing togglesWhich pages were hidden from search results, set page by pageWrong pages indexed
URL Redirect ManagerEvery 301 built up over the site's life, including old migration redirects404s return
Custom markupStructured data and custom meta tags added in advanced SEOLost schema
When you move the domain to a new Wix site, these settings do not follow it. Export them before the switch.
Before the redesign
- Crawl the live site and save the audit. This is the baseline: URL count, status codes, titles, descriptions, H1s, canonicals, word counts and schema per page type.
- Export the page inventory. URL, title, meta description and indexing state for every page. This is what you rebuild against.
- Copy the redirect list. Export or record every rule in the old URL Redirect Manager, so older redirects are not lost in a new site.
- Keep slugs where you can. Set each new page's URL slug to match the old one. Every slug you keep is a redirect you do not need.
- Add 301s for the rest. Map each changed or removed URL to its closest new page. Bulk import works well for long lists.
- Crawl the new site before the domain moves. Compare it against the baseline for content parity on the free Wix address or a test domain.
After launch: what to check
Run these within the first hour, then crawl the full site and compare against the baseline in Audit Comparison.
| Check | Expected result |
|---|---|
| Primary domain | Connected to the new site, www and root resolve to one version |
| Page indexing | No noindex on pages indexable in the baseline, via Custom Source Search |
| robots.txt | Default or planned rules, no Disallow: / |
| Old URL list | Each URL returns 200 or a single 301 to its mapped page |
| Titles and descriptions | Match the baseline or planned values, no default page names |
| Headings | One H1 per page, sections not styled as headings by accident |
| Word count per page type | No large drops on services, posts and landing pages |
| Structured data | Custom schema rebuilt, not duplicating the default |
| sitemap.xml | Child sitemaps list the new pages, no 404s or redirects |
| Tracking | GA4 and pixels fire once, via Tracking & Pixel Audit |
Downloadable checklistWix redesign SEO checklist
0 of 18 done
How to identify the scope
Where the failures sit tells you which part of the redesign caused them.
Every page lost its SEONew siteDefault titles everywhere mean page SEO was never rebuilt on the new site.
One page type failsSEO pattern or appOnly posts or products changed: the SEO pattern or app setup is the cause.
Scattered 404sRedirect gapsOld URLs missing from the URL Redirect Manager or slugs changed after mapping.
Pages missing from searchIndexing togglesPages hidden during the build and never switched back.
How to validate the fix
- Restore page SEO and indexing first, working from the exported page inventory.
- Add the missing redirects, then publish.
- Recrawl the old URL list and confirm each returns 200 or a single 301.
- Recrawl the full site and compare: every difference is one you planned.
- Check the sitemap and URL Inspection for top pages in Search Console.
- Schedule weekly Scheduled SEO Audits for the first month after launch.
0Unplanned differences from the baseline
0Important pages hidden from search results
1Redirect hop for each changed URL
Before and after example
Old Wix site/wedding-photography → 200
Title: Wedding Photographer in Austin
Pages with custom titles: 22 / 22
Title: Wedding Photographer in Austin
Pages with custom titles: 22 / 22
→
New Wix site/wedding-photography → 404
/weddings → 200
Title: Weddings | Studio Name
/weddings → 200
Title: Weddings | Studio Name
Cause: the redesign was built as a new site. The slug changed with no redirect, and page SEO fell back to the page name. Restoring the slug or adding a 301, plus rebuilding page SEO from the inventory, fixes both.
Common mistakes
- Assuming a new Wix site keeps the old redirects. The URL Redirect Manager belongs to the site, not the domain.
- Hiding pages from search during the build and forgetting them. Check every indexing toggle before the domain moves.
- Renaming pages for the new menu. A cleaner slug is rarely worth a redirect and a temporary ranking dip.
- Styling section titles as H1. New templates often use heading tags for decoration. Keep one H1 per page.
- Replacing text with images or video. Designs look richer, but crawlers lose the words that ranked.
- Checking only the homepage. Service pages and blog posts carry most of the organic traffic.
Related resources
Rebuild the SEO with the design
A Wix redesign is safe when the new design carries the old site's URLs, metadata and indexing choices, and the crawl after launch matches the crawl before it except for planned changes. Export the inventory, keep slugs, add redirects, and compare.