Content Migration During a Website Redesign

Before we move a single word, we audit every page on the existing site. This takes 1–2 days for a typical Tampa SMB site (15–40 pages). For larger sites it scales linearly.

Data we pull for every page

• Organic traffic (sessions/month over the last 12 months)
• Top ranking keywords (any keyword ranking in the top 20)
• Backlinks (number and quality of external links to the URL)
• Internal links in (how many pages link to this one)
• Word count
• Last updated date
• Conversion data (if the page has a goal — form submits, calls, etc.)
• Topical territory (what the page is about)

We export this into one spreadsheet. Each page gets a row. The decisions become straightforward once you can see the data side by side.

The four buckets

Every page lands in one of four categories.

Bucket 1 — Keep and improve. Top quartile by traffic, rankings, or backlinks. Topical alignment good. Content depth adequate. We port these with edits — fresher facts, better internal links, tighter copy, updated calls to action.

Bucket 2 — Consolidate. Two or more pages compete for the same keyword or topical territory. We merge them into one stronger page. The 301 redirects all the old URLs to the new consolidated one.

Bucket 3 — Rewrite. The page is on the right topic but the content is thin, outdated, or off-strategy. We keep the URL (or close to it) but rewrite the page from scratch.

Bucket 4 — Retire. No traffic, no rankings, no backlinks, no strategic value. The 301 sends it to the closest topical parent (see the 301 strategy).

On a typical 30-page Tampa SMB site, the distribution looks roughly like:

• Keep and improve: 30–50%
• Consolidate: 10–20%
• Rewrite: 15–25%
• Retire: 10–25%

Almost no site has 100% keep-worthy content. And almost no site has 100% retire-worthy content. The audit forces the honest conversation.

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For “keep and improve” pages, the work is real but bounded.

What we preserve:

• URL (or close to it — if we’re consolidating, the URL changes and the old one 301s)
• Primary keyword and topical focus
• Core copy — the parts that earned the rankings
• Backlinks (preserved via 301)
• Internal links in (rebuilt against new sitemap, with the page kept as a destination)

What we update:

• Headlines and H2s — modernize for current readability without breaking topical alignment
• Outdated facts, dates, statistics
• References to old services, old pricing, old team members
• Calls to action — rebuild for the new conversion path
• Imagery — replace with new brand-aligned visuals
• Schema markup — rebuild from scratch

What we add:

• Internal links out to related new pages
• Updated meta description for the new CTR opportunity
• Modern formatting (better hierarchy, scannable sections, FAQ blocks where useful)
• Conversion elements that match the new site’s pattern

This is editorial work, not rewriting. The page is recognizably the same to Google but visibly better to a human reader.

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Some pages need full rewrites. Three triggers.

Trigger 1 — Topical alignment is wrong

The page is targeting a keyword but the content is on a different topic. Common with old SEO content where someone stuffed keywords without writing about the actual subject.

Fix: rewrite to actually be about the keyword’s intent.

Trigger 2 — Quality is below current bar

The page is 150 words of thin copy from 2018. Search rankings have moved up the quality curve. The page won’t rank for anything competitive.

Fix: rewrite at 2,000+ words with current depth standards. If the topic doesn’t justify 2,000 words, consolidate or retire.

Trigger 3 — Positioning has shifted

The page reflects the business as it was, not as it is. The services, audience, or pricing have changed.

Fix: rewrite to reflect current positioning. The URL stays (or a clean 301 if it changes).

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Blog posts have their own logic. Tampa SMB sites often have a backlog of 20–200 old blog posts, most of which are dead weight.

The blog audit

Pull traffic per post over the last 12 months. Sort descending.

• Top 20% by traffic. These are the keepers. Port with edits.
• Middle 60% — no traffic, no rankings. Almost always retire. Common categories: industry news from 5 years ago, generic “tips” posts, holiday/seasonal posts that won’t recur.
• Bottom 20% — actively dated or off-strategy. Retire with 301 to the blog index or topical parent.

What to do with old posts you can’t bring yourself to delete

If a post has emotional value (founder wrote it, links to a real customer) but no SEO value, you have two options:

1. Consolidate into a pillar page. If three old posts cover related topics, merge into one strong page. 301 the old URLs.
2. Move to a non-indexed archive. Sometimes useful for legal or compliance posts that need to exist but shouldn’t compete in search.

Don’t keep dead-weight blog posts indexed. They drag down the average quality signal Google calculates for the site.

See what to do with old blog posts.

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A few patterns we see on Tampa redesigns.

Service area pages

Older Tampa SMB sites often have one “Service Areas” page listing every neighborhood (“We serve South Tampa, Brandon, Riverview, Wesley Chapel…”). This is wasted SEO real estate.

In the redesign, we break that into individual service-area pages — one per major neighborhood (South Tampa, Brandon, Riverview, Wesley Chapel, Lutz, New Tampa, Westchase, etc.) — each with unique content, local proof, and neighborhood-specific copy. This is one of the highest-ROI changes during a Tampa redesign.

Hurricane and seasonal content

Tampa businesses in roofing, tree service, generator sales, restoration, and HVAC have seasonal traffic patterns. Old sites often have one outdated “hurricane prep” page from 2018. The redesign is the right moment to rebuild seasonal content as a small evergreen cluster.

Florida-specific legal/regulatory copy

Some Tampa Bay business categories (legal, healthcare, home services with licensing requirements) have outdated regulatory copy on the old site — sometimes referencing 2019 statutes. Migration is the right moment to update.

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If you’re approaching a redesign:

1. Free reply — send your URL, we’ll eyeball the content depth and flag obvious wins
2. $500 audit — full content audit with the keep/consolidate/rewrite/retire decision for every page. Rebates against the build.

The content audit is the artifact that makes the rest of the redesign possible. Without it, you’re guessing.

See also: Website redesign services, Preserve SEO during redesign, 301 redirect strategy, Do I need to rewrite all my content?, What to do with old blog posts.