A redesign brief often focuses on appearance and functionality while search considerations arrive late. Bringing SEO requirements into the project early does not mean designing for search engines; it means preserving useful content, discoverable structure and evidence needed to judge the change.
Describe what must improve without discarding what works
Record the problems the redesign is meant to solve and identify existing pages or journeys that already serve users well. This prevents the project from treating the current site as disposable simply because its visual design is changing.
Make URL decisions part of the design process
New information architecture can change addresses as well as navigation. Flag important existing URLs and require an explicit decision for each meaningful change. Redirect planning is easier when it happens alongside structure design rather than immediately before launch.
Define content responsibilities early
Clarify who audits existing copy, who writes new material, who verifies specialist claims and who approves final pages. Design timelines often assume content will appear automatically, creating rushed decisions that weaken otherwise strong page layouts.
Specify navigation and internal-link requirements
Important pages should be reachable through routes that make sense to visitors. Include expectations for menus, contextual links and related content where relevant, while leaving designers room to solve the interface rather than prescribing a rigid SEO layout.
Protect measurement continuity
Document the measurement and search-performance information currently used by the business and plan how required tracking will be handled through the redesign. Verification after launch should compare intended implementation with what is actually present.
Include a launch and post-launch review
The brief should reserve time for checking redirects, indexability, internal links, content and other agreed controls after deployment. A redesign is not complete merely because the new pages render correctly; the planned information structure must survive the move into production.