After a Website Redesign: Test Forms, WhatsApp, Email, Redirects and Mobile Pages

Your redesigned site just went live and it looks sharp on the office screen. Before you move on, run one structured test pass: submit the contact form and confirm it reaches you, tap the WhatsApp button, send and receive on your business email, click your old links to check they land on the new pages, and open the whole thing on a phone. A redesign changes files, addresses and sometimes hosting, so the parts that quietly break are the ones your customers and Google use to reach you.

This is for an established business that has just relaunched a site, not built its first one. Below is a short explanation of what to test after a redesign, then a checklist grouped by area that you can run in under an hour.

TL;DR

• Go-live is not the finish line. A redesign moves things around, so test the paths customers and Google actually use before you relax.
• Test the lead paths first. The contact form and WhatsApp button must still reach you, checked live with real submissions.
• Confirm business email still works, because a hosting or domain-settings change during a redesign can quietly break sending and receiving.
• Click your important old links and confirm they redirect to the new pages, so you keep Google and do not dump visitors on error pages. The strategy for that lives in preserving Google visibility through a website change.
• This is post-launch testing only. It is not the redesign-or-rebuild decision (see redesign versus a full rebuild) or preparing old content for the move (see preparing content for a website migration).

What to test after a website redesign

After a redesign goes live, test the things a redesign is most likely to break: the contact form and WhatsApp button still reach you, business email still sends and receives, your important old URLs redirect to their new equivalents, every page works on a phone on mobile data, and your analytics is still recording visits. Anything that fails goes on one snag list to fix straight away, while the developer is still close to the work.

The post-redesign test checklist, grouped by area

Go through these on the live site, not a staging preview, because the point is to confirm what your customers will actually hit. You need a phone, a laptop and about an hour. Tick each item and note anything that fails so it lands on a single written snag list.

1. Forms and lead paths

• Submit every form on the site yourself (contact, quote request, booking, newsletter) and confirm each message arrives.
• Confirm submissions land in the inbox you actually monitor, not an old address left over from the previous site.
• After submitting, you reach a clear thank-you or confirmation page.
• Any auto-reply or internal notification that was set up still fires.
• Required fields, error messages and the send button all behave on both desktop and phone.

2. WhatsApp button and click-to-chat

• Tap the WhatsApp button and confirm it opens a chat to the correct, current number.
• Test it on an actual phone, where most people will use it, not only in the desktop preview.
• Any click-to-call phone links dial the right number.
• The number shown in the header, footer and contact page matches the one the button opens.

3. Business email deliverability

A redesign often comes with a move of hosting or a change to your domain settings, and that is exactly when email quietly stops working. Test it, do not assume.

• Send a test email from each business address, such as [email protected], to an outside inbox and confirm it arrives.
• Reply from that outside inbox and confirm the message comes back into your business email.
• Check that mail is not bouncing or dropping into the spam folder.
• Confirm your existing mailboxes and their history are intact, not reset by the move.

4. Redirects from old URLs

This is the redesign-specific check that protects the Google visibility you already have. When page addresses change, someone must point the old ones at their new equivalents.

• List your most important old pages (top traffic, pages people bookmark or share) and open each old address.
• Confirm each one redirects to the matching new page, not to a 404 error or the home page.
• Click through your own menu, footer and in-page links and check none are dead.
• Search Google for your business, click a few of the listed results, and see where those older links now land.

Which URLs to redirect, and how to keep your rankings through the change, is a topic in its own right. Work through preserving Google visibility through a website change for the strategy, and use this checklist to confirm the redirects actually work.

5. Mobile pages on real devices

Most of your visitors arrive on a phone, often on mobile data, so a design that passes on a wide monitor can still break on a small screen.

• Open every important page on an actual phone, not a shrunken browser window.
• Text is readable without pinching to zoom, and nothing runs off the edge of the screen.
• Buttons, the menu and the WhatsApp button are easy to tap with a thumb.
• Images are sized for mobile and pages load in a reasonable time on mobile data, not only on office wifi.
• Any new sliders, pop-ups or menus from the redesign work on touch, not just with a mouse.

6. Analytics and tracking still firing

During a rebuild the tracking code is often left off the new pages, so you lose sight of traffic right when you most want to watch it.

• Your visitor stats or analytics tool is installed on the new pages and recording visits.
• Open the site yourself and confirm the visit shows up in the stats.
• Any conversion or form-submission tracking you relied on before is still counting.
• The security padlock (HTTPS) shows on every page, with no "not secure" warning.

How to run it without holding up the relaunch

Do the pass in one sitting, ideally within a day of go-live while the developer is still close to the work. Write every fault in one place as a numbered snag list: the page, what is wrong, and what you expected. Send that single list back, get the batch fixed, then re-check in one pass rather than trickling feedback out over a week.

Keep the standard fair. Genuine faults from the redesign, a broken form or a redirect that misses, are the developer's to correct before sign-off. A brand-new feature or an extra page you have thought of since is a change request, which is handled differently and should not hold the relaunch hostage.

What this checklist does not cover

This is the post-launch test pass, not the decisions that came before it. If you are still weighing how far to go, our guide on redesign versus a full rebuild helps you choose the path. If you are earlier still and sorting out which pages and content to carry across, preparing your content for a website migration covers the inventory and the keep, cut or rewrite calls. Both happen before the site you are now testing exists.

How this works with a TechTribe redesign

A TechTribe redesign is built to pass the pass above. Mobile-first pages designed for slow connections, a contact form and WhatsApp button wired up, a security padlock and Google-ready setup, and visitor stats installed, all part of the standard build rather than sold back as extras. Because the redesign work includes handling content migration and redirects, the old-URL group on this list is something we plan for, not patch afterwards.

When your business email sits on the same domain, keeping it working through the change is part of the job. Year 1 includes hosting, a .co.zw domain and up to five business email accounts, so the accounts you test on this list are set up and handed to you. If your current site is slow, outdated or hard to update and a relaunch is on the table, talk to us about a redesign and we will run this test pass with you before we call it live.

Your next step

A redesign is not finished when it looks right. It is finished when the form reaches you, WhatsApp opens, email sends and receives, your old links land on the correct pages, and the site works on a phone. Run the six groups above within a day of go-live, put anything broken on one snag list, and only then treat the relaunch as done.

If your site needs that relaunch and you would rather it be tested properly the first time, start a redesign conversation and we will walk this checklist with you before sign-off.

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Author: Simon Updated: May 2026