Before your redesign starts, the most useful thing you can do is not choose a new look. It is to take stock of the content you already have and decide, page by page, what survives the move. Preparing old content for a migration means building an inventory of every existing page, then marking each one to keep, rewrite, merge, drop or redirect, so nothing valuable disappears and nothing dead gets carried across.
This is for an established Zimbabwe business with a live site that is outdated or underperforming, and a redesign on the way. Below is the inventory method, a template you can copy, and a simple way to decide what happens to each page.
TL;DR
- The core move: list every existing page in one inventory before the design work starts, then tag each page keep, rewrite, merge, drop or redirect.
- Keep what earns enquiries or ranks, rewrite what is useful but dated, merge thin overlapping pages, drop the dead weight, and redirect any URL you remove or rename.
- The payoff below is a copyable content-inventory template with exactly those columns.
- Every page you drop or move needs a redirect decision, so old links and search results still land somewhere sensible. The redirect and ranking mechanics are their own job, covered in a separate guide.
- Do the inventory yourself or with your developer before the new design is signed off, not after launch, when fixes cost more.
What preparing your content actually means
Preparing content for a migration is a decision exercise, not a copy-paste job. You go through every page on the current site, record what it is and how it performs, then choose one action for it: keep as is, rewrite, merge into another page, drop, or redirect its URL. Doing this before the redesign means the new site launches carrying only content worth keeping.
Skip this step and one of two things usually happens. Either the new site quietly loses pages that were bringing in enquiries, or it inherits years of thin, dated pages that make the fresh design look tired within a month.
Build the content inventory first
Start with a complete list of every page you have, not a list from memory. Owners almost always forget the old landing page from a 2023 campaign, the event page, the staff bio that still ranks, or the service you no longer offer. Pull the full set of URLs from your sitemap.xml, your CMS page list, or a crawl of the site. One row per page.
For each page, capture only what you need to make a decision:
- The URL, so you can map it to a redirect target later.
- What the page is, in a few words.
- Whether it performs, judged from your own analytics and enquiry data, not a guess.
- The action you are choosing for it.
- Where it goes, if it moves or gets redirected.
That is enough. You are not writing a report. You are making one clear decision per page.
The content-inventory template
Copy this into a spreadsheet. The Action column is the whole point: every row gets exactly one value from keep, rewrite, merge, drop or redirect.
| Old URL | What the page is | Does it earn traffic or enquiries? | Action | New URL / redirect target | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /services | Overview of what you offer | Yes, ranks and converts | Keep | /services | Move as is |
| /about-old | Founder bio, written in 2021 | Some traffic | Rewrite | /about | Update to current team and services |
| /product-a, /product-b | Two thin near-identical pages | Low each | Merge | /products | Combine into one stronger page |
| /summer-sale-2023 | Expired campaign page | No | Drop | /offers or /services | Redirect, do not just delete |
| /old-blog-post | Dead post, no traffic | No | Redirect | /blog | Send to the closest live page |
The example rows are there to show the pattern, not to prescribe your URLs. Fill the sheet with your real pages, and by the end you have two things: a content plan for the build, and a redirect map for launch.
How to choose an action
Most pages fall cleanly into one bucket once you look at them honestly. Use this key when you are unsure.
| Action | Choose it when | What happens at migration |
|---|---|---|
| Keep | The page earns traffic or enquiries and still reflects what you do today | Moves to the same or a mapped URL, wording unchanged |
| Rewrite | The topic still matters but the content is dated, thin, or written for the wrong audience | Rebuilt on the new site with fresh copy |
| Merge | Several weak pages cover the same thing | Combined into one stronger page, the others redirected to it |
| Drop | The page is dead, expired, or about something you no longer do | Removed from the new site, its URL redirected |
| Redirect | The URL is changing or the page is going, but its address still gets visits or links | Old URL points to the closest live replacement |
A few judgment calls worth making deliberately:
- Do not drop a page just because it is old. An old page that still ranks and brings enquiries is one of your most valuable assets. Keep it, or rewrite it, but do not delete it on instinct.
- When in doubt, keep and improve rather than drop. It is easier to trim later than to rebuild a page you deleted.
- Merging beats hoarding. Three thin pages competing for the same search almost always perform worse than one clear, complete page.
- Redirect is not optional. Any URL you remove or rename needs a redirect. That is the single mistake that turns a redesign into a traffic loss.
Mark redirects now, wire them at launch
Fill the "redirect target" column while the pages are fresh in your mind. For every page you drop, merge, or move to a new URL, point the old address at the closest live replacement, so existing Google results, shared WhatsApp links and any inbound links keep working instead of hitting a dead 404.
Deciding the targets is a content job you can finish in the inventory. Implementing the redirects properly, and protecting your Google visibility through the change, is a technical job with its own rules. That side is covered in our guide on how to change your website without losing Google. Keep the two separate: decide the map now, wire it at launch.
What this guide does not cover
This one stops at the content decisions and the redirect map. It does not cover the mechanics of implementing redirects and holding your rankings through a change, which is its own guide on changing your website without losing Google. It also does not cover checking the new site after launch, which belongs in our post-redesign testing checklist. Do the inventory here first, then hand it to those two steps.
How this works with a TechTribe redesign
TechTribe's redesign work includes content migration and redirects, so this inventory is exactly what we build from. When we redesign an outdated site, you decide what moves, what gets rewritten, and what retires, and we set up the redirects for the pages you retire so the change does not cost you traffic.
Because general business websites are once-off rather than a monthly subscription, you are paying to fix the site, not renting access to it. After Year 1, hosting, your domain and email continue on the standard $75 per year renewal, whether you redesign or not. Starting the inventory before you talk to us means the scoping conversation is faster and your quote reflects the real size of the job.
Your next step
A redesign is the cheapest moment you will ever get to clean up your content, because someone is already touching every page. Do not waste it by copying the old site across untouched, and do not gut it on instinct either. Build the inventory, make one clear decision per page, and fill in a redirect target for everything you remove or rename.
When you are ready to hand that over, start your website redesign with us, or talk it through first if you want to sense-check what should stay and what should go.
Author: Simon Updated: May 2026
Redesign without losing what works
TechTribe redesigns outdated Zimbabwe business websites and migrates the content worth keeping, with redirects for the pages you retire. Tell us about your current site and we will map the move with you.
About the author
Simon
Simon writes about websites, lead capture, and digital growth for real estate agencies in Zimbabwe.
