Redesigning Your Website in Lebanon Without Losing Google or Your Customers

The story repeats itself in Beirut every few months. A business finally replaces its tired website. The new one is faster, cleaner, and looks like it belongs to a company twice the size. The owner shares it proudly. Then, over the next few weeks, the phone rings a little less. Fewer people message from Google. Someone mentions that the link in the Google Maps listing leads to an error page.

Nothing was wrong with the design. What went wrong is that the old site had been quietly earning its place in search for years, and the redesign threw that away — not through bad luck, but through a handful of steps nobody put in the brief.

This guide is about those steps: what to record before anyone touches the old site, how to carry its visibility across, the links outside your website that break without warning, and how to hire and pay for the work so the launch is the end of the risk rather than the start.

First, decide what kind of change this is

"Redesign" covers three very different jobs, and the risk grows with each:

• A refresh: new look, same pages, same addresses. The safest. If your current site ranks and brings enquiries and you mostly dislike how it looks, this is often all you need.
• A rebuild: new platform — say, from an old custom site to WordPress — with the page structure largely kept. Medium risk, because page addresses usually change.
• A restructure: new pages, merged pages, removed pages, new menu. Highest risk, because every change to what exists is a chance to lose something that was working.

Be honest about which one you are buying. Many owners ask for a restructure when a refresh would do, and pay for it twice: once in the build, and again in lost visibility.

Take an inventory before anyone touches the old site

You cannot protect what you have not written down. Before the developer starts, someone — the developer, an SEO freelancer, or you — should produce:

1. A list of every page address on the current site, including old blog posts, PDF menus, price lists and brochures that live on the site. A crawl tool or the site's sitemap gives most of it.
2. The pages that actually bring people in. If you have Google Search Console, export the pages that receive clicks from search and the searches they appear for. If you do not have it, set it up now; even a few weeks of data before the redesign is better than none.
3. The pages other sites link to, because those links are part of what gives your site weight in search.
4. Where your enquiries come from today — the contact form, the WhatsApp button, the phone number on the page — so you can check the new site does not bury them.
5. A full backup of the old site, kept somewhere you control, in case something needs to be recovered months later.

This list becomes the checklist for everything that follows. It is also the cheapest part of the whole project to skip, which is why it is so often skipped.

Map every old address to a new one

When a page's address changes and the old one simply stops working, search engines treat the new page as a stranger. It starts again from nothing, and every link pointing to the old address now leads to an error.

The fix is a redirect map: a simple two-column list of every old address and the new page that replaces it, set up as permanent (301) redirects on the new site. A few rules make it work:

• Redirect to the closest match, not the homepage. Sending every old page to the homepage is the lazy version, and search engines largely treat it as if the page had disappeared.
• Keep addresses unchanged where you can. The safest redirect is the one you never need. If /services/catering works, there is no prize for renaming it /what-we-do/events-and-catering.
• Include files, not just pages. PDF menus and price lists are often linked from Instagram, WhatsApp chats and other sites.
• Carry every language version across. If you have Arabic or French pages, each needs its own redirect and the new site must still mark which pages are translations of each other.

Keep what was working in the words

A redesign is a natural moment to rewrite copy, and some of it should be rewritten. But the pages that rank do so partly because of what they say. Rewrite them without that in mind and they can drop.

For each page on your "brings people in" list, give the copywriter the searches it currently appears for and ask them to keep the page about the same thing: similar title, a clear heading on the same topic, the same questions answered — just better. Move text into a new layout; do not delete it because the designer wanted more white space.

The links outside your website that break silently

This is the part international redesign checklists never mention, and where Lebanese businesses lose the most. Your website address is printed and pasted in places nobody remembers during a redesign:

• The website link in your Google Maps listing and Google Business Profile.
• The link in your Instagram and Facebook bios, and in pinned posts and story highlights.
• The website field in your WhatsApp Business profile, and old links sitting in thousands of customer chats.
• QR codes on printed menus, brochures, packaging, shop windows and delivery vans — the most expensive to replace, because they are physical.
• Listings in directories, municipality or syndicate pages, event pages and partner sites.

Your redirect map protects most of these automatically, which is another reason it matters. But the QR codes deserve special care: find out exactly which address each one points to and make sure that address still works on launch day — ideally forever.

If the old site was built by a developer who has since left or emigrated, check early that you have access to the domain and hosting; if you do not, recovering them is the first job, not the last. Our guide to owning your website after launch lists the accounts to secure.

Build out of sight, then launch carefully

The new site should be built on a staging address that search engines cannot see — protected by a password or blocked from indexing. The classic launch-day mistake is copying that block across to the live site, which quietly tells Google to stop listing you. Put "indexing block removed and checked" on the launch checklist by name.

Then choose the launch date. Do not launch in the week before your busiest period. If your season is December, a redesign that goes live in mid-December has no time to settle and no time to fix what breaks; a redesign that goes live in October does. It is late September now, which is exactly when a holiday-season redesign needs to be scoped, not started.

Resist changing your domain at the same time. Moving from a .com to a .com.lb, or the reverse, is its own project with its own redirects and a Search Console notification; combining it with a redesign makes it hard to tell which change caused any drop. Our guide to choosing between .lb and .com covers that decision.

The first month after launch

On launch day, test the pages on your "brings people in" list, the contact form, the WhatsApp button and a sample of old addresses to confirm they redirect. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console.

For the next few weeks, someone should check Search Console regularly for pages that return errors and fix each one with a redirect. Some movement in search positions after a redesign is normal while search engines re-read the site; a steady drop on your key pages is not, and the inventory you made at the start tells you exactly which pages to compare.

What it costs

On Furrsati, typical prices are:

• A 3–5 page small business website: typically $350 to $900.
• A 5–10 page WordPress business website: typically $700 to $1,800.
• Website page copy from a copywriter: typically $30 to $150 per page.
• Ongoing SEO work: typically $300 to $1,000 a month.

The inventory, redirect map and post-launch checks are the part most often left out of website quotes. Ask each developer whether they are included; if not, budget for an SEO freelancer to do them alongside the build. For a site that brings in real business, that work is the insurance on everything else you are paying for.

Hiring and paying safely

Ask every candidate: "How will you make sure we don't lose our Google traffic?" A good answer mentions an inventory of existing pages, a redirect map, staging that search engines cannot see, and checks after launch. An answer that is only about design is a warning.

Structure the milestones around the risk:

1. Inventory and redirect map delivered and reviewed.
2. New site on staging, approved page by page.
3. Launch with redirects live, indexing checked and forms tested.
4. A short post-launch check, a few weeks later, with errors fixed.

This is where Furrsati removes the risk. You post your project, compare proposals from verified freelancers, fund a milestone, and release payment only once you've approved the work, with milestone funds held by Stripe until you release them. The service fee comes off the freelancer's side, so only standard card processing is added to your bill, and wallet-funded milestones carry none. Freelancers verify their identity before they can withdraw; as a client you need no verification. Payouts reach the freelancer inside Lebanon by OMT, Whish, bank transfer or USDT.

Your next step

Before you ask anyone for a quote, set up Search Console if you have not, list the pages that bring you enquiries, and write down every place your web address is printed. Put all three in your brief — our guide to writing a website brief shows the rest. Then hire a WordPress developer or a developer for a small business website, bring in an SEO expert for the redirect map and launch checks, and a website copywriter to improve the words without losing what they earned.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will redesigning my website hurt my Google rankings?

It does not have to. Rankings are usually lost when page addresses change without permanent redirects, when pages that ranked are deleted or rewritten off-topic, or when the live site is accidentally blocked from search. With an inventory, a redirect map and checks after launch, most sites keep their visibility, and some gain.

What is a 301 redirect and why does a redesign need one?

A 301 is a permanent redirect: it sends visitors and search engines from an old page address to the new one and tells search engines the move is permanent. Without it, the old address shows an error, links to it are wasted and the new page starts from nothing in search.

Should all my old pages redirect to the homepage?

No. Redirect each old page to the new page closest in content. Sending everything to the homepage is treated by search engines much like the page disappearing, and it frustrates visitors who clicked a specific link.

When is the best time to launch a redesigned website?

Well before your busiest season, so there is time to fix what breaks. For a business whose peak is December, that means launching in October or early November, which in turn means scoping the work around now. Avoid launching in the week before a peak.

Can I change my domain and redesign at the same time?

You can, but it is safer not to. Each is a separate change with its own redirects, and doing both at once makes it hard to tell which one caused any drop. If you must, move the domain carefully with page-by-page redirects and Google's change of address notification in Search Console.

Who should I hire for a website redesign in Lebanon?

A developer for the build and, for any site that brings in real business, an SEO freelancer for the inventory, redirect map and launch checks, unless the developer includes that work in writing. A copywriter helps if the text is being improved. Pay by milestone, with the redirect map as its own deliverable.