Website redesign checklist: what breaks signups

A redesign changes addresses, navigation, copy and forms in one release. A visitor who knew the old site meets each change where their habit stops working. An old bookmark or search result points at an address that no longer exists, so they land on an error page. A pricing link that sat in the top menu may now hide behind a mobile menu. A rebuilt sign-up form may add a field the old one never asked for. Testing the pages you built misses the path an old visitor takes.

• Every address that still gets traffic loads its new page, or redirects to one.
• The first screen repeats the promise of the ad or link that sent the visitor.
• Pricing is one click from the homepage, under the label your visitors already use.
• The sign-up form asks for no new fields, and an empty submit names the field it needs.
• The confirmation email links to the live domain, not the preview or staging address.

Visitors reach your site through addresses the design work does not know about. Old ads, emails and bookmarks keep pointing at the old paths. Start from the landing pages report in your analytics for the months before launch. Keep every address that brought people in, and send each one to the same page or a permanent redirect. Then load each old address on the preview and check that it lands on the right page, not an error.

Test the site before launch

The headline on a redesign is often written for the brand, not for the ad or search that sent the visitor. If the ad promised invoicing for small firms and the new hero says 'Get paid, simply', the visitor has to work out whether they are in the right place. Put the old ad text next to the new first screen. Check whether the product noun and the main promise appear without scrolling. A visitor who sees a slogan instead of the product name is guessing.

Navigation is the quiet break. A label such as Pricing becomes Plans, or moves into a menu that only opens on a phone, and the visitor who came for the price has to hunt. Walk the old path on the preview and count the clicks from the homepage to the price. Compare that count with the live site. One extra click on a phone can be enough to lose them.

A rebuilt sign-up form can add a required field, change which fields show for a plan, or drop the hidden field your signup tool needs. Submit it with a blank field and then with a valid one, and read each message. A message that names the field tells the visitor what to fix. 'Something went wrong' sends them away. Each simulated visitor has a working inbox, so the test can follow the confirmation link.

Signup flow testing

The owner can see one thing the test cannot: the numbers before and after the switch, step by step. Open the same funnel for the month before launch and the month after, with homepage visits, pricing visits, sign-up visits and completed sign-ups. Find the first step where the count falls. A drop at the homepage points at addresses or the first screen. A drop before the sign-up page points at navigation. A drop after it points at the form.

A redesign is a series of small fixes, and each one can break the step before it. Rerun the same visitors after every fix, on each preview: the old-address visitor and the sign-up visitor. Protected previews and sign-in pages need a test account, which comes with paid credits.