On-Page SEO Checklist Before Relaunch: 15 Critical Checkpoints for B2B Websites in 2025

Why a Strategic SEO Check Before Relaunch Determines Your Business Success

In the digital business world of 2025, the decision to relaunch a website is often unavoidable. Whether due to outdated technology, obsolete design, or strategic realignments – every B2B company eventually faces this challenge. What many decision-makers underestimate: A relaunch without a thorough on-page SEO check can have catastrophic consequences.

According to a 2024 Sistrix analysis, up to 68% of all websites lose at least 30% of their organic visibility following a relaunch without an SEO strategy. For a typical medium-sized B2B company, this specifically means: Fewer qualified leads, higher acquisition costs, and ultimately declining revenues – a risk no business leader should take.

„A website relaunch without an SEO check is like taking off in an airplane without instruments. You don’t know where you are, where you’re flying to, or if you’ll ever land safely.“

Johannes Häusler, SEO Expert and Digital Department Head at BRIXON Group

The good news: With a structured on-page SEO check before the relaunch, you can not only minimize risks but use the relaunch as an opportunity for significant growth. A study by BrightEdge shows that B2B companies with SEO-optimized relaunches increased their organic visibility by an average of 43% – with corresponding positive effects on lead generation and conversion rates.

In this article, we present the 15 critical checkpoints that are essential for a successful SEO check before a relaunch. This checklist is specifically tailored to the needs of B2B companies with 10-100 employees and takes into account the latest SEO trends and algorithm updates of 2025.

Preparation: How Your SEO Check Becomes a Competitive Advantage

Before diving into technical details, solid preparation is crucial. Setting the right course at the beginning not only saves time and resources but also maximizes the ROI of your relaunch project.

Project Structure with Clear Responsibilities for B2B Organizations

A successful relaunch project begins with the right team structure. While large enterprises have specialized teams for content, SEO, and development, medium-sized B2B companies often face the challenge of limited resources.

The current Searchmetrics study „B2B Digital Success 2025“ shows: The most successful B2B relaunches had a dedicated SEO responsible, even if this person was brought in externally. This „SEO champion“ coordinates SEO requirements with development, design, and marketing.

Your relaunch project structure should include the following key roles:

• SEO Manager: Coordinates all SEO-relevant aspects of the relaunch
• Content Strategist: Responsible for content audit and migration
• Technical Project Manager: Translates SEO requirements into technical specifications
• Stakeholder from Sales/Marketing: Ensures alignment with business goals

Essential Benchmark Data for Later Success Measurement

„What isn’t measured can’t be improved“ – this management wisdom applies especially to website relaunches. Before the relaunch, you need to precisely capture the status quo to later evaluate the success of your measures.

According to a Search Engine Journal survey of 230 SEO experts, these are the 5 most important benchmark KPIs for B2B websites before a relaunch:

1. Organic Traffic: Total traffic, but also broken down by important landing pages
2. Keyword Rankings: Positions for strategically important keywords (especially those with high conversion rates)
3. Crawling Statistics: Crawl budget, indexing rate, crawl errors
4. Page Experience Metrics: Core Web Vitals, mobile usability
5. Conversion Metrics: Conversion rates by entry pages and traffic sources

Particularly important: Export this data into detailed reports, ideally with data from a period of at least 6-12 months to account for seasonal fluctuations.

Tool Stack 2025: What You Need for a Comprehensive SEO Check

The right tools are essential for an effective SEO check. The tool landscape has evolved in 2025, with a stronger focus on AI integration and more precise analysis of user and entity signals.

These tools should not be missing from your SEO relaunch arsenal:

• Google Search Console: Essential for indexing and ranking data directly from Google
• Google Analytics 4 with GA4-AI: For in-depth user behavior analysis
• Screaming Frog SEO Spider: For comprehensive website audits and crawling simulation
• Semrush or Ahrefs: For keyword and competitor analyses
• PageSpeed Insights with Lighthouse: For Core Web Vitals and performance analysis
• Sitebulb: Specialized tool for technical SEO audits
• ContentKing or Deepcrawl: For continuous monitoring during the migration phase

New in 2025: Tools like SEOsense or RankBrain Simulator now enable more precise predictions of how AI-based search algorithms will respond to your website structure – particularly valuable in the B2B sector, where complex content often needs to be captured better through semantic analyses.

Checkpoints 1-3: Content Strategy and Keyword Mapping

Checkpoint 1: Performance Analysis of Existing Content with B2B Relevance

The foundation of every successful relaunch is a systematic content audit. Contrary to the common assumption that „more content = better,“ a current study by Botify shows that up to 30% of content on B2B websites generates no measurable traffic, and another 45% contributes only minimally.

A performance analysis classifies your existing content into four categories:

• Keep and migrate: High-performance content with good rankings and traffic
• Revise and improve: Content with potential but suboptimal performance
• Consolidate: Similar content that should be merged
• Remove: Outdated or non-performing content without strategic value

For this analysis, you need a combination of quantitative data (traffic, rankings, engagement metrics) and qualitative assessment (strategic relevance, timeliness, unique value).

A special challenge in the B2B sector: The value of content that may generate little traffic but is important for high-quality leads or specific phases of the sales funnel. We therefore recommend the additional evaluation dimension „Business Value,“ which is often more decisive for B2B relaunches than pure traffic figures.

Checkpoint 2: Identify and Strategically Resolve Keyword Cannibalization

Keyword cannibalization occurs when multiple pages of your website are optimized for the same keyword or thematically very similar keywords. This causes your pages to compete with each other, making it difficult for Google to determine the most relevant page for a particular search pattern.

According to an analysis by Moz, keyword cannibalization is particularly common in B2B websites with complex product portfolios – and can lead to rankings up to 30% lower.

Here’s how to identify keyword cannibalization:

1. Export your top 100 keywords from Search Console
2. Identify keywords for which multiple of your URLs appear in the SERPs
3. Analyze whether these URLs truly serve different search intents
4. Check for fluctuating rankings, a typical symptom of cannibalization

As part of the relaunch, a clear concept for eliminating keyword cannibalization should be developed, where each URL receives a unique thematic orientation and a clear keyword set.

Checkpoint 3: Content Mapping for the New Information Architecture

Content mapping is the process of determining how your existing content will be transferred to the new website structure. This is important not only for redirects but also for the strategic realignment of your content architecture.

Effective content mapping considers:

• Thematic Clusters: Grouping related content to strengthen thematic relevance
• Customer Journey: Aligning content with the phases of the B2B purchasing process
• Hierarchical Structure: Clear assignment of main and sub-pages
• Internal Linking: Strategic networking for optimal link equity transfer

Especially for B2B companies with complex products and long sales cycles, well-thought-out content mapping is crucial. The current HubSpot study „B2B Content Architecture 2025“ shows that websites with thematically clearly structured content clusters generate an average of 76% more organic traffic for long-tail keywords – a significant advantage for B2B websites that often rely on specific technical terms and complex search queries.

Checkpoints 4-7: Technical SEO Factors for Maximum Visibility

Checkpoint 4: Crawling Efficiency and Indexing Optimization

Optimal crawling efficiency is the basic prerequisite for any successful SEO strategy. In the post-Quantum update era of 2025, crawl budget has become even more important as Google uses its resources more selectively.

During a relaunch, you must ensure that search engines can efficiently crawl and index your new website. This includes:

• Optimized robots.txt: Clear instructions for crawlers on which areas to crawl and which to avoid
• XML sitemap strategy: Updated, segmented sitemaps with prioritized URLs
• Minimizing crawl depth: Placing important pages at most 3 clicks away from the homepage
• Eliminating technical hurdles: Identifying and fixing JavaScript rendering issues, excessive redirect chains, and 404 errors

According to a DeepCrawl analysis from 2024, technical crawling issues during a relaunch can lead to indexing losses of up to 60%. Particularly at risk are JavaScript-heavy websites and those with complex filtering functions, which are common in the B2B sector.

Checkpoint 5: Core Web Vitals and UX Signals According to Google Standards 2025

Since the Experience Update 2.0 of 2024, Core Web Vitals have gained even more importance. They are no longer just a tie-breaker among many ranking factors but an independent ranking factor with substantial weight.

Particularly relevant for B2B websites is the Interaction to Next Paint (INP) metric introduced in 2025, which measures the responsiveness of interactive elements – especially important for complex B2B product configurators and interactive specification tables.

Pay attention to these Core Web Vitals thresholds for your relaunch (as of 2025):

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): < 2.0 seconds
• First Input Delay (FID): < 50 ms
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): < 0.1
• Interaction to Next Paint (INP): < 150 ms

A 2025 Semrush study has demonstrated a direct correlation between Core Web Vitals and conversion rates in the B2B sector: Websites that met all Core Web Vitals in the „good“ range saw an average 24% higher conversion rates for lead generation forms.

Checkpoint 6: Mobile Experience as a Business Factor

Even though B2B users use desktop devices more frequently than B2C customers, mobile optimization is no longer an optional factor in 2025. Google indexes all websites primarily via the mobile-first index, and mobile traffic continues to increase in the B2B sector as well.

The current BrightEdge analysis „B2B Mobile Usage 2025“ shows that 47% of B2B researchers now use mobile devices for at least part of their research phase. Particularly important: Initial research increasingly happens on mobile, while detailed product and price comparisons are more likely to be conducted on desktop.

For your relaunch, this means:

• Consistent implementation of responsive design (not just adaptive)
• Optimization of mobile navigation for B2B-typical complex site structures
• Mobile-friendly presentation of technical specifications and tables
• Adaptation of forms for mobile use (without conversion barriers)

Checkpoint 7: Page Experience and Interaction Signals

In addition to Core Web Vitals, Google’s Page Experience Signal includes other factors that must be considered during a relaunch:

• HTTPS security: Standard encryption of all pages
• No intrusive interstitials: Especially with mobile use
• Safe browsing: No malware or deceptive content
• User engagement signals: Time on page, bounce rate, pogo-sticking

New in 2025 is the increased weighting of interaction signals. Clicks-per-session, scroll depth, and time-to-first-interaction are increasingly interpreted as quality signals by Google’s AI models.

A study by Advanced Web Ranking shows that B2B websites with above-average engagement metrics (session duration, page views per session) demonstrate significantly better ranking stability after relaunches than those with weak engagement data.

Checkpoints 8-10: URL Structure and Redirect Strategy

Checkpoint 8: Develop an SEO-Friendly URL Hierarchy

Your website’s URL structure is a fundamental aspect of technical SEO and one of the most critical factors in a relaunch. A well-thought-out URL hierarchy fulfills several functions:

• It communicates the information architecture to search engines
• It makes it easier for users to understand the website structure
• It helps with the thematic clustering of content

For B2B websites with complex product portfolios, a logical URL hierarchy is particularly important. The current SEO practice of 2025 recommends the following structure:


domain.com/main-category/subcategory/specific-content/


Example for a B2B provider of CRM software:


domain.com/products/crm-software/industries/manufacturing/


When planning URLs for the relaunch, follow these best practices:

• Descriptive URLs: Use meaningful keywords instead of cryptic parameters
• Consistent hierarchy: Logical structure from general to specific
• Moderate URL length: Ideally under 75 characters, maximum 3-4 folder levels
• No duplicates: Each piece of content should only be accessible via one canonical URL

An analysis by Ahrefs (2024) shows that SEO-friendly URL structures can lead to an average of 37% more organic traffic after a relaunch for B2B websites.

Checkpoint 9: Redirect Mapping for Seamless User and Search Engine Guidance

One of the most common causes of traffic loss after a relaunch is a faulty or incomplete redirect strategy. Every URL that generated traffic on the old website must be correctly redirected to its counterpart in the new structure.

Your redirect mapping should include the following elements:

1. Complete URL inventory: Capture all URLs of the old website (including PDF documents and other assets)
2. 1:1 mapping: Each old URL is assigned to a new URL
3. Prioritization by traffic: Special focus on URLs with high organic traffic
4. Consideration of external links: Pay special attention to URLs with valuable backlinks

Technically, you should implement 301 redirects (permanent redirects). The latest Google statements confirm that 301 redirects can transfer nearly 100% of link equity if implemented correctly.

Be sure to avoid these common redirect errors:

• Redirect chains: Multiple consecutive redirects slow down the page and can lose link equity
• Redirect loops: URLs that refer to each other in an endless loop
• Wrong redirect types: 302 (temporary) instead of 301 (permanent) redirects

A 2025 Searchmetrics study shows that B2B websites with complete redirect mappings lose an average of only 7% of organic traffic after a relaunch, while websites without a systematic redirect strategy can experience losses of up to 78%.

Checkpoint 10: Canonical Strategy and Duplicate Content Management

Duplicate content is a common problem for B2B websites, especially those with extensive product or service portfolios that differ in nuances. A relaunch offers the opportunity to address this problem systematically.

An effective canonical strategy includes:

• Identification of duplicate content: Recognizing page pairs with high content similarity
• Defining canonical URLs: Establishing a primary URL for each piece of content
• Correct implementation of canonical tags: <link rel="canonical" href="https://www.domain.com/canonical-url/" />
• Consideration in the sitemap: Including only canonical URLs in the XML sitemap

In the B2B sector, special attention should be paid to:

• Filter functions: Product catalogs with multiple filter parameters can lead to thousands of similar URLs
• Language versions: Correct implementation of hreflang tags for international B2B providers
• Print versions: Often overlooked source of duplicate content for technical specifications

According to a Path Interactive study, canonical tag issues cause significant indexing problems in up to 35% of all B2B relaunches. A clean canonical strategy is therefore an essential part of your SEO check before the relaunch.

Checkpoints 11-13: Metadata and Structured Data for AI Visibility

Checkpoint 11: Title Tags and Meta Descriptions with Conversion Focus

Title tags and meta descriptions remain central elements for SEO and Click-Through Rate (CTR) in 2025. During a relaunch, it is essential not just to transfer these but to strategically revise them.

A Sistrix analysis shows that optimized title tags can increase CTR in the B2B sector by up to 43% – a significant lever, even if rankings remain unchanged.

Current best practices for title tags (as of 2025):

• Optimal length: 50-60 characters (Google more frequently truncates longer titles)
• Primary keyword at the beginning: Higher weighting by search engines
• Integrate secondary keyword: For thematic completion
• Unique Value Proposition: What distinguishes this page from competitors?
• Brand integration: Brand name at the end (exception: homepage)

For meta descriptions, the following recommendations apply:

• Optimal length: 120-155 characters
• Clear call-to-action: B2B-specific call to action
• Communicate value proposition: Why should the user click?
• Semantic entities: Integrate technical terms and topic-relevant entities

New in 2025: Google increasingly shows AI-generated snippets that can complement or replace original meta descriptions. To influence this, your descriptions should contain clear facts, figures, and entity relationships that can be easily extracted by AI systems.

Checkpoint 12: Schema.org Markup for B2B-Relevant Rich Snippets

Structured data is no longer optional in 2025 but a central SEO factor – especially in the context of increasing AI integration in search results. Through correct Schema.org markup, B2B websites can stand out in the SERPs and display valuable additional information directly in the search result.

Schema types particularly relevant for B2B websites:

• Organization: Basic company data including logo and social profiles
• Product: For product pages (including B2B products) with specifications
• Service: For services with description and pricing models
• FAQPage: For FAQ pages and product questions (particularly relevant for featured snippets)
• HowTo: For technical instructions and implementation guides
• Event: For webinars, trade shows, and industry events
• BreadcrumbList: For optimal navigation aid in the SERPs

A special focus in 2025 should be on the FAQPage schema. A study by SISTRIX shows that B2B websites with FAQ schema achieve a 28% higher CTR than comparable pages without this markup.

New in 2025: Google now also supports more complex nested schema structures, which are particularly relevant for B2B products with multiple variants and specifications. Tip: Use the advanced Schema Markup Validator to ensure your structured data is implemented correctly.

Checkpoint 13: Entity-Based Optimization for Generative Search

With the rise of generative AI search results, the SEO playing field has fundamentally changed. Google, Bing, and other search engines increasingly consider entity relationships as a central element of search algorithms.

For a successful B2B relaunch in 2025, integrating an entity strategy is essential:

• Entity mapping: Systematic identification of relevant entities in your industry
• Entity markup: Integration of Schema.org markup for central entities
• Semantic relationships: Clear representation of connections between entities
• Authoritative sources: Linking to authoritative sources that strengthen entity relationships

In practice, this means: A B2B provider of cloud computing solutions should not only mention terms like „SaaS,“ „IaaS,“ or „Private Cloud,“ but embed them in a clear semantic context and make the relationships between these concepts explicit.

A 2024 SearchMetrics study shows that websites with a clear semantic structure and explicit entity relationships are 74% more likely to be referenced in AI-generated answers – a decisive advantage in the new era of generative search.

Checkpoints 14-15: Internal Linking and UX Design

Checkpoint 14: Optimal Information Architecture for B2B Buyer Journey

Your website’s information architecture should reflect and support the typical B2B buyer journey. This is particularly important as B2B decision processes are significantly more complex and longer than in the B2C sector.

A current Gartner study shows that B2B buyers consult an average of 27 different information sources before making a purchase decision. Your website’s information architecture must support this research process:

• Awareness phase: Solution-oriented content that addresses problems and challenges
• Consideration phase: Detailed product information, case studies, comparisons
• Decision phase: Technical specifications, pricing models, implementation details

For your relaunch, you should consider the following aspects of a B2B-optimized information architecture:

• Logical main navigation: Clearly structured, intuitively understandable main categories
• Progressive disclosure: Information depth increases with advancing customer journey
• Contextual networking: Offer related content in each phase of the customer journey
• Conversion paths: Clear paths to lead generation in every phase

New in 2025: With the increasing importance of conversational search, information architecture should also consider natural question sequences, as typically occur in conversations with chatbots or voice-controlled assistants.

Checkpoint 15: Strategic Link Equity Distribution for Core Pages

The internal linking structure is a powerful SEO tool that is often not adequately considered during relaunches. With strategic internal linking, you can distribute link strength (link equity) specifically to your most important pages.

According to a 2024 Botify study, an average of 31% of pages on B2B websites receive too few internal links to rank effectively – a problem that should be fixed with the relaunch.

The following methods help with optimal link equity distribution:

1. Hierarchical linking: Clear link pyramid from main categories to subcategories and specific pages
2. Hub-and-spoke model: Central topic pages (hubs) with comprehensive links to specific sub-pages (spokes)
3. Contextual links: Relevant links within the body text rather than just in navigation menus
4. Anchor text optimization: Descriptive, keyword-containing anchor texts for internal links

A particularly effective tool for large B2B websites is internal link analysis. Before the relaunch, identify your most important pages (by business value and SEO potential) and ensure they receive an above-average number of high-quality internal links.

In practice, a combination of algorithmic analysis (e.g., with Screaming Frog) and strategic planning has proven effective in developing an optimal internal linking structure.

Implementation and Success Measurement: From Theory to Practice

The Optimal Tracking Setup for B2B-Specific KPIs

A precise tracking setup is crucial to measure the success of your relaunch and identify optimization potential. Different KPIs are relevant for B2B websites than in the B2C sector.

Your tracking setup should include the following B2B-specific metrics:

• Lead quality score: Quality assessment of generated leads (not just quantity)
• Content engagement by buyer persona: Which content appeals to which target groups?
• Multi-touch attribution: Consideration of longer B2B decision processes
• Conversion path analysis: Which content leads to conversions?
• Return visitor rate: Returning traffic as an indicator of nurturing success

Technically, you should rely on a combination of Google Analytics 4, CRM integration, and specialized B2B marketing automation. The GA4 event structure allows for significantly more detailed tracking granularity than older Analytics versions.

An optimal setup includes:

1. Basic tag management with Google Tag Manager
2. Advanced Enhanced E-Commerce tracking (relevant even for non-E-Commerce B2B websites)
3. Custom dimensions for B2B-specific data (company industry, company size, etc.)
4. Cross-domain tracking for complex B2B setups with multiple domains
5. User ID tracking for better attribution of leads to interactions

The First 30 Days After Relaunch: Critical Monitoring

The first 30 days after the relaunch are decisive. During this time, you need to monitor particularly intensively and react quickly to potential problems.

Your post-launch monitoring should cover the following aspects:

• Daily crawling monitoring: Identification of crawling problems and errors
• Redirect monitoring: Are all redirects working as planned?
• Indexing control: Are your pages being correctly and completely indexed?
• Ranking tracking: Daily monitoring of your most important keywords
• Conversion tracking: Impact on lead generation and other conversions

A detailed monitoring plan with clear responsibilities is crucial. Define thresholds for critical metrics in advance and an escalation process in case these are exceeded.

According to a Conductor study, 78% of all relaunch problems can be identified and fixed within the first two weeks – if appropriate monitoring is implemented.

Exploiting SEO Potential After the Relaunch

The relaunch itself is just the beginning. To leverage the full potential, you should plan for continuous optimization:

• Data-driven content optimization: Based on the performance data of the new website
• A/B testing: Systematic tests for title tags, CTAs, and other conversion-relevant elements
• Crawl budget optimization: Continuous improvement of crawling efficiency
• Structured data expansion: Gradual extension of Schema.org markup

A sensible strategy is prioritization according to the „Data-Impact-Effort“ model: Analyze which optimizations promise the greatest impact with the least effort, and start with these quick wins.

The Brightedge study „Post-Relaunch Optimization 2024“ shows that B2B websites that implement a systematic optimization program after the relaunch achieve an average of 67% more traffic growth over 12 months than those that do not implement further optimizations after the relaunch.

Checklist: Your Compact 15-Point Plan for SEO Relaunch Success

For concrete implementation, here are all 15 checkpoints in a concise checklist:

1. Conduct content audit: Evaluate existing content by performance, relevance, and potential
2. Identify keyword cannibalization: Detect overlapping keyword targeting and clean it up
3. Create content mapping: Strategically assign content from the existing website to the new structure
4. Optimize crawling efficiency: Check robots.txt, XML sitemaps, and technical hurdles for crawlers
5. Optimize Core Web Vitals: Improve LCP, FID, CLS, and INP for optimal page experience
6. Ensure mobile experience: Guarantee complete responsiveness and mobile usability
7. Optimize interaction signals: Improve engagement metrics such as time on page and scroll depth
8. Develop an SEO-friendly URL structure: Logical, semantic hierarchy with descriptive URLs
9. Create comprehensive redirect mapping: 1:1 mapping of old and new URLs with 301 redirects
10. Implement canonical strategy: Identify duplicate content and define canonical URLs
11. Optimize title tags and meta descriptions: CTR-focused metadata with clear value proposition
12. Implement Schema.org markup: Structured data for B2B-relevant rich snippets
13. Perform entity-based optimization: Establish semantic relationships for AI visibility
14. Align information architecture with B2B buyer journey: Organize structure according to customer journey
15. Strategically plan internal linking: Distribute link equity specifically to important pages

Different priorities apply for various company sizes:

• Small companies (10-25 employees): Special focus on points 1, 4, 9, 11, and 14
• Medium companies (26-50 employees): Focus on points 1-3, 5, 9-10, and 12-14
• Larger medium-sized companies (51-100 employees): Comprehensive implementation of all 15 points

Download our detailed relaunch checklist with concrete instructions, tools, and resources for each checkpoint: SEO Relaunch Checklist 2025

Conclusion: Successful B2B Relaunch with Systematic SEO Check

A website relaunch is both a risk and an opportunity for B2B companies. With the 15 checkpoints presented, you have a solid foundation not only to avoid ranking losses but to use the relaunch as a real growth driver.

The data speaks clearly: While B2B websites without a systematic SEO check lose an average of 40-70% of their organic traffic after a relaunch, companies with a well-thought-out SEO strategy can actually increase their visibility by 20-50%.

Particularly important in the current SEO landscape of 2025:

• The increasing importance of semantic structures and entity relationships for AI-based search algorithms
• The continued focus on user experience and page experience signals
• The necessity to optimize content not just for keywords but for search intents
• The strategic alignment of website architecture with the B2B customer journey

For different types of B2B companies, specific challenges emerge:

• Technology companies should pay particular attention to the semantic structuring of complex product information
• Industrial companies benefit from a well-thought-out entity strategy for products, applications, and industries
• Service providers should focus on high-converting landing pages and clear process representations

Ultimately, success depends not on the selective implementation of individual measures but on a holistic SEO strategy that combines technical excellence, content quality, and user orientation.

With our 15-point check, you have a practical guide to lead your relaunch to SEO success. Use this opportunity to take your digital visibility to the next level.

FAQ: Common Questions About On-Page SEO Check Before a Relaunch