How to Implement Navigation Management During a Website Redesign

Start Here: Redesign Navigation Must Solve "Findability" and "Alignment"

During a website redesign, navigation management is often treated as part of the design process: a designer draws a menu, the front-end team builds it, and the job is considered done. But the real problems that surface after launch are rarely about styling—they're about two things: customers can't find the original content in the new navigation, and old URLs referenced by search engines and external links stop working. That's why navigation management should be handled as an independent workstream during a redesign. In practical terms, this means: first audit the old structure thoroughly, then decide how to group the new structure, and finally verify every address and entry point one by one.

The following sections follow the actual sequence of a redesign project. Each step includes actionable methods and judgment criteria. All examples are hypothetical scenarios used to illustrate the approach.

Step 1: Map Out the Old Navigation and Content in a Table

Before discussing what the new menu should look like, export the current state. The method: open the old site, start from the homepage navigation and click through each level, recording every section name, hierarchy level, corresponding page URL, and page title into a table. Use separate columns or indentation for first-level, second-level, and third-level sections so the hierarchy isn't lost in the table.

The table should include at least the following fields:

• Section name (the text currently displayed on the old site)
• Hierarchy level (first / second / third)
• Page URL (old URL)
• Page type (section page, article list, single page, form page, etc.)
• Whether content is still valid (has content / outdated / empty section)
• Intended action after redesign (keep / merge / delete / add)

The judgment criteria are straightforward: if a section consistently has only one or two pieces of content, or the content is clearly outdated, decide during this redesign whether to merge it into another section or remove it entirely—rather than carrying it over as-is. An empty section left in the navigation is worse than a missing entry point, because customers click in and see nothing.

Beyond internal navigation, also collect as many external URLs pointing to your site as possible—such as promotional links already in use, links on partner pages, and addresses included in past emails or materials. If these URLs break after the redesign, customers will immediately conclude something is wrong with the site.

Step 2: Decide on Groupings and Naming for the New Navigation

Once the audit is complete, consider how to group the new navigation. The basic principle for grouping is the path customers take to find information—not your company's internal department structure. Suppose an industrial equipment company's old navigation was divided into "Products / Solutions / News / About Us." If sales feedback indicates customers often ask "Which industries do you serve?" first, consider promoting industry scenarios to a first-level entry and making the original Products section a peer item.

Here are some specific naming considerations:

• Keep first-level section names within what customers can understand at a glance. Avoid internal abbreviations—for example, terms like "Production Line" or "Business Unit" that only insiders recognize.
• Maintain consistent naming style across the same hierarchy level. Don't mix nouns and verb phrases.
• If two section names have similar meanings, either merge them or make the distinction clear in the naming. Otherwise customers will click back and forth.

Hierarchy depth should also be decided at this step. For a corporate website, keeping navigation within two levels is generally easier to understand. Three or more levels suit sites with genuinely large content volumes. Each additional level means one more click for customers to reach their target page—evaluate whether that cost is worth it during the redesign.

Step 3: Handle the Mapping Between Old and New URLs

Once the new navigation structure is set, old URLs won't automatically follow. This step involves matching each old URL from the audit table to the new structure, creating a mapping table that specifies which page each old address corresponds to on the new site.

There are roughly three scenarios:

• Content retained, position unchanged: The old URL can be kept as-is with minimal changes.
• Content retained, position adjusted: The old URL needs to point to the new address so customers accessing the old link still reach the content.
• Content merged or deleted: Decide whether the old URL should point to the merged target page or to an explanatory page—avoid showing customers a default error page.

We recommend keeping three columns in the mapping table: old URL, new URL, and handling method. Verify row by row before launch. How carefully this step is done directly determines how many old links break after the redesign. As for the technical implementation of redirects, that falls under technical configuration. The operations team's job is to confirm the mapping relationships clearly and have the technical team execute according to the table.

Step 4: Pre-Launch Navigation Checklist

Finishing the navigation doesn't mean it's correct. Before launch, we recommend clicking through the following sequence in practice—not just reviewing backend settings:

1. Starting from the homepage, click into each first-level section one by one. Confirm they all open normally with no blank or error pages.
2. Within each first-level section, click into its second-level sections. Confirm the hierarchy matches the backend settings.
3. On any inner page, check that the navigation is still visible and clickable. Avoid a situation where only the homepage has navigation.
4. Visit each old URL from the mapping table one by one. Confirm they all reach the expected pages—not redirect to the homepage or an error page.
5. Repeat the same path at mobile width. Confirm dropdown menus expand properly and don't block content.
6. Check navigation text for typos and for section names that don't match actual page content.

Among these six items, item 4 is the most easily skipped and the most likely to generate feedback from customers or partners after launch. We recommend assigning at least one person specifically to verify old URLs and another to check the new navigation clicks—avoiding the problem of missing issues when checking your own work.

Step 5: Ongoing Maintenance After Launch

Navigation isn't fixed once it's live. After the redesign, new sections will be added, some sections will have less content, and business direction may shift. We recommend incorporating navigation changes into your routine maintenance process: when adding a section, confirm which level it belongs to and whether it duplicates existing sections; when retiring a section, handle the old URL's destination rather than simply deleting the page.

If your website has multiple language versions or separate mobile entry points, check them together when navigation changes. Avoid updating only the main site while other entry points still point to the old structure. These inconsistencies often surface only when customers actually use the site, and the cost of fixing them is much higher than checking before launch.

Navigation management is essentially a continuously maintained set of relationships: where the old content is, where the new entry points are, and which path customers can take to get there. Sorting out these relationships before the redesign will significantly reduce rework after launch.