Most of the risk in replacing a business website comes before the new design goes live. Six notes, made while the old site is still running, protect the enquiries it already brings in.

1. The pages people arrive on. Google Search Console is free and shows which pages turn up in Google searches and which ones get clicked. Those pages, and the questions they answer, need a place on the new site.

2. The old web addresses. Save a list of the page addresses worth keeping. At launch, each one should send visitors on to the closest new page with a permanent (301) redirect, so bookmarks, links from other sites and search results do not end on an error page.

3. The ways customers get in touch. List the phone numbers, email addresses, contact forms and booking links, then try each one on a phone. A redesign is a good time to fix a number that cannot be tapped or a form that still sends to an old inbox.

4. Who holds the accounts. Note who controls the domain name, the hosting, the email and the analytics. Each should sit in an account in the name of the business, not with a previous designer.

5. Who makes the day-to-day changes. Opening hours, prices, photos and services change. Decide who will update them, and make sure the new site lets that person do it without help.

6. The business details. The name, phone number and service area should match on the website, the Google Business Profile and directories like this one.

Daniel Olliver, who trades as Olliver Web in Auckland, plans redesigns this way: before anything is replaced, he works out which pages to keep and where each old address should point. Owners with an existing website can ask him to check it on a phone, at no charge, and be told which three problems lose the site the most enquiries; anything they then want changed gets a quote first. Website: olliverweb.co.nz