Once you have decided to redesign, inventory what must move before asking for a page count or a price. A useful inventory connects each existing address to its content, owner and intended disposition. It separates URLs from design templates and from writing or translation work. A site can have many addresses built from a few templates while still requiring substantial editorial review.
This guide assumes the redesign decision has already been made. Its purpose is to turn that decision into a bounded, reviewable brief. Do not begin by deleting pages that look dated: a sales representative may still send one to customers, or a buyer may reach it through an old capabilities document.
Collect more than the navigation menu
Start with public URLs, then reconcile the list against the CMS. Include downloads, campaign pages outside the main navigation, forms, confirmation messages and language versions. Ask sales and support which links they actually use. A low-traffic page may perform a valuable task that aggregate analytics does not explain.
For URL changes, Google recommends mapping old addresses to their new destinations; its migration guidance also covers moved media and downloads. Navigation visibility alone therefore does not define the inventory. Google's site-move guidance.
Inventory work does not require unrestricted publishing or deletion rights. Use exports or limited access where sufficient. Preserve a dated baseline rather than overwriting the original list each time someone changes a decision. Otherwise you lose the ability to distinguish a newly discovered page from a newly requested page.
Use fields that support decisions
| Field | Decision it supports |
|---|---|
| URL and language | Which specific item are we discussing? |
| Content type and expected template | New design or content entry? |
| Visitor purpose | What task does this page support? |
| Factual owner | Who can confirm the service or figure? |
| Copy and asset status | Ready, incomplete or awaiting permission? |
| Disposition and reason | Keep, rewrite, merge or retire? |
| Destination and delivery owner | Where will it go and who implements that? |
Add usage evidence when it is available and interpretable. Do not make analytics access a prerequisite for starting, and do not turn missing measurement into a zero. Give each item a stable internal identifier: the page title may change without its decisions and comments becoming disconnected.
Record uncertainty specifically. “Check content” is not actionable. “Service manager to confirm whether weekend support is still offered” identifies a fact, an owner and a reason to hold the claim. The inventory should expose uncertainty, not hide it behind a completion percentage.
Separate four kinds of work
Design covers template structures, mobile layouts and interaction states. Ten service pages may share one template; an article and an enquiry page may need different patterns. This is an input to Website Design, not evidence that every URL needs a bespoke layout.
Content includes fact checking, writing, Arabic and English adaptation, and approved imagery. “Client supplies content” is insufficient: will that content be publishable or require editing? Define this in Content Strategy and Production.
Implementation includes content types, editable fields, entry, asset relationships and incomplete-content states. CMS Development needs to know what editors can change and what should remain controlled.
Access continuity concerns old addresses and incoming links. Record the business decisions in the inventory, then scope the technical work through SEO and AI Search Readiness where appropriate. No inventory can guarantee a particular search ranking.
Hypothetical example: 46 URLs, not 46 designs
Consider a service company with 46 public addresses. This is an educational example, not a LAB project or reported result. The team decides to retain 28 with light editing, rewrite 12, merge four into two existing destinations, and retire two without suitable replacements. The dispositions total 46; the final destination count is a separate calculation.
The retained content uses six templates: homepage, service, industry, article, general information and contact. The brief should identify six template designs and their agreed variations, 12 rewriting assignments, and the actual content-entry workload. Reviewing the 28 retained pages should not disappear into “simple migration” if their facts still need checking.
The sales team also identifies a capabilities PDF missing from the navigation. It joins the inventory with an owner and an update decision. Two Arabic pages lack English counterparts. The gap is recorded rather than concealed with unapproved machine translation merely to complete a checklist.
Validate the inventory before expanding it
Review a sample containing the most complex template, the longest text, a bilingual page, a form and a download. If the sample reveals missing fields, fix the inventory structure before applying it to everything. Then approve a release set and keep deferred items in a separate list with reasons.
Track additions during the project. One extra page might reuse an existing template, or it might introduce a new booking function. Its effect on design, content, implementation and testing matters more than its numerical contribution to page count.
Inventory acceptance checklist
- Every known address has a disposition or a specific unresolved decision.
- Templates are counted separately from page instances and languages.
- Copy, images and downloads have owners and known permissions or declared gaps.
- Launch content is separated from deferred work.
- Changed addresses have approved destinations or retirement decisions.
- A baseline date and change-recording method are agreed.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need paid inventory software?
Not necessarily for a small site. A structured worksheet and CMS export may suffice. Coverage and decision quality matter more than the tool name.
Should we delete every page with no visits?
No. Check its customer, sales and support purpose, the quality of measurement, and any relevant obligations with the responsible owner.
Can Arabic and English share one row?
Link them with a common identifier, but retain separate readiness states. Approval of one language does not prove completion of the other.
When is the inventory ready for proposals?
When a supplier can distinguish confirmed outputs from assumptions and gaps, and there is a process for resolving the latter. Every final paragraph need not be written before estimation starts.
A practical next step
Prepare the available URL list and three pages representing the site's differences. Discuss inventory, design and content scope separately with LAB. That makes proposals comparable instead of leaving the project dependent on an ambiguous page total.
Sources
- Google: site moves with URL changes, reviewed 26 October 2026; used narrowly for URL and asset planning.
