The new website looks great. More modern, faster, with new photos. But after a few weeks you notice Google visits have dropped — and with them, enquiries and direct bookings. What happened?
It's one of the most frequent and frustrating situations. When a hotel website loses visibility after a redesign, in the vast majority of cases the cause is technical and fixable. Here are the checks to make right away, in order of urgency.
First: check the drop is real
- Compare the same period last year, not the previous month (seasonality is misleading).
- Check Analytics tracking was installed correctly on the new site: sometimes the "drop" is just a measurement problem.
- Look at Search Console (impressions and clicks): it doesn't depend on the Analytics code.
If Search Console also shows a clear drop after launch, the problem is real.
Check 1: is the site blocked from Google?
During development, sites are often hidden from Google with a "noindex" setting or a robots.txt block. Sometimes, at launch, nobody removes it. Check:
- that pages don't carry a "noindex" tag;
- that robots.txt doesn't block the site;
- the Pages report in Search Console: how many pages are indexed and how many excluded, and why.
It's the most serious problem and the easiest to fix.
Check 2: redirects
If old page URLs changed (e.g. from /rooms.html to /rooms/), Google and anyone with saved links hit missing pages (404 errors). The visibility built up over years is lost.
What to do:
- retrieve the list of old pages (from Search Console, a backup or the Wayback Machine);
- set up a 301 redirect from each old URL to the corresponding new page;
- check 404 errors in Search Console and fix them.
Check 3: deleted or reduced content
Does the new site have less text? Many redesigns "clean up" pages by removing copy that was actually bringing in visits. If the old "Hotel near the trade fair" page had 600 words and the new one has 50, its Google ranking suffers.
Compare the pages that brought the most traffic before the redesign with their new versions, and restore or improve the content.
Check 4: titles, descriptions and languages
- Are page titles still well written, or have they become generic ("Home", "Rooms")?
- Do the other language versions still exist with their own URLs? Are hreflang tags correct?
- Has structured data (address, business type) been kept?
Check 5: speed and mobile version
A new website isn't automatically faster. Animations, videos and heavy images can worsen mobile performance. Check with PageSpeed Insights.
Check 6: internal links and menus
If important pages can no longer be reached from the menu or other internal links, Google considers them less important. Make sure every strategic page is linked.
How long recovery takes
If the cause is a noindex or missing redirects, recovery usually starts within a few weeks of fixing it, though getting back to previous levels can take longer. The sooner you act, the better.
How to avoid it next time
Before any redesign, ask whoever builds the site for an SEO migration plan including: a map of old pages, redirects, content retention, launch checks and monitoring in the following months. See redo your hotel website or improve the one you have: how to decide.
Frequently asked questions
Is a small drop normal after a new website?
Slight fluctuation in the first weeks can happen. A sharp, prolonged drop almost always points to a technical problem that needs fixing.
Can I add redirects months later?
Yes, it's still worthwhile. But the sooner you do it, the more visibility you recover.
Who's responsible for the drop: me or the agency?
It depends on your agreement. That's why your new website quote should explicitly include SEO migration. See how much does a three-star hotel website cost.
Lost visibility with your new website?
With our free marketing audit we check your website's indexing, redirects and content and tell you what to fix right away to win back lost rankings.
