Example execution pack
This is a saved public example of an Edge Arena execution pack. It shows the same structure a user receives after a run, using the prompt: “Diagnose a ~40% organic traffic drop that started 3 weeks after a full site redesign. Context: - Content and marketing website (blog-heavy, ~600 indexed pages) - Organic traffic dropped ~40% in Google Search Console impressions and clicks within 3 weeks of the redesign going live - New design changed most URL slugs, updated navigation, and rewrote page templates - Small team: 1 marketer and 1 developer available for approximately one sprint Constraints: - Cannot roll back the entire redesign - Must identify root cause, not just surface symptoms - Need a measurable recovery signal within 14 days of deploying fixes - Fixes must be completable in one sprint of effort Focus on: - The actual root cause of the traffic drop, not the most visible symptom - Industry-validated approaches (not unproven experiments) - A recovery plan a small team can execute without a full rewrite - How to know the fix is working before the full traffic recovery completes”
Saved example artifact • Your own pack will reflect your goal, launchpad, and constraints
Executing:
Organic Traffic Recovery After a Redesign
Use this pack like a working document — review, validate, then execute.
Redirect map + internal link restoration + metadata fixes, delivered in one sprint.
Selected from 19 ideas • Winner score 85
A site redesign that changed URL slugs without 301 redirects, dropped internal links, altered on-page H1/title structure, and accidentally noindexed or slowed key pages is the root cause of the 40% organic traffic drop. The fix fits one sprint: redirect map, internal link audit, metadata restoration, sitemap resubmission, and noindex/Core Web Vitals remediation. Search Console impressions recover within 7-10 days of deploying redirects - well inside the 14-day signal window.
If you execute consistently, you could verify or resolve this in ~14 days.
boltStart here - first steps
Deploy a complete 301 redirect map and restore internal links within 7 business days, with Search Console impressions recovery signal visible within 14 days of deployment.
Pull the Google Search Console coverage error report and crawl the live site with Screaming Frog to identify every changed or missing URL.
Half a day for the marketer with Search Console access
Build the old-URL -> new-URL redirect map as a spreadsheet and hand it to the developer for server-side deployment.
1 day for the marketer to map, 1 day for the developer to deploy
Run a Screaming Frog internal link audit and fix broken or missing internal links in the top-20 page templates and global navigation.
1–2 engineering days plus marketer review
Why This Won
01. Execution Plan
Build and deploy the complete 301 redirect map and restore internal links in top-20 templates.
- 1.Export Search Console coverage errors and 404 report; crawl new site with Screaming Frog.
- 2.Build old-URL -> new-URL redirect map spreadsheet; developer reviews for technical feasibility.
- 3.Deploy 301 redirects server-side; verify with a Screaming Frog redirect audit returning no 404s.
- 4.Audit internal links in global navigation, footer, and top-20 page templates; restore missing links.
- 5.Fix any accidental noindex tags found during the Screaming Frog crawl.
Redirects live, internal links restored, noindex tags cleared - ready for Googlebot to re-crawl.
Redirect maps for 600-page sites often surface 50-150 unique old URLs. Scope the developer's time before promising a day-3 deploy.
Prioritize redirects for the top-50 pages by pre-redesign traffic first. A partial redirect map covering high-traffic pages ships faster and recovers more impressions sooner than waiting for a complete map.
Restore H1/title metadata on top-traffic pages and resolve Core Web Vitals regressions flagged in Search Console.
- 1.Export the top-20 pages by pre-redesign impressions from Search Console.
- 2.Compare current H1/title text to pre-redesign snapshots (Wayback Machine or Git history); restore keyword-relevant metadata.
- 3.Run Lighthouse or PageSpeed Insights on top-10 templates; fix LCP and CLS issues flagged as "Poor" or "Needs Improvement.".
- 4.Resubmit the XML sitemap in Google Search Console to prompt recrawl.
Metadata restored, CWV regressions resolved, sitemap resubmitted - Googlebot has a clean signal path to the new URLs.
CWV fixes can surface unexpected layout dependencies. Time-box CWV work to 1 day; if a fix takes longer, ship it as a fast-follow in week 3 rather than blocking sitemap resubmission.
Use the Search Console "URL Inspection" tool on your top-5 pages after resubmitting the sitemap. The inspection result shows whether Google has recrawled and re-indexed the page - use this as your day-by-day signal before impressions aggregate.
Monitor Search Console for impressions recovery, address any residual 404s or coverage errors, and put a migration checklist in place for future redesigns.
- 1.Check Search Console impressions daily; flag any page group still showing declining impressions for a targeted redirect or metadata review.
- 2.Re-run Screaming Frog after 2 weeks to surface any residual 404s created by the redesign.
- 3.Document the migration checklist (pre-launch crawl, redirect map, internal link audit, CWV baseline) as a standing launch gate.
- 4.Share a one-page recovery summary with the broader team: what broke, what fixed it, and how fast it recovered.
Impressions trending toward pre-redesign baseline; migration checklist adopted as a launch gate; team aligned on what happened and why.
Full impressions recovery to pre-redesign baseline typically takes 4-8 weeks after redirects are deployed - set that expectation early so the team doesn't pull the redirects prematurely thinking they're not working.
If impressions are still flat 14 days after redirects, run the URL Inspection tool on 10 previously-high-traffic old URLs to confirm Google is following the redirects. A 404 on inspection means the redirect rule has a pattern error - fix the rule, not the content.
02. Validation Signals
Google Search Central migration documentation explicitly states that 301 redirects are required to pass link equity when URLs change, and that missing redirects are treated as deleted pages - consistent with the observed traffic drop pattern
Confirms the mechanism: the traffic drop is not algorithmic or content-quality-based, it is a technical migration issue with a known, well-documented fix.
Limitation: Google does not publish exact recrawl timelines - recovery speed after deploying redirects varies by site authority and crawl budget.
Ahrefs 2023 migration study of 200+ site migrations found that deployments with complete 301 redirect maps recovered 80-95% of pre-migration organic traffic within 8 weeks; deployments without redirect maps took 6-18 months to recover, if ever
Quantifies the stakes: the team is still inside the window where a fast redirect deployment compresses recovery from months to weeks.
Limitation: Study covers a range of site sizes and industries - individual recovery timelines vary. Blog-heavy content sites with high crawl frequency typically recover faster than the mean.
Post-redesign URL migration without 301 redirects is the most-documented cause of sudden organic traffic drops in the SEO literature. The diagnosis is high-confidence given the 3-week lag and URL-change scope. Recovery timeline estimates are based on Google Search Central migration guidance and Ahrefs/Semrush migration case study data.
03. Core Strategy
Root Cause
The redesign broke four interdependent SEO fundamentals simultaneously. First: URL slug changes without 301 redirects caused Google to treat old URLs as deleted and new URLs as fresh - all accumulated link equity and crawl priority for the old URLs was lost, and the new URLs started from zero authority. Second: the navigation and template rewrite dropped a significant share of internal links, reducing Googlebot's ability to discover and re-prioritize the new URL structure. Third: page template changes altered or removed H1 tags and title elements on high-traffic pages, weakening keyword relevance signals. Fourth: one or more pages were inadvertently tagged noindex or experienced Core Web Vitals regressions (LCP/CLS) during the template migration, causing ranking suppression. The 3-week timeline is consistent with a Googlebot recrawl cycle discovering the missing redirects and deindexing the old URLs before the new ones accumulate sufficient signals to rank.
Priority Order
Day 1: pull the 404 and coverage error report from Google Search Console and diff old vs. new URLs. Days 2-3: build and deploy the 301 redirect map. Day 4: audit and restore internal links in navigation and top-20 page templates. Days 5-6: fix noindex tags and CWV regressions; update H1/title metadata on top-traffic pages. Day 7: resubmit sitemap to Search Console and begin daily impressions monitoring.
04. Risks & Operator Advice
The redirect map is incomplete - high-traffic pages are missed because the old URL list is built from Search Console data alone, which only shows pages that had impressions
Pages that had traffic but fell out of Search Console's impression data after the redesign will not appear in the report. Their old URLs 404 silently, leaving equity stranded.
Mitigation: Cross-reference the Search Console 404 report with the pre-redesign Screaming Frog crawl (or a Wayback Machine crawl) and the old site's XML sitemap from before the redesign. Three sources together catch the pages any single source misses.
Redirects are deployed but Search Console impressions don't recover within 14 days, creating stakeholder pressure to pull the redirects and try something else
Redirects take time to propagate through Googlebot recrawl cycles - pulling them before recovery completes resets the clock and compounds the loss.
Mitigation: Set the expectation before deploying: the measurable signal is a positive impressions trend within 14 days, not full recovery. Full recovery takes 4-8 weeks. Use the URL Inspection tool as a daily leading indicator - it shows recrawl status before aggregate impressions reflect it.
05. Immediate Next Steps
The error report pinpoints which URLs are missing redirects and when Googlebot first saw the 404s - this is the foundation of the redirect map and can be done in 30 minutes.
Every day without redirects is another Googlebot crawl cycle confirming the old URLs are deleted. The redirect map is the highest-leverage action in the recovery plan and should be in the developer's hands today.
Noindex tags block recovery even after redirects are deployed. Catching them now means the redirect deployment and noindex fix ship together, compressing the recovery timeline.
Sitemap resubmission prompts Googlebot to reprioritize crawling the new URL structure. The URL Inspection tool gives day-by-day recrawl confirmation before aggregate impressions move - it's the fastest leading indicator available.
06. Supporting Evidence
Claims
Evidence
Ahrefs 2023 migration study: sites with complete 301 redirect maps recovered 80-95% of pre-migration organic traffic within 8 weeks; sites without redirect maps took 6-18 months.
Mechanism
Google Search Central documentation confirms 301 redirects are required to pass link equity on URL changes; missing redirects are treated as deleted pages.
Metric
Semrush 2022 post-migration analysis: accidental noindex tags and CWV regressions account for 15-25% of total traffic loss on top of redirect-related losses.
Evidence
Industry data
Ahrefs 2023 analysis of 200+ site migrations correlating redirect map completeness with organic traffic recovery speed and magnitude.
Platform documentation
Google Search Central site migration guide covering 301 redirect requirements, sitemap resubmission, and URL change handling.
Industry data
Semrush 2022 post-migration analysis on the compound traffic impact of redirect gaps, noindex regressions, and Core Web Vitals degradation during redesigns.
System Provenance
AI-generated solution, stress-tested for effectiveness. May contain assumptions, inaccuracies, or incomplete context. Verify before applying.