Website Redesign Checklist for Google Ads: 6 Tracking Checks Before Launch

Short answer: A website redesign can break Google Ads tracking without anything looking wrong on the site. Before launch, I check six things: the cookie banner, ad links that lose Google's click ID, forms that don't fire a conversion, duplicate Google tags, booking links that drop the click ID, and old links that land on the wrong page.

Here's how it usually goes. The new site launches, it looks great, and a few weeks later the business owner notices fewer leads in Google Ads. The new design gets the blame. Often the design is fine and the tracking broke during the launch, so Google Ads simply stopped seeing leads that were still coming in.

These are the problems I find most often in Google Ads audits, and how to catch each one before the new site goes live. They're written for business owners planning a redesign and for the designers and developers building it.

Before you start: write down what's tracked today

Before anything changes, list the conversion actions the Google Ads account counts now: which forms, calls or bookings, and what triggers each one, such as a thank-you page or a form event. Note whether tags are installed directly or through Google Tag Manager. That list is what you test the new site against. Without it, you can't tell whether the new site records the same things or just sends some tag activity.

1. The cookie banner blocks every tag

A redesign often brings a new consent banner. If the banner requires opt-in everywhere and Tag Manager waits for that opt-in before loading anything, no Google Ads or Analytics tag runs for visitors who ignore the banner. They can still fill out the form. Google Ads just never hears about it.

How to check: open the new site in a private window, leave the banner alone, and run Google Tag Assistant. If the Google tag never fires, ask the business where opt-in is actually required. That's their compliance decision. Then use Google's consent mode instead of blocking the whole container.

2. Ad links lose Google's click ID

When someone clicks an ad, Google adds a click ID (gclid) to the landing page URL. That ID is how a later lead gets tied back to the ad. Redesigns change URLs, so old ad links and sitelinks often pass through redirects. A redirect that drops the query string strips the click ID, and the lead can no longer be credited to the ad.

How to check: open every URL the ads and sitelinks use with ?gclid=test added to the end. It should land on the right new page with gclid=test still in the address bar. Don't test only the homepage. Paid traffic usually lands on service pages.

3. Some forms don't fire a conversion

A new form plugin, a new thank-you step or a form that now submits without reloading the page can stop the conversion signal on some forms. Others start sending it twice.

How to check: submit every form on the new site once, on desktop and on mobile. Each submission should show exactly one conversion event in Tag Assistant or GA4 DebugView. If a thank-you page triggers the conversion, make sure refreshing that page doesn't count another one.

4. Two Google tags on one site

A theme setting, a plugin and Tag Manager can each add their own Google tag, and a redesign often leaves the old setup running next to the new one. The data gets split or doubled, and nobody can say which numbers are right.

How to check: Google Tag Assistant should show each tag ID loading once per page. Pick one place to manage tags and remove the rest.

5. Booking links drop the click ID

When booking, scheduling or checkout happens on another domain, the click ID has to carry across to that site. Old tracking strings typed into those links during the redesign can overwrite it.

How to check: load a page with ?gclid=test on the end, click the booking link, and make sure the parameter arrives on the booking page. Delete any old tracking strings hardcoded into the link.

6. Old links land on the wrong page

After a template change, ads and internal links can still point at old pages that now redirect to a generic page or return a 404. Visitors land somewhere they didn't expect, and Google can disapprove ads whose destination doesn't work, under its destination requirements.

How to check: get the list of ad landing pages from whoever runs the ads. Each one should open the right page on the new site.

After launch: two more things

First, check that the conversion goals are still switched on at both the account and campaign level. A goal that gets switched off during the changeover makes campaigns report zero conversions while real leads keep arriving.

Second, tell whoever runs the ads the launch date. If someone is watching, a tracking break shows up within days. If nobody is, it can go unnoticed for months while the reports quietly undercount.

If you've already launched and leads seem to have dropped, or you want a second set of eyes before launch, request a Google Ads audit.