The website feels dated. A competitor just launched a new one. The phone has been quieter than it should be, and the site is the most visible thing to blame. So the business decides to redesign, spends two or three months on it, launches something that looks far better, and a month later the phone is exactly as quiet as before. Sometimes quieter.
A redesign can be the right call. But it fixes how a site looks, and appearance is rarely the main reason a site is not producing inquiries. These five questions are worth answering first. They take an afternoon, they tell you what the new site actually has to do, and they protect the things the old one was doing right.
1. Is the problem traffic or conversion?
Those are different problems with different fixes. If very few people visit the site, a new design will be seen by the same very few people. The fix there is being found: your Google listing, local search and possibly paid search. If plenty of people visit and few get in touch, the problem is on the site, and the answer might be a redesign or might be something much smaller. Why your website gets visitors but no leads walks through how to tell.
2. Which pages are already working?
Before anything is rebuilt, look at which pages bring in visitors from search today, and which ones people land on before they call or fill in a form. On most local business sites it is a handful: the homepage, one or two service pages, maybe a location page or an old blog post that ranks better than anyone expected.
Those pages are the part of the old site with a track record. Keep their content unless you have a reason to change it, and keep their addresses. When a page has to move, set up a permanent redirect from the old address to the new one, for every page that moves, not just the homepage. Skipping this is the most common way a redesign loses search traffic: pages Google has ranked for years suddenly lead nowhere.
3. What do visitors actually do on it now?
Analytics tells you where people arrive and where they leave. A session recording tool shows what they did in between: where they scrolled, what they tapped, where they gave up. Watching twenty real visits to your service pages is often more useful than any design opinion, including yours. You may find the problem is a single broken form, a form that asks for too much, or a phone number that is not tappable on a phone.
4. How does it work on a phone, on a normal connection?
Most local searches happen on a phone, often on the move. A site that looks great on a desktop monitor can be slow and cramped on a mid-range phone with a patchy signal. Test yours that way before deciding it needs rebuilding, because a slow site is sometimes a hosting or image problem that a redesign would carry straight across. Your site is fast on your laptop, is it on a phone? covers what to check.
The old site has one thing the new one does not: a track record. Find out what it is before you replace it.
5. Who will update it after launch?
A site starts going out of date the day it launches. Hours change, services are added, prices move, staff leave. If nobody is responsible for updating it, the new site will look as neglected in two years as the old one does now. Decide before you start who will make changes, how quickly, and whether the platform lets them do it without a developer. While you are at it, confirm that you own the domain and have the login for it, in the business's name rather than a former employee's or a previous designer's.
If you do redesign
- Write down what the site has to achieve in plain terms, such as more quote requests from service pages, and measure it before and after.
- Keep the content and addresses of pages that already rank, and redirect every page that moves.
- Put the phone number and a short form where a visitor on a phone can reach them without scrolling far.
- Test the finished site on a real phone before launch, not only in a desktop browser.
- Check search and inquiry numbers weekly for the first two months after launch, so a problem is caught early.
Our website service includes the unglamorous parts, like carrying redirects across and keeping the site updated after launch. If you are weighing a redesign and want a second opinion on what is actually holding the current site back, ask us for a proposal.
Frequently asked questions
- Will a website redesign hurt my Google rankings?
- It can, if pages that rank are removed or moved without redirects. Keep the content and addresses of your best pages where you can, and set up permanent redirects for every page that moves. Done carefully, a redesign should not cost you rankings.
- How do I know if my website needs a redesign?
- Look first at whether the problem is too few visitors or too few inquiries from the visitors you have. Then check which pages already perform, how the site works on a phone, and what visitors do on it. Often the fix is smaller than a full rebuild.
- What should I keep from my old website?
- The pages that bring in search traffic and inquiries, their content and their addresses, plus anything customers rely on, such as a booking page. Those have a track record the new site has to earn from scratch.
- How long after a redesign should I watch the numbers?
- Check search traffic and inquiries weekly for at least the first two months. Most redesign problems, such as a missing redirect or a broken form, show up in that window.