Redesigning your website can be an exciting opportunity to refresh your brand, boost conversions, and offer an improved user experience. However, diving into a redesign without a strategic plan can lead to costly mistakes, poor performance, and frustrated users.
In this guide, we’ll explore 5 common mistakes companies make during a website redesign and show you how to avoid them. Avoiding these pitfalls will help you create a user-friendly, effective website that drives results.
1. Skipping the UX Audit: The First Step You Shouldn’t Miss
One of the biggest mistakes companies make is jumping straight into design without conducting a UX audit. Think of it as diagnosing issues before prescribing solutions. Skipping this step can lead to a beautiful website that underperforms because of poor usability or navigation issues.
Conducting a UX audit will uncover hidden usability problems, visitor frustrations, and missed opportunities for conversion optimization.
👉 Read more about why skipping the UX audit can derail your website redesign
2. Neglecting Customer Insights: Building Without Understanding Your Audience
Your website is not for you—it’s for your customers. Yet many businesses neglect customer insights during the redesign process. Without understanding their pain points, needs, and behaviors, your new website could miss the mark entirely.
Customer insights guide content creation, help structure your website for better user experience, and prioritize important functionalities. Conduct surveys, user testing, and market interviews to gather valuable feedback and make data-driven decisions.
👉 Discover why customer insights are essential to a successful website redesign
3. Ignoring Messaging and Positioning: Clear Communication is Key
Having a visually appealing website means nothing if your message doesn’t resonate. Many companies make the mistake of focusing solely on design and neglecting messaging and positioning. If your visitors don’t understand what you offer within seconds of landing on your homepage, they’ll leave.
Your messaging should answer essential questions like: “What is this?”, “Who is this for?”, and “How can this product help me?” It’s vital to communicate clearly and directly with your audience.
👉 Learn how ignoring messaging and positioning can hurt your website’s success
4. Overlooking Content Management: A Website That’s Hard to Maintain Won’t Succeed
Launching a new website is exciting, but what happens afterward? If you’ve overlooked content management during the redesign process, updating your site could become a bottleneck. Slow updates, reliance on developers, and cumbersome content workflows will hold you back.
A good CMS (content management system) allows marketers to quickly publish content, make updates, and launch new campaigns effortlessly.
👉 See why content management considerations are critical during a website redesign
5. Not Hiring Experienced Talent: Don’t Try to Do it All In-House
Another common pitfall is attempting a website redesign without experienced help. Hiring experts who understand the intricacies of design, development, and UX is crucial. Internal teams may lack the bandwidth or expertise needed for a successful redesign, leading to delays, subpar results, and wasted resources.
Partnering with a professional design agency can provide the experience, fresh perspective, and dedication needed to deliver a high-performing website.
👉 Explore the risks of not leveraging experienced talent for your website redesign
By avoiding these common mistakes, you can ensure that your website redesign is not only visually appealing but also user-friendly, optimized for conversions, and aligned with your audience’s needs. Make sure you address these critical areas to get the most out of your investment.
For more in-depth tips and advice on each of these topics, check out my individual blog posts linked above!