Your website is the digital face of your organization, yet many businesses struggle with keeping it current. Common grievances include:

• “My website feels outdated.”

• “It doesn’t reflect our growth or drive sales.”

• “It’s not visually appealing anymore.”

While these concerns are valid, tackling a website redesign requires more than aesthetics. Done poorly, it can harm customer trust, traffic, and conversions. To avoid these pitfalls, we use a detailed website brief questionnaire (reach out if you’d like a copy!) to guide clients through a thoughtful revamp process. Here are the five most common mistakes we’ve identified—and how to avoid them.

1. Focusing on Telling, Not Showing

Your homepage should do more than explain what you do—it should demonstrate your value. Consider these examples:

For B2B brands:

• Weak: “We streamline digital supply chains for businesses.”

• Strong: “Our digital solutions reduced turnaround time by 40% and costs by 15% for our clients.”

For B2C brands:

• Weak: “A blend of heritage and modern trends.”

• Strong: “Reimagining YoungLa for chic, everyday workwear.”

Why is the second option better? It’s specific, memorable, and actionable. Across all sections of your site—About, Careers, and Services—focus on showcasing your achievements and unique offerings with tangible proof points.

2. Ignoring Non-Customer Audiences

Your website isn’t just for potential customers. Established businesses should design their site to appeal to:

• Prospective employees: Include a Careers page with team testimonials, photos (real, not stock), and benefits.

• Investors and media: Highlight company milestones and media coverage to establish credibility.

• Service providers: Add an inquiry section to attract reliable suppliers.

A multi-stakeholder approach ensures your website serves broader business objectives while reducing costs—such as direct job applications cutting hiring timelines.

3. Overlooking SEO in the Design Stage

SEO is essential and should be built into your website from the ground up. Adding it later can be as disruptive as rearranging a house’s layout after construction. Ensure the basics are covered:

• Page structure: Use clear headings and avoid multiple H1 tags.

• Content depth: Write 1,500–2,000 words per page for authority.

• Keyword placement: Integrate target keywords across titles, meta descriptions, and headers.

SEO doesn’t just drive traffic—it sustains it, helping your site rank higher and attract quality leads.

4. Prioritizing Design Over Performance

While visually appealing designs are important, functionality is key. A slow-loading, non-responsive website will drive visitors away. Focus on these metrics:

• Page speed: A 1-second delay can reduce conversions by up to 10%.

• Core Web Vitals: Ensure usability, responsiveness, and fast load times.

• Mobile compatibility: Test how well your site adapts to different devices.

Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can help diagnose and optimize site performance.

5. Skipping Technical SEO and Maintenance

A client of ours saw their website traffic drop by 90% after a redesign ignored SEO best practices. Google penalizes sites that disrupt established SEO elements. To maintain rankings:

• Preserve URL structure: Avoid unnecessary renaming of URLs.

• Use 301 redirects: Properly link updated URLs to avoid broken links.

• Submit sitemaps: Ensure your new site is indexed correctly.

Ignoring these basics can undo years of SEO equity and result in a costly recovery process.

Takeaways

A successful website revamp involves much more than aesthetics. It’s about creating a seamless, high-performing experience for all stakeholders while retaining technical integrity and search engine visibility.

Looking for guidance on your redesign? Our team can help you avoid common pitfalls while aligning your website with your business goals. Reach out today—or share this with someone planning a revamp!