The questions below will help you clarify your goals, understand your audience, and focus on changes that truly make your website smarter and more effective. Short paragraphs, plain English, and a bit of honest wit included – let’s get started!
1. Why Are We Really Redesigning?
Before anything else, pin down the core reason for the redesign. Is something actually wrong with the current site, or are you just craving a change? Common valid reasons include poor user experience (maybe your current site has a clunky interface or confusing navigation), an outdated visual design, or new business directions that the site no longer reflects.
Perhaps your brand and offerings have evolved and your website needs to catch up to a new value proposition. Or maybe the data is sounding alarms – for example, if conversion rates have been dropping steadily or mobile visitors bounce because your site isn’t mobile-friendly. Be honest here: “We’re redesigning because our site looks old” isn’t as strong a case as “Our site isn’t converting leads like it used to, and we need to fix that.”
Example answers:
“Our current site no longer reflects our brand – we’ve changed our services and it’s full of outdated info.” Or “Customers keep telling us they struggle to find anything on our site. We need a simpler, more user-friendly experience.” Having a clear purpose will keep your project focused and grounded in real business needs.
2. Who Is Our Website For, and What Do They Need?
Your website isn’t really for you – it’s for your visitors, prospects, and customers. A website lives or dies by how well it connects with its target audience. So ask: who are your ideal visitors? Are they busy working parents looking for quick info? Tech-savvy Millennials on smartphones? B2B decision-makers needing detailed content? Get specific about the primary audiences you serve. Then consider what each of those groups is trying to achieve on your site. Do they want to buy a product, book an appointment, learn about your services, or just get your contact details?
If you haven’t created buyer personas or user profiles, now’s a great time. Understanding your users’ backgrounds, needs, and pain points will help shape a redesign that truly caters to them. For instance, a local bakery’s website might be used mostly by on-the-go mobile users looking for today’s menu and opening hours. In that case, a mobile-friendly design with the menu upfront would be crucial. On the other hand, a B2B software company might cater to researchers who want in-depth whitepapers – so the site should make those resources easy to find.
Example answers:
“Our main audience is first-time home buyers in their 20s and 30s – they need an easy way to see our listings and get quick answers to mortgage questions.” Or “We’re targeting busy restaurant owners who want reliable supply ordering. They value speed and clarity, so our site must let them reorder supplies in a few clicks.” Design decisions will become much clearer when you keep these specific users in mind at every step.
3. What Do We Want Visitors to Do on Our Site?
Every effective website has a purpose – not just for the business but for the user’s journey. Think about the action or actions you want visitors to take. Do you want them to buy a product directly online? Fill out a contact form for a quote? Sign up to your newsletter? The redesign should be structured around guiding users toward those primary calls-to-action. If you’re unclear about what success looks like in terms of user action, the site may end up looking pretty but lacking a clear path for visitors (a common culprit behind high bounce rates).
Make a short list of the top tasks a visitor should be able to accomplish easily. For example, a non-profit might want visitors to donate or volunteer signup to be front and center. A consulting firm might prioritize getting prospects to schedule a consultation call. Once you identify these key actions, you can ensure the new design highlights them with prominent buttons, intuitive navigation, and persuasive copy. It’s helpful to check your current analytics too – what are the top 2–3 things people currently do on your site (or fail to do)? If you find, say, lots of people visit your pricing page but never request a demo, that’s a clue that your call-to-action or information on that page might need improvement.
Example answers:
“Ultimately, we want visitors to book a free demo through our site – that’s our main conversion. Secondary goals are downloading our product brochure and signing up for our newsletter.” Or “The goal is to drive more table reservations. We’d like at least 50% of visitors to click ‘Reserve a Table’ or call our number from the site.” By spelling out what you want users to do, you can design each page with a clear purpose rather than just “looking nice.”
4. What’s Working (and Not Working) on Our Current Site?
Before tearing everything down, audit your existing website to learn from it. There are likely some things that work well and should be preserved, whether that’s popular content, a feature customers love, or decent search rankings for certain pages. Conversely, identify the pain points and weak spots. Dive into your analytics: which pages have the highest bounce rates or exit rates? Which paths do users take most often? What common search terms bring people in? Look at feedback too – have users or team members complained about certain aspects (slow loading pages, confusing forms, outdated info, etc.)?
This kind of review ensures your redesign is evidence-based. For instance, you might discover your blog draws a lot of organic traffic and keeps visitors engaged – a sign to carry over that success and maybe give it more prominence. On the flip side, you might find that many mobile users drop off at a particular page, indicating a responsive design issue to fix. Data doesn’t lie, and user testing or surveys can reveal where people get frustrated. Perhaps your site search is unused (meaning content is hard to find), or a key page like “About Us” hardly gets any clicks (maybe it’s buried in the menu). By pinpointing these, you can prioritize what to fix or improve.
Example answers:
“Our product pages actually perform well – average time on page is high – so we’ll keep their structure. But our homepage confuses people; many click nothing and leave. We need to simplify it.” Or “Customers often complain that our site’s slow and crashes on mobile. We see a big drop-off of mobile users on our gallery page – likely due to heavy images. That’s a major issue to address in the redesign.” In short, carry forward what works, and have a clear list of issues the redesign must solve. This way you’re not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
5. Does Our Content Clearly Tell Our Story (and Serve Our Users)?
A website redesign isn’t just about layouts and colour schemes – it’s also a chance to overhaul your content and messaging. Great design will fall flat if the words and information on your site are not resonating. Take a hard look at your content: is it up-to-date and relevant to your audience’s needs? If parts of your site still talk about old products or use dusty 2015 statistics, those need refreshing. Outdated or irrelevant content can not only confuse visitors but also hurt your credibility. Imagine a visitor finding a blog last updated two years ago – it doesn’t inspire confidence.
Next, assess the clarity of your messaging. Can a first-time visitor quickly tell what you do and what value you offer? If your value proposition is buried in jargon or long paragraphs, consider simplifying it. It’s often helpful to involve someone outside your company to read your key pages – do they get it without extra explanation? Also plan what new content is needed for the redesign. Perhaps you need a fresh FAQ section to reduce support calls, or better product photos and videos for an e-commerce refresh.
Don’t forget tone and branding: ensure the content aligns with your brand voice and values. Consistent voice and up-to-date info work together to tell your story effectively. The redesign is a perfect time to ensure all those pieces are coherent. Sometimes content strategy is even more important than visual design in a site overhaul – it’s the difference between a site that’s all style and no substance, versus one that actually answers your users’ questions and convinces them to trust you.
Example answers:
“Our story and mission are nowhere on the current site. In the redesign, we need a clear ‘About Us’ that explains why we do what we do, in a friendly tone.” Or “We have lots of technical jargon on our product pages. We’ll rewrite content in plain English so non-experts understand the benefits. Also, our case studies section hasn’t been updated in 3 years – we’ll add recent success stories to build credibility.” By planning content changes alongside design changes, you’ll create a site that not only looks good but also speaks to your audience effectively.
6. How Will We Measure Success?
It’s easy to declare a redesign “done” when the new site goes live, but how will you actually know if it’s better? Before you begin, define what success looks like – in concrete, measurable terms. This could be anything from increased sales or lead enquiries, to lower bounce rates, higher average session duration, improved Google search rankings, or even qualitative feedback like customer compliments. Setting a few clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) gives you targets to aim for and later evaluate. For example, if one goal of the redesign is to boost e-commerce conversions, you might set a KPI like “increase online sales by 20% within six months.” If improving user engagement is a goal, a KPI could be “raise the average time on site from 1 minute to 2 minutes.”
Decide on 2-3 primary metrics that tie back to your business objectives. It’s important these are realistic and within your control. “Double our traffic overnight” isn’t a fair expectation, but “Improve organic search traffic by 15% by updating our SEO on key pages” is achievable. As you go through the redesign, let these goals inform decisions. For instance, knowing you want a lower bounce rate on the homepage might encourage simpler navigation and clearer calls-to-action there. Having KPIs also helps avoid “scope creep” – fancy features that don’t contribute to the goals can be set aside.
Plan how you’ll track these metrics once the site is live: ensure you have analytics set up (Google Analytics, etc.), and maybe set a calendar reminder to review progress at 1, 3, and 6 months post-launch. This ties into a culture of continuous improvement – a website isn’t a one-and-done project, you’ll want to keep optimising it based on what the data says.
Example answers:
“Success means at least 30% more leads from the site in the next quarter. We’ll measure that by tracking form submissions and phone calls tagged from the website.” Or “We’ll call it a win if our bounce rate drops below 50% and average pages per visit increases. That will show people are finding our new site engaging. We’ll monitor these via Google Analytics.” Having these definitions of success from the start not only keeps everyone focused, but also gives you a way to celebrate (or course-correct) after launch.
7. What Is Our Budget, Timeline, and Resource Plan?
Finally, let’s get practical. A website redesign is a significant project, so it’s critical to consider the logistics: how much can you invest, and what’s the timeframe? Every project needs a realistic roadmap and parameters. Ask upfront: “What’s our budget, and how long can we spend on this?”. Small businesses especially need to balance ambition with resources. There’s no point planning for a crazy complex site if you don’t have the budget to develop it or the staff to maintain it. Decide if you’re hiring an agency (like Rocking Tech, for example) or handling it in-house with your team – and whether that team has the right skills (UX design, copywriting, development, etc.). If not, factor in the cost of contractors or new hires.
Setting a clear timeline is equally important. Do you have a hard deadline (maybe a rebranding launch or an event) by which the new site must go live? Or can it roll out flexibly? Be wary of overly aggressive timelines (“We need it next month!”) as they often lead to burnout or cutting corners. On the flip side, open-ended projects can drift without progress. A good plan might break the project into phases – e.g., Discovery/Planning, Design, Development, Content Migration, Testing – each with target dates. Also, build in some padding for unexpected delays (they always happen).
Don’t forget the content migration and internal review process in your timeline. Who will move existing content into the new site, and who needs to approve the pages? Establishing those feedback loops and decision-makers early will save you headaches later. And once the site is live, ensure you have a maintenance plan: who will handle updates, fix bugs, and measure performance? It’s easy to focus only on the launch and not the day-after, but a truly successful website redesign is maintained and improved continuously.
Example answers:
“We have a budget of £10,000 for this project and hope to launch in 4 months. That means we need designs done in 6 weeks, development by month 3, and a couple weeks buffer for testing and tweaks. We’ll likely need a freelance copywriter for the new content sections.” Or “Timeline is tight because we want the new site live before our product launch in September. To meet that, we’re simplifying some features to phase 2 and focusing on must-haves now. Our marketing lead and I will be the decision-makers, and we’ll hire an external developer to build it.” By nailing down budget and timeline early, you set the right expectations and keep the project realistic.
A Note on Timing: Redesign or Just a Tune-Up?
One more consideration before you embark on a full redesign: Do you truly need a ground-up rebuild right now, or would a strategic refresh serve you better? There’s a growing case for continuous improvement over occasional drastic redesigns. Think about the apps and services you use daily – platforms like Gmail, Instagram, or Netflix don’t suddenly change overnight with completely new interfaces. Instead, they evolve through gradual tweaks. Your website can often do the same. If the site’s foundation is solid (e.g. it’s already mobile-friendly and not horribly outdated), you might tackle your identified issues in phases. Incremental changes like improving navigation, updating content, and modernising the homepage one piece at a time can yield a virtually “new” site over time without the big downtime or shock factor.
Of course, sometimes a full site overhaul is absolutely the right call. If your site is built on ancient technology that’s holding you back, or your company underwent a major rebranding or merger, a clean slate may indeed be necessary. In those cases, trying to patch up an old site might be more effort than building afresh. But if your impetus for redesign is more about keeping up with trends or fixing minor annoyances, consider whether a lighter touch could work. You could, for example, refresh your visuals and messaging now, and plan a deeper structural revamp next year – spreading the cost and work over time.
Also factor in timing from a business perspective. Is your website currently “downright broken” and driving customers away, or just not as effective as it could be? If it’s the latter, you have the luxury of iterating. Some companies adopt a “growth-driven design” approach: launch quick improvements, gather user feedback, and continuously refine, rather than betting everything on a grand relaunch. This can reduce risk – you’re never stuck waiting 6-8 months with an underperforming site if you’re always making it a bit better each month. On the other hand, if you’re rebranding or your old site is truly a dinosaur, pulling off the band-aid in one big redesign might save time in the long run.
In short, timing is about being strategic. Don’t assume a redesign is the only way to improve your web presence. You might achieve 80% of the benefit with 20% of the effort through a targeted tune-up. But when you do commit to a redesign, do it wholeheartedly and wisely (by asking all the questions we’ve discussed!).
Ready to Rock Your Redesign?
A website redesign can be an exciting opportunity or a money pit – and the difference is all in the planning. By asking yourself these seven questions, you’ve taken a huge step toward a smarter website that works harder for your business. The key takeaway is honesty and strategy: understand why you’re redesigning, who you’re serving, what you want to achieve, and how you’ll get there (and know it’s working). No fluff, no vanity projects – just a clear path to a website that delights your users and supports your goals.
If you’re still unsure where to start or just want a seasoned partner to bounce ideas off, Rocking Tech is here to help. We love chatting about making websites better – whether you need a full site overhaul or just a fresh pair of eyes for a mini tune-up, feel free to get in touch with our team. Let’s talk about how to turn your site into your smartest business asset!