Redesign a website that no longer delivers

Redesign is not "redrawing the site". This is a review of how the site makes money: where people get lost, which pages give applications and which just waste the budget, what should be kept and what should be removed. The worst-case scenario of a redesign is a new, beautiful site that, after launch, lost search positions and half of its traffic, because no one took care of the page addresses and structure.

Therefore, we start with an audit of the existing site: analytics, user behavior, speed, technical SEO, a list of pages and queries for which you are found. Next, we decide what to transfer without changes, what to rewrite and what to delete.

When a redesign is needed and when not

Redesign is appropriate when the site is morally outdated, does not correspond to the price level, does not work well on the phone, has a complicated structure or technically does not involve new tasks. It is not needed if the problem is something else: little traffic, weak offer, long reaction of managers. In these cases, the new design will not change anything, and we say so directly, rather than selling extra work.

An intermediate option is often more profitable: spot changes to the first screen, price block, form and mobile version. It is cheaper and gives results faster than a complete rework.

Audit before work

We see where the traffic comes from and what people do on the site: which block they go to, where they close the page, which pages give appeals. We check speed, indexing errors, duplicate pages, broken links, correct micro-markup and mobile usability. Separately, we collect a list of pages that bring search traffic - they must survive the move.

• Analytics: sources, behavior, conversions by page.
• Technical condition: speed, indexing, errors, duplicates.
• A list of landing pages and queries you can't miss.
• Comparison with competitors in the niche.

How to move the site without losing positions

The key rule is that page addresses either remain the same or are permanently redirected to a new addressee. We prepare a redirect map even before launch, save titles and texts that work, update the sitemap and notify the search engine of changes. After the move, we keep the site under surveillance for a week or two: we monitor indexing, errors, and positions.

What do we change first?

The first screen, offer block, pricing, social proof and form are the ones that have the biggest impact on the number of hits. Next is the structure: navigation, landing pages for main services, internal linking. We bring the visuals up to the current level of the brand, but without the "victory of style over meaning": if the effect slows down the page and does not help to understand the offer, it will not be there.

The result of the redesign

A site that corresponds to your real level, works quickly, clearly leads a person to the application and retains search traffic. Plus a design system, so that you don't have to go back to a complete redesign: development goes by adding pages and blocks, and not a new project from scratch every two years.

Step-by-step redesign instead of one jump

For sites with live traffic, it is often safer not to update everything at once, but in parts: first the first screen and the offer block, then the service pages, then the rest. In this way, the impact of each change on applications is visible, and the risk of breaking everything with one release disappears.

This approach also allows you to stretch the budget over time and start getting results before the entire project is completed.

What to do with old content

Texts that bring traffic are carried over and improved, not thrown away. Duplicate pages are combined into one strong one. Empty partitions created once "just in case" are cleaned with correct redirection.

Separately, we check the blog: there are often articles there that give transitions for years, and they are the easiest to lose when moving.

How we measure the success of the redesign

Before launch, we record the basic figures: traffic, applications, conversion, speed, positions on key pages. After a month and three, we compare.

Without these measurements, the assessment is reduced to "it has become better", and this is not a reason to spend the budget. If some indicator has slipped, we see it quickly and return to the cause.