Website redesigns/rebuilds aren’t for the faint of heart. Even if you’re not talking about a full rebrand, which relies on a lot of work from every single team in an organization to go semi-smoothly, website redesigns are expensive, multiple-month projects that require a ton of time and investment without guaranteed rewards.

In other words, they’re not to be undertaken on any kind of whim.

As both an agency advising hundreds of major brands and an organization with our own website, we’ve often weighed the question of when it’s time to stop optimizing ad hoc and dive into a more comprehensive redesign. Over and over, we encounter six considerations to answer the question – and to ensure we’re approaching potential redesigns with care and intention.

Does it look outdated?

Every once in a great while, a website is so appalling that everyone in the room can agree it needs an overhaul (and yes, this is real):

It’s rarely this cut and dried, but if most of the creative team in your organization is on board for a rebuild and your business has any kind of creative service or product to sell, chances are good the outdated design alone merits a big corrective investment.

Are the metrics telling you it’s time?

Most sites that have been around for any kind of time have had updates – code fixes, plug-ins, images, or other assets added – that will put cumulative drag on their speed. Very slow performance, which you can measure through tools like Google Search Console, can be reason enough for a redesign.

There are other metrics, especially time on site, engagement, and conversion-rate deltas between desktop and mobile, that can count as clear indicators of poor overall user experience and the need for a redesign – particularly if those metrics are declining over time.

In 2023, every site should be mobile- and tablet-responsive (numbers vary, but just about every report out there shows mobile beating desktop for a majority of global traffic). The desktop setting still lends itself to easier conversion flows thanks to screen and keyboard size, so a higher desktop conversion rate is no cause for alarm.

That said, if you’re seeing desktop CVRs outpacing mobile CVRs by more than 100%, and your audience is relatively young and/or tech-savvy, a deeper dive is warranted.

Can you isolate your issues to one piece of the user journey?

If all of your metrics look great except (for instance) your abandon-cart number, you might be able to focus on that particular part of the user journey (although it’s always good to do an up-funnel sanity check on things like social proof).

Likewise, if only a small percentage of folks are getting to the transaction stage but are then sailing through (and/or have a very high conversion rate on form fills), it’s good to audit the site engagement flow from initial points of entry to see if there are specific drop-off points.

Either way, a holistic audit when issues arise should show whether across-the-board numbers are sub-par, which indicates a full redesign is likely needed, or whether you have discrete issues that won’t take a huge overhaul to address.

Are your delay-a-redesign excuses valid?

You may be absolutely crushing your business goals. You also may note that while your site’s narrative and UX flow aren’t really aligned with how you’re talking about your brand internally, site performance (e.g., speed, conversion rate, etc.) is relatively good.

Those excuses don’t preclude a redesign.

You may be crushing your goals despite a poor website. You may be raking in all sorts of revenue from DR campaigns but doing your long-term brand a disservice. If you’re downplaying known site issues because you’re doing okay in the big picture, you’re waiting for the site to become a bigger issue down the road – which it almost certainly will.

What does your agency think?

If your company is a client of a marketing agency, lean on their creative/UX and SEO teams for expertise. They’ve undertaken hundreds of site optimizations and redesigns and will be able to give you perspective on if and when you’ll be better off undertaking a new site. They should also be an active part of the team doing the redesign since their campaigns and messaging are intertwined with your owned properties.

What do you need to do before you start a redesign?

Let’s say you’re fully committed to a site redesign. It’s not all about planning at this point; there are actual tactics you can execute to help your business in the meantime.

First, keep in mind that a new site will take months to launch between planning, design, and development. Look for opportunities to apply quick fixes that will help your metrics in the meantime. (The UX audits done to analyze the need for a redesign should produce a list of these.)

Second, assess whether your current tech stack needs to be adjusted to meet the goals of the new site. Consider everything from your CMS to your email provider to your eCommerce platform to your plug-in stack. If you’re a small company and your goals for the new site are to keep things nimble and easily updated, a drag-and-drop, customizable turn-key solution like Squarespace may be your best bet.

If you’re looking to start an ambitious new commerce experience or your current business has grown, compare the advanced functionality and features of Shopify, Magneto, VTEX, etc. Knowing your goals and the tech stack that will accommodate them is an important preliminary step to planning the timeline for a redesign.

It’s important to remember that building a new website will almost never be easy or convenient. Assessing whether it’s the right time for your business to make the leap will take research and analysis – just remember that it’s a matter of when, not if.