Why Your Website Needs A Redesign? A Comprehensive Website Revamp Guide In 2025

Every business needs a website.

It is a must in 2025, even if you run a local business and only target a single country or city. It is a proven fact that 99% of customers use the internet to find information about local businesses, with 78% doing so more than once a week.

A website is your company’s digital face and key differentiator. So you can’t do without it these days. Furthermore, you cannot afford to have a laggy website that is not optimized for seamless use and is simply unappealing to potential customers.

Businesses that do not yet have a website should seriously consider creating one if they want to attract more customers and increase revenue. It’s clear. What about those who already have an online presence and see customers visiting their website?

It will not last forever.

Websites built ten years ago differ from those built today in terms of functionality, customer experience, and underlying technologies. Similarly, modern websites will be obsolete and ineffective in ten years’ time. Simply having a website isn’t enough. To keep your site running and fulfilling its purpose, you must upgrade it on a regular basis, just as you would your car.

What is a Website Redesign?

Let’s consult the Cambridge Dictionary. Redesign is defined as “the process of changing the way something looks, is made, or works.” So, when we say we’re redesigning a website, we mean rebuilding its structure, interface, and functionality.

So, how does this differ from designing a website from scratch?

It is not, in terms of both the procedure and the effort required. Nevertheless, the necessity for website redesign arises due to urgent problems that the current website is no longer capable of resolving. And this is the exact issue that influences which approach to redesign the team should take. It means that a website revamp is a fluid process. There are three design approaches:

Website Redesign

This one is similar to designing from scratch because it requires complete website restructuring and brand identity changes. Such a redesign is complex and expensive, but it is not always required. It makes sense when your business objectives have shifted dramatically, and you are entering the market with a new product or targeting an entirely different segment of users. Another example is reputational damage. Assume that your company has been involved in a high-profile scandal. As you pivot, you don’t want your new products to be associated with a tainted brand, so you choose a complete brand and website redesign.

Website Modernization

This approach is appropriate for websites that generally function as expected but have some bottlenecks that must be removed. For example, your website analytics show that new users leave quickly after registering. In this case, the design team will not ruin everything you’ve worked so hard to build. They will simply improve the original website by incorporating new design solutions to address this specific issue. Modernization is also used to improve the functionality of websites that require updates. As a result of the increased number of products or services you provide, you may decide to expand the capabilities and functionality of your website. It is no longer enough to simply add new items to the product page. The original page will most likely need to be redesigned to include categories, filters, and many other features.

Iterative Design

This is what we frequently use in our work, whether it is the design, development, or digital transformation of your business. It is based on gradual updates to your website through short design experiments. Iterative redesign is best for multi-featured websites in the scaling stage.

For example, suppose you run a large eCommerce website with consistent revenue. Your current business goal is to broaden your existing customer base by attracting a younger demographic. You cannot afford to redesign a website in one go because you risk losing a large number of loyal customers who are accustomed to the way your site looks and functions. Based on user research and analytics, the team makes small design changes that are then tested with real users to see if they work well. Thus, after a number of iterations, you will have a revamped Ecommerce website design that attracts new customers while retaining existing ones.

Another example is when you require a complete redesign due to pivoting or another significant change, but you cannot afford to wait until every website element is redesigned. As a result, the revamp is carried out iteratively, starting with one set of functionalities and progressing to the next. This allows you to keep your business running while profiting from newly released features. This translates to a faster return on design investment.

Your website is intended to complete a specific task. Specifically, it assists a customer in discovering your company and progressing from the first visit to awareness, conversion, and return. A redesign should be initiated if there is a need to facilitate this journey at any of the points and make the customer complete their target action faster.

How Can You Determine if you Require a Website Revamp?

Website redesign is seldom a top priority in a company’s strategic agenda. However, there are occasions when it is essential, and your responsibility is to identify it promptly.

Let’s look at some common reasons that drive businesses to revamp and see if each one is enough to justify a massive website redesign initiative or if it can be fixed without much effort.

Why Redesign Your Website? Common Reasons:

As previously stated, some businesses choose to redesign a website as part of a rebranding strategy. Others want to keep up with the times and meet the expectations of modern customers, so they change the existing website by improving usability and expanding functionality. A company’s website redesign strategy will probably differ from another even if both have the same reason for redesigning because different factors like a site’s size, domain, budget, goals, technology, and so on all affect it. And, in some cases, not redesigning may be the most effective solution.

Reason #1: “My Sites Design is Outdated”

This is a common reason for revamping a website. However, every time we hear it from our customers, we continue to ask them the following questions:

• Who says this? You? Or your clients?
• Is it affecting your website’s performance? Conversion?
• Does your website generate revenue?

The issue with “outdated design” is that it is often motivated more by taste than by a real need for a redesign. Sure, you can recolor and refresh your website’s interface with modern-looking graphics, but what tangible benefits will it provide? If you can’t answer this question, reconsider.

Here is a simple example. You own a small coffee shop where you make money from offline sales. Running a website is primarily for the purpose of raising awareness. It allows customers to find your cafe faster, view its interior, and contact you to reserve a table. That’s it all target interactions occur offline. If this is the case, a website redesign is unlikely to be a worthwhile investment. However, if your site includes ordering and delivery features, it makes sense to re-examine user flows and simplify the client’s path to action wherever possible.

Reason #2: “It’s Hard to Use My Site.”

This is usually a sufficient reason to begin the website redesign process.

Unfortunately, many businesses fail to prioritize user experience on their websites, despite the fact that this has a significant impact on whether or not website visitors convert into customers.

The market is constantly evolving, giving rise to newer, more innovative products. This, in turn, modifies user behavior and expectations. Modern customers are spoiled with a wide range of solutions and will naturally choose those that provide them with the desired result in an easy and timely manner. They value user-friendly websites with simple functionality and easy interaction. It means that the faster the user can get from the first point of contact to their destination, the higher their trust and satisfaction will be.

Your loyal customers will most likely ignore your website’s flaws, but the new, and especially young, audience will not tolerate a poor user experience. Please keep this in mind.

Reason #. 3: “There is no Traffic or Vonversation on My Site.”

The root cause here may not always be poor design.

First, ensure that your website is search engine-optimized and has sufficient online visibility. The SEO audit should include testing for core web vitals such as page speed and user interaction measurements, as well as the quality of content on your website—it could simply be targeting the wrong audience and communicating the wrong message.

Second, do not rule out the possibility of the human factor. If, in addition to the website, you rely heavily on the sales team to pitch your products to customers, it is likely that they have contributed to lower conversion rates. Consider your sales strategy and the approach you use to persuade potential customers to buy.

Reason #4: “My Website Is Compatible with All Devices”

Web sites limited to desktops are long gone. These days’ consumers depend more on their mobile devices and are more linked. As Statistic confirms, “58.99% of global website traffic was generated by mobile devices in the second quarter of 2022.”

Any website has to be responsive. Even Google now gives mobile search priority above desktop search and only ranks websites that satisfy every mobile-friendliness requirement. This is so because consumers anticipate a uniform experience on all devices. Should your website be unable to offer it, visitors will quickly click away. Redesigning your website will help to remove this risk.

 Reason #5: “My Website is Rife with Bugs and Errors.”

You may have a great-looking website with cool products. However, if it does not function as expected and produces errors throughout the user’s journey, you may pay a high price for your business. 88% of people will not return to a website that provides a poor user experience. It is an unwritten rule that the site must perform well and make it easy for users to find what they need.

Clearly, this is a critical issue that must be addressed as soon as possible. However, when we talk about bugs and errors, it does not always mean that poor design is to blame. Another possible culprit is disorganized code that is difficult to maintain. Refactoring is an effective way to address this issue.

If it isn’t for code, it’s most likely for UX issues that need to be addressed through a website redesign.

To summarize, it is no surprise that the decision to overhaul a website should be based on facts and figures rather than assumptions. And so far, the reasons listed above are only assumptions. For them to be viable, they must be data-driven. This is the only way to make meaningful improvements. So, always do your research before investing money in a redesign initiative.

What Should Be Included In A Redesign Strategy?

Specific goals and measurable outcomes for website redesign.

Goals:

In other words, the reasons for redesigning the website. As previously stated, intuition should never be used to guide a redesign. Instead, you should have a good reason for making such a decision. What do you hope to achieve by revamping your website? 

Motives such as ‘getting a modern-looking interface’ or ‘keeping up with competitors’ are insufficient unless they have an impact on business performance or customer satisfaction. In other words, your objectives are essentially the critical mission driving a redesign initiative, and this mission is always data-driven.

Measurable Outcomes:

Measurable outcomes are also known as redesign success metrics. How do you know if you’ve met your website redesign objectives? If there are no metrics to back it up, you will be unable to determine whether you are progressing in the direction you intended.

To make goals achievable, you must define measurable results—something that can quantify the progress made after the redesign. Well-defined, specific outcomes are critical for making design efforts meaningful to both your company and your customers. However, to ensure their effectiveness, you must also have access to per-redesign performance benchmarks for side-by-side comparisons.

Now that you’ve finished the preparation phase, it’s time to begin the long-awaited website redesign process.

Website Redesign Process: Steps and Tips

VelanApps has worked on a number of custom website redesign projects over the course of its existence, each with its own set of goals. Nonetheless, the redesign process has always been the same (with minor variations). This process is based on nearly 15 years of web design experience. Now, we would like to distribute it to you.

STEP 1: Identifying a Problem

We always start by interviewing the client. This is to identify areas where the current website falls short and to articulate the issues and barriers that must be addressed. If there is no problem, there is no reason to start the website redesign process.

STEP 2: Analyzing Data

Although we have already gathered information about the problem, it is from a highly subjective source client briefing and requires validation. So, at this point, we try to determine whether the alleged problem is real. We use data analytics to determine where to focus our design efforts.

STEP 3: Defining the Project Scope

We develop a project scope that not only documents the task pool but also specifies the redesign goals, deliverables, and milestones, which are then negotiated with the client. The project scope is used to plan a website redesign in a comprehensive, high-level manner.

STEP 4: Examining User Flow

We validate the various paths the user is currently taking from the entry point to the completed target action. It is critical to plan out every step; otherwise, you risk missing critical flaws that users encounter when interacting with your website’s design or functionality. We then improve the user flows to remove any existing bottlenecks.

STEP 5. Outlining Website Structure

Well-thought-out user flows help us understand how many pages the website requires, what those pages should be, and how they are linked together. On that basis, we document the structure of the website and reach an agreement with the client.

STEP 6. Making Estimates

By this point, we have a clear picture of the resources needed to make changes to the website, including person-hours, budget, and timeline. Accurate estimates and an action plan ensure that the redesign project does not take a wrong turn, resulting in unexpected project setbacks.

STEP 7. Wire Framing

There are two possible outcomes here. The first method involves creating skeletons for all pages at once and then validating them with usability tests. Please be aware that it may require a significant amount of time. 

Alternatively, we could start by wire framing and testing the key pages. And, while they are being implemented on the website, the design team is working on the remaining less critical pages one by one. This approach makes sense when there is an urgent need for certain changes to the website design that, if not implemented in a timely manner, may degrade the user experience.

STEP 8. Designing

It refers to the visual aspects of a website redesign, such as styling, color, and graphics. If there is no request for rebranding, we will adhere to the existing brand guidelines. However, we try to use the identity elements in a way that re-energizes the site’s aesthetic.

Conclusion

Every company in the digital age needs a website that is both attractive and useful to stand out in a crowded market. Still, a website is insufficient by itself. Companies that want to keep up with technology and user expectations need to update their websites often.

Website redesign and revamp include reorganizing, re interfacing, and adding new features to solve problems and achieve new company objectives. The three approaches to redesign: complete redesign, modernization, and iterative design are appropriate for various purposes and requirements.

When a website is seriously approached with a well-organized, data-driven strategy, both customer satisfaction and company performance increase. A comprehensive analysis can determine whether a redesign is necessary. Working with experts can yield insightful advice. Talk to our experts now.