A website redesign is one of the most transformative things a business can do. It can modernize your brand, improve conversions, strengthen SEO, and upgrade the user experience dramatically.

But if you do it wrong—even slightly wrong—a redesign can destroy rankings, break user journeys, confuse customers, and cost you revenue for months.

Most redesign failures don’t happen because the design was “bad.”
They happen because of overlooked strategic details and poor planning.

This article breaks down the biggest website redesign mistakes businesses make and the exact steps you must take to avoid them. Whether you’re redesigning your own website or delivering redesigns for clients, this guide will give you the blueprint used by top agencies.

Mistake #1: Redesigning Without Clear Business Goals

Many redesigns start with:
“Let’s make the website look better.”

That’s not a goal.
That’s a preference.

Real redesign goals should be tied to business outcomes like:

Without clear goals, the redesign becomes subjective, confusing, and inconsistent. Everyone pushes their own preferences, which leads to a messy outcome.

How to Avoid This:

Document a clear redesign strategy that includes:

When everyone knows the mission, the redesign becomes focused, strategic, and effective.

Mistake #2: Ignoring SEO During the Redesign

This is the silent killer of redesigns.
Many brands launch their “beautiful new site” only to see traffic drop 40–90% within weeks.

Why?
Because they didn’t protect their SEO.

Common SEO mistakes include:

When SEO falls apart, so does your organic traffic, lead flow, and revenue.

How to Avoid This:

A redesign should improve SEO, not destroy it.

Mistake #3: Changing Everything at Once

Some businesses treat a redesign as an opportunity to rebuild:

…all at the same time.

This creates chaos and increases the risk of losing your site’s core identity.

Worse, changing everything makes it impossible to know which changes helped and which changes harmed performance.

How to Avoid This:

Upgrade strategically:

Sometimes the best redesign keeps 40–50% of what already works and enhances the rest.

Mistake #4: Not Backing Up the Old Website Properly

You must be able to restore the old site instantly if anything goes wrong.

Many redesign disasters could be solved in minutes if the original site were backed up properly. Instead, teams lose:

Restoring an unplanned backup is almost impossible once the new site is pushed live.

How to Avoid This:

Before touching anything:

This makes recovery easy if needed.

Mistake #5: Designing Based on Personal Opinion Instead of User Data

A redesign should never be based on:

Opinions kill redesigns.
Data guides redesigns.

User behavior data is the most reliable source for knowing:

How to Avoid This:

Collect data before starting:

Base design decisions on real user behavior—not guesswork.

Mistake #6: Bloated Designs That Destroy Site Speed

Redesigns often introduce heavy:

The new site may look good—but loads slowly.
Slow speed hurts SEO, conversions, and user satisfaction.

How to Avoid This:

Follow performance best practices:

A modern site must be both aesthetically pleasing and fast.

Mistake #7: Not Planning the Navigation Before Designing

Navigation is one of the most crucial elements of a redesign.
Yet many teams design the homepage before mapping out the navigation.

This leads to:

How to Avoid This:

Start redesigns with Information Architecture (IA):

The navigation determines the user’s journey—design it first.

Mistake #8: Launching Without Testing

Un-tested redesigns ALWAYS launch with:

Skipping testing is one of the most expensive redesign mistakes.

How to Avoid This:

Create a thorough pre-launch checklist:

Launch only after everything is verified.

Mistake #9: Forgetting the User’s Primary Goals

Many redesigns focus on:

…instead of what the user actually wants.

Most users visit your site for only a few reasons:

If your redesign makes these tasks harder, your bounce rates will rise and conversions will drop.

How to Avoid This:

Every important action should be:

Define your top CTAs and build the design around them.

Mistake #10: Redesigning Without a Content Strategy

People don’t redesign their content—they only redesign the visuals.
This leaves them with:

A new design cannot fix weak content.

How to Avoid This:

Audit your content for:

Rewrite content to match your redesigned structure—not the other way around.

Mistake #11: Ending the Project at “Launch” Instead of at “Results”

Most redesigns stop the moment the new site goes live.
But the real work starts after launch.

You should be tracking:

A redesign is only successful if it improves performance—not just appearance.

How to Avoid This:

Set a 90-day post-launch improvement plan.

Monitor everything and optimize continuously.

Final Thoughts

A website redesign can transform your brand, elevate your authority, boost conversions, and improve your search visibility—but only if it’s done correctly.

Avoiding the biggest redesign mistakes ensures you don’t lose traffic, break your SEO foundation, confuse users, or waste months of work.

If you want a high-performance website redesign done strategically—backed by UX, SEO, data, and conversion-focused design—Domizwebs can deliver a redesign that doesn’t just look beautiful, but performs exceptionally.

Ready to redesign your website the right way? Contact us here:
https://domizwebs.com/#contact