Find the friction before changing the look.
A redesign brief is stronger when it identifies the decisions visitors struggle to make.
By Kumar Saurabh Mishra, founder of SiteSutra. Planning examples are original demonstrations.
Review the customer journey
Can a first-time visitor explain the offer, see relevant proof, and find the next step? Check mobile reading, broken links, slow pages, and enquiry friction.
Keep useful foundations
Inventory existing content, URLs, search visibility and integrations. Plan redirects where URLs change and preserve content that still serves buyers.
Define a meaningful outcome
Pick specific improvements: clearer services, stronger case studies, easier content editing, or a working enquiry route. Use verified observations to evaluate the result, without assuming design alone will create growth.
Inventory before replacing
Hypothetical home-repair website: /index.html is the homepage, /services.html combines two services, /contact-us.html receives enquiries and /offer-2023.html is obsolete. Inventory content, inbound links, indexability and the visitor task before choosing to keep, merge, redirect or retire each URL.
| Old URL | Proposed destination | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| /index.html | / | 301 to equivalent home |
| /services.html | /services/ | 301 to retained overview |
| /contact-us.html | /contact/ | 301 to enquiry route |
| /offer-2023.html | None | Review links, then retire with 410 if no replacement exists |
Do not send every old URL to the homepage. Test status codes, final destinations and redirect chains; update internal links and sitemap URLs.
Download sample URL inventory · Download sample redirect map
Accept the migration deliberately
Test important old URLs, preserved content, enquiry delivery, canonical host, crawler access, keyboard navigation and narrow screens. Compare real observations before and after release without assuming a redesign creates growth. Discuss a website redesign.
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