By Thaddeus Ternes
At this point, anyone working in marketing has seen (or been the accomplice to) an unnecessary website overhaul.
To be fair, there are very persuasive reasons to burn it all down to the ground. Our culture deeply values the new over the old—particularly in a corporate world where “newness” can get more attention and accolades than the much less flashy “improvement.” And the “what sounds better on a resume” question is compounded by clients repeatedly being sold or given the impression that to solve their business issues, they need to totally start over.
Here’s the problem–website overhauls don’t work. At least not in the way they’re promised to.
Why website redesigns don’t work
Website redesigns are often initiated because there’s a business problem: low conversions or poor lead capturing mean the website isn’t driving a significant portion of revenue; an under-investment in the website has led to an outdated and out-of-touch image; acquisitions have grown the capabilities of an organization, but those are not reflected on the website. The list goes on.
Sure, a website overhaul may solve those problems–in the same way that employee morale may be improved by firing your entire staff and hiring all new people. But like that analogy, website overhauls are expensive, and demand the dedication and focus of large teams working for weeks, months, and sometimes even years.
An overhaul can also create problems of its own. From structure changes to broken links, there’s a great deal of complexity involved in successfully migrating a site over without hurting SEO rankings. Data and content migrations themselves are an often underestimated Herculean effort, not to mention the external integrations. A misaligned overhaul can also turn off users to the new platform, creating frustration or confusion along with a loss of trust.
Finally, it’s just not the best way to work. A website isn’t a static billboard—it’s a selling tool that should be responsive to customer needs. And responsiveness means it adapts as customers or the business adapts. Every month you spend on an overhaul is time that could have been put into making the site 5% better for the customers interacting with it right now. By the time you finish a full overhaul, the insights that you were implementing may no longer even be relevant.
Why incremental change works
When we spread the gospel of incremental change, we give three reasons to believe: speed, sustainability, and chief marketing officer (CMO) satisfaction.
- Incremental change is fast. This means it allows you to respond to customer needs in real-time. Let’s say you have a news website where an increasing number of readers are complaining about readability on mobile devices. Rather than adding this to a potential list of significant redesign efforts, a quick analysis may reveal this complaint only affects phones with folding screens. You could then consider how to handle multiple viewport segments on those devices, instead of assuming there’s a larger problem. Additionally, just because a change is fast, doesn’t mean it can’t have a big impact. You wouldn’t believe how radically different a site can look by just changing the typeface.
- An incremental approach is sustainable. Rather than burning out your teams with a monumental overhaul, short sprints with tangible results keeps everyone happy.
- Incremental change meets the needs of CMOs today. Top marketers are increasingly reporting that they are being asked to do more with less and prove ROI all along the way. Incremental change is a way to accomplish both asks. You can make a tangible impact quickly with a nimble team—testing, measuring, and improving as you go.
How to update your website: Getting started
1. Make sure your team is set up for success
Because we’ve been indoctrinated that a website overhaul is the only way to remove legacy errors, the idea of forgoing a splashy rollout for small improvements over time can be a tough sell. When advocating for an incremental approach, answer this question: what is the one change we can do that will prove this approach can work? Make that your demo, and deliver.
Another thing we often hear is that implementation or approval will take too long. If that’s the case for your business, you have to fix that issue first, by streamlining the approval process or assessing what is slowing your dev team down. The incremental approach works when things are kept moving. You need to be able to quickly and confidently change copy, images, or other basic elements.
2. Choose to be boring
An incremental approach should come with a commitment to stop chasing trends. A fashionable typeface, parallax scrolling, or an aggressively minimalist (or maximalist) website may seem like a good idea at the time, but a user experience can quickly become outdated when it’s tied to what everyone else is doing and not what your brand stands for.
It’s also necessary to choose “boring” technology. Industry staples are staples for a reason. Sometimes a startup disruptor brings real value to the table; other times it brings a host of problems and minimal support for fixes.
3. Run short cycles with small teams
Keep your core teams small, ideally only four to six people. Choose members with expertise over newer people who may need a lot of oversight. You should also time-box every activity—don’t allow any single task to run indefinitely. Create a timeline for each update and stick to it.
4. Know what matters—and measure it
Even though you’re working with a small team, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be asking for input from others. A successful incremental approach has buy-in from all stakeholders—internal and external. Seek feedback from anyone who will interact with the website. What do they wish was different? What are their pain points? This will help you figure out what changes will have the biggest impact and how to prioritize.
Once you know what matters, commit to measuring it. Assess what’s working and what’s not, and prioritize changes that can be measured against some kind of metric. If a change’s impact can’t be measured, don’t make it.
5. Stay simple and move fast
As you begin designing, always reduce and simplify before expanding. Prototype with the lowest effort possible. Finding ways to consolidate changes and reduce design redundancies can have huge time-saving benefits. This tactic means starting with components you already have—ideally ones that exist in a design tool—as well as current code.
The most optimized teams prototype ideas in staging and then run experiments in production for quick feedback. They also create reusable assets and generate adaptable designs that lend themselves to adaptable prototypes and implementations.
6. Repeat
The incremental approach comes with a hard truth: a website is never going to be “done”—at least not as long as you’re in business. There will always be new technologies, new customer needs, and new insights to incorporate into your digital experiences. You will always want be measuring, adapting, and going back to previous changes to make it a little bit better.
FAQs on updating versus redesigning a website
What’s the difference between a website update and a redesign?
A website update involves making minor adjustments to content, design elements, or functionality to enhance performance or address issues. When done continually, these updates compound and become significant improvements. In contrast, a redesign entails a complete overhaul, often including changes to the technology stack, migrating all content, and completely abandoning the former site.
How often should a website be replaced?
When done well, ongoing website updates should negate the need for wholesale website rebuilds. The website should be a living reflection of a brand, able to move and change with trends, user expectations, and technological advancements. Regular updates also support SEO efforts and enhance user experience.
What happens if a website is outdated?
An outdated website risks poor performance, security issues, and user disengagement, impacting brand credibility. Regular updates are crucial for relevance and effectiveness.
About the Author
Post by: Thaddeus Ternes
Thaddeus Ternes is the VP of technology at VSA Partners. He’s responsible for expanding VSA’s technical capabilities, as well as developing new experiences with emerging technologies His human-centered approach to building technology with purpose ensures experiences are accessible, valuable, and intuitive. His past work includes designing Smart Cities digital services, developing intelligent logistics operations systems, and delivering connected experiences for some of the world’s largest Smart Home and Connected Fitness brands. His technical expertise spans from scaled cloud services to resource-constrained embedded systems and all traditional computing interfaces in between.
Company: VSA Partners
Website: www.vsapartners.com
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