A website redesign process that starts with what already works
Most redesigns go wrong by starting with how the new site should look. Start instead with what the current one does well, because a redesign that drops the three pages bringing in most of your enquiries is a step backwards however good it looks. The process: audit, read the numbers, decide what stays, rebuild, review with the people who'll judge it, and launch with the old version kept on record.
Is it a redesign, or an edit?
If the problem is outdated prices, a missing service or a slow-to-find phone number, you need edits, not a redesign. A redesign is justified when the structure itself is wrong: visitors can't find what they came for, the site doesn't work on phones, the business has changed what it sells, or the look undermines trust. Be honest about which one you have; edits take an afternoon.
The process, in seven steps
- Record the current site. Before changing anything, keep a copy you can look at later. If it's an Anticode site, its versions are kept in history, and you can also export it as one self-contained HTML file to file away. If it's elsewhere, save each page's text and images and take full-page screenshots.
- Audit page by page. List every page with its address, its purpose, and a verdict: keep as is, rewrite, merge or drop. Mark pages that other sites link to and pages customers bookmark.
- Read the numbers. Look at a few months of visits by source, and at enquiries per form. On Anticode, page views per site per day by source are in the dashboard (not broken down by page), and the Intelligence page answers questions only from those metrics. If your old site's analytics show visits per page, note which pages bring visits from search or enquiries: those are the ones you protect.
- Ask three customers. What did they look for, and what nearly made them give up? Ten minutes on the phone beats a week of guessing.
- Rebuild from a brief. Give Anticode's Architect a sentence about the business and the old site's address. It reads the link once and summarises it into the brief, asks up to three questions where the answer changes the build, and shows a plan of sections and pages. Strike out anything your audit dropped before you say "Build it".
- Choose one design system and stay in it. Anticode builds in one of seven systems, from Editorial to Swiss, each with one font family, one action colour and consistent radius. Choose by what the business needs to feel like, not by trend. The Critic's nineteen design checks hold the build to it.
- Review, then launch. Send a client review link to the decision-makers, collect comments tied to sections, apply them, and publish. Keep the old site reachable for a week if it's elsewhere.
What to keep, whatever the new look
- Content that earns visits. Rewrite its layout, not its substance. A services page that ranks for what customers search for should keep answering the same question.
- Page addresses where you can. If an address must change, update every link you control to the new one. Anticode doesn't set up redirects from old addresses.
- Contact routes people already use: the same phone number, email and form purpose, tested after launch.
- Real photos. A redesign is not the time to swap your own team and premises for stock images. Upload your own; the model sees them and places them.
Trade-offs to decide up front
| Decision | Option A | Option B |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | One page with sections: quicker to scan | Separate pages: more room for each service |
| Copy | Keep the old words, new layout: less risk | Rewrite everything: better, slower |
| Launch | All at once on a quiet day | A soft launch on a free address first |
| Design system | Close to the old look: familiar to regulars | A clear break: signals a change in the business |
What goes wrong
The redesign drops a page that was quietly bringing in work, and enquiries fall a month later with nobody sure why. Forms are rebuilt but never tested. The new site is reviewed on a large monitor and launched without anyone opening it on a phone. Each of these is prevented by a step above: the audit, the form test and the phone check.
How you know it worked
Compare the same measures before and after over the same length of time: visits by source, search visits to the site, and enquiries per month. Give it at least four weeks. If enquiries fall, compare the new pages with the recorded old ones before changing anything else; version history and your saved copy make that comparison possible.
Limits
Anticode can't import a site from another builder, so the redesign is a rebuild guided by the Architect's summary of your old site. It doesn't redirect old page addresses, run A/B tests or produce heatmaps. Pages are in English. For moving from a specific platform, see migrating from Wix; for launching quietly, soft-launching a website; for a broader look at AI redesigns, AI website redesign.
Questions people ask
Will a redesign hurt my search traffic?
It can if you drop pages that rank or change their addresses without updating links. Keep the content that earns visits and protect those pages.
Can Anticode import my old website?
No. Give the Architect the old site's link; it reads it once and summarises it into the brief, and the new site is built from that and your content.
Can I go back to the old design after launching?
On Anticode, yes: preview an earlier version in history, restore it and publish again.