5 Ways to Save Money on Your Next Website Redesign

I love a good website redesign project.

It's like renovating a house: you get to knock down walls, add new rooms, or new design trends. Or maybe it's about improving functionality, like redesigning a kitchen layout that to make more sense.

But it can also be daunting.

You're about to invest a lot of time and money, and there are countless decisions to make.

A website is a completely unique brand asset because it’s the complex intersection where many different parts of your brand—the look and feel, messaging, product, customer support—all come together to tell your story and connect with your audience.

Choosing the right layout and making it look good is just scratching the surface.

You have to also:

• Help visitors find what they're looking for quickly and easily.

• Include intuitive search functions, filters, and other features that enhance the user experience.

• Ensure your brand message is clear and consistent

• Craft engaging, clear, and persuasive copy

• Implement SEO best practices to ensure your site ranks well in search results

• Enhance the back end system is user-friendly, allowing your team to update and manage the site efficiently

• Optimize site speed so you don’t lose visitors.

Whether you’re an in-house marketing team or an entrepreneur, this can be overwhelming.

Here are five strategies to save money on your website redesign and make sure you get the most bang for your buck: 

1. Understand Who You’re Hiring and Who You Need to Hire

One of the most common pitfalls in a website redesign is not fully understanding the different kinds of web design vendors out there, and the pros and cons of each.

You might’ve gotten a referral. But without knowing the limitations of different kinds of vendors, you can make the wrong choice that sets off a cascade of other problems.

Unfortunately, not all vendors are transparent and clear about their limitations and what they bring to the table.

I learned this the hard way. I once hired a web designer for a major web redesign project. We used a wordpress template but were planning to do some additional custom coding. This designer outsourced, or sub-contracted, the development function, which is fairly common.

But when we got to that part of the project, which was one of the most important aspects of the site for the user-experience, the communication was off. Did the developer know to execute the code what we needed? Yes, but he didn’t seem to be thinking through the actual UX or how our team needed to manage the content from the back end. And because we had to pass information from the designer to the developer each time, we were painfully trapped in an endless revision cycle.

Eventually, we had to hire a new developer to redo all of that work—only to find out the original developer had cut corners and bloated the site.

The lesson? We expected a website designer to work on a project that was out of his wheelhouse.

In your search for a vendor, you’re going to look at portfolios—but the key here is to look DEEPER and ask BETTER QUESTIONS.

Even before you engage a vendor, here’s a few key questions to ask yourself or your team:

• Are you looking for someone who can help you improve the look and feel of your website, or do you need someone to help you solve deeper problems?

• Do you have a content heavy website that needs to improve its internal structure? Do you require advanced functionality on your site that only a developer can make sure that it works smoothly? (ex. Search and Filters, Dynamic Content)

• Is your messaging confusing, copy outdated, or simply not converting traffic?

Try ranking these priorities in order to help you determine the support you need.

For more details on this, take a look at this blog: Who to Hire for your Next Website Redesign (and Why) where I break down of different kinds of vendors AND questions to ask before you hire them.

Or, for a quick overview, check out the infographic below:

2. Nail Down Your Messaging First (No, for Real)

In a website re-design project, it can be easy to get caught up in the visual design and overlook the most important part:

…the words on your website.

You might assume you already have this covered, but I would encourage you to not skip this step.

To save money—at the very least, you should always consider doing a thorough audit of messaging and copy with stakeholders to avoid significant delays by having to redo it later.

One of your biggest hurdles in an effective website can be making sure customers aren’t confused about what you offer and avoiding lackluster copy that doesn’t do a good job of selling what you do.

Hiring a trained messaging strategist or copywriter can be an pivitol resource in enhancing your website's effectiveness.

How this saves money:

• Avoids Redesigns: Clear, effective messaging can prevent the need for costly redesigns caused by poor initial communication.

• Increases Conversion Rates: Well-crafted copy improves user engagement and conversion rates, providing a better return on your investment

• Targeted Content: Research-driven content reduces the guesswork and ensures you’re addressing the right pain points and interests of your audience.

• Efficient Resource Allocation: By understanding your audience better, you can allocate resources more effectively, focusing on areas that will yield the highest returns.

3. Beyond Looks: Focus on Function for Long-Term Savings

While visual appeal is important, your business goals are much more crucial.

To save time and money, your first questions to any vendor should not be about how it looks, but about ensuring it has the functionality you need.

This holds true whether you are working with a template or custom coding.

How to save money with this:

• Take an active role in choosing a template: Don’t just let your vendor choose a template for you. Many web designers will choose a template simply because they’re comfortable with it. Be hands-on in selecting one with the functionality you need, so you don’t have to pay extra to code features that other templates include.

• Take Care When Choosing a Developer: When someone is custom coding, it's important to know a little of how they are doing it. There are many ways to set up code, and it's essential to ensure your website isn’t making your site slower or dysfunctional in other ways. Find a developer who shares your priorities for efficient, manageable code and ask them how it will impact other parts of your site.

• Pay Attention to the Back End, Too: Your staff should be able to easily update the website without needing much technical knowledge. Keep your staff’s user-experience in mind as well, keeping taxonomies organized and easy to find, using clear instructions for input fields, and simplifying the backend to avoid mistakes.

4. Understand the Difference between Static and Dynamic Content

One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is underestimating the amount of content their website has.

Misjudging the amount and structure of your website's content can lead to costly redesigns and inefficiencies. 

Before you start your web design, you need to have a clear idea of the difference between static and dynamic content — so you know what it will take to build your vision.

• Dynamic content: Content that can change automatically.

  • Example 1: A "Latest News" section on your homepage that populates each time a new post is added.When you add a new article, it appears in this section without any extra effort. This is usually achieved through coding that pulls the latest entries from a database.

  • Example 2: You have a single template for ALL blog posts or product pages. When you add a new blog post or product, it automatically generates a new page with the same design and layout.

• Static Content: Content that stays the same until someone manually changes it.

  • Example 1: A testimonial section. If you want to add a new testimonial, you need to manually edit the section and add the new text. It doesn't change unless you update it yourself.

  • Example 2: An “About Us” page where the content is designed and built as an individual page that doesn't change unless you manually update it. Each page is built individually and content stays more or less the same.

If you don’t have a clear idea of what you need and where, you risk having a web designer create static page templates where dynamic ones are needed, limiting your site's scalability and flexibility.

Questions to Ask Your Web Design Vendor:

• Can you provide references from past clients with similar content management needs?

• How do you handle content migration from existing websites?

• Which pages in my design would need to be dynamic versus static?

• Can you provide examples of websites you've designed with dynamic templates?

5. Prioritize UX Expertise Over Just Web Design for Greater ROI

It can be easy during a website redesign to try to satisfy every stakeholder and lose track of your audience: the user.

A website that looks great but is difficult to use will frustrate visitors and fail to achieve your goals. This is why a website redesign isn't just about surface-level aesthetics; it's about ensuring your site is intuitive and easy to navigate, and ultimately, doesn’t inadvertently drive people away.

Get it right the first time: An intuitive site keeps users engaged, leading to higher conversion rates and better ROI.

Save money by reducing the need for frequent redesigns caused by poor user experiences.

Partner with Someone with an Integrated Skill Set: 

To ensure a successful website redesign, it can be helpful to look for a partner who has expertise in multiple areas, including messaging, UX design, content strategy, and SEO. Opting for a versatile expert means you you can avoid the high costs of an expensive agency while still tapping into a wide range of expertise.

Get in touch if you want to talk through how we can create a website that not only looks great but also offers intuitive navigation and drives meaningful user engagement.