A redesign is a commercial project wearing a design costume. After rebuilding sites across five markets, the pattern is consistent: the gains come from six changes, and almost never from the three everyone starts with.
The six that move revenue
One: a headline that says what you do, for whom, in plain words — most sites bury it under a slogan. Two: page speed on a mid-range phone; every second of load costs conversions. Three: one obvious next step per page instead of five competing buttons. Four: proof near every claim — real work, real names, real numbers. Five: a contact path that sets expectations (what happens after you press send). Six: pages structured around what buyers search, so the redesign compounds through Google instead of resetting it.
The three that usually don't
Animated everything — motion that delays content costs more than it impresses. A new colour palette on the same broken structure. And a homepage video nobody watches that doubles your load time.
Protect your SEO while you rebuild
Keep URLs stable or 301 every change, preserve your metadata, and never launch behind a "coming soon" page. We have watched businesses lose a year of rankings in one enthusiastic weekend deploy.