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How to Avoid a Lengthy Website Redesign

Are you grappling with the challenge of a website redesign? For many companies, the lengthy process, which often spans several months or even a year, can create an overwhelming barrier. However, a high-impact online presence is vital to staying relevant, engaging visitors, and generating sales opportunities. If you’re concerned about sinking significant time—and costs—into a new website, this article is for you. In it, we’ll unveil a strategy that could fast-track your web design cost-effectively without compromising quality or impact.  

Why does a typical website redesign take so long?

The typical timeline for a full-scale traditional website redesign might look something like this:

Discovery and Research (1-2 months): This phase involves understanding the current website’s strengths and weaknesses, setting goals, and planning the redesign strategy.

Design and Development (2-4 months): The new website takes shape here. Wireframes are created, user interfaces are designed, and coding begins.

Testing and Launch (1-2 months): In this phase, the website is thoroughly tested for bugs or issues and finally launched.

Review and Maintenance (Ongoing): Post-launch, the website is reviewed regularly, updated, and maintained.

With this traditional model, a significant amount of time passes before you can showcase your new site and harness it for growth. Fortunately, there’s a more flexible, data-driven approach that can speed up this process dramatically: Growth-driven design.

Man angry at his computer

Want to launch quicker? Choose growth-driven design.

Growth-driven design shifts the approach from a massive, one-time redesign project to a continuous improvement model. This method involves launching a “launch pad” site quickly, followed by regular, iterative improvements based on real user data. It allows you to get your new website up and running much faster than traditional models. However, a launch pad site isn’t a compromise on quality or a ‘lite’ version of your website—it’s simply a strategic approach that emphasizes swift deployment without sacrificing impact.

Here’s how it works:

Strategy creation


Instead of waiting for every element of your dream website to be ready before launching, you identify the core elements that will significantly impact your users. This prioritization is often guided by the 80/20 rule–focusing on the 20% of features that will deliver 80% of the impact. These elements form the foundation of your launch pad site.

Launch pad site development and launch


Once your high-impact elements are ready, a simplified yet high-impact version of your website goes live much faster than a traditional redesign, often in as little as 1-2 months. This launch pad site isn’t a half-baked version of your website, but a fully functional site optimized to deliver value to your audience quickly, build SEO equity, and gather valuable user data much sooner. However, the launch of the launch pad site isn’t the end of the journey—far from it. Instead, it’s the beginning of a process of continuous improvement.

Continuous improvement


Here’s where GDD truly shines. Once your launch pad site is live, you’ll collect data about how users interact with it. Based on these insights, you’ll then make regular, data-driven updates to your site. This cycle of analyze-improve-repeat is continuous, enabling you to adapt to your users’ needs and changing market dynamics more efficiently and effectively than a traditional redesign ever could.

Ultimately, GDD helps you launch your website much quicker without sacrificing quality or impact. The launch pad site is a fully functional, high-impact website that continuously improves and evolves based on your users’ needs and behaviors.

Beyond a fast launch: Bottom-line benefits of GDD

GDD not only accelerates the website redesign timeline but also offers several other business-critical benefits, including the following:

  • Risk mitigation: Launch quickly and make data-driven updates to avoid heavy investments in features that don’t resonate with your audience.

  • Cost efficiency: Spread out expenses over time with a monthly retainer agreement, aligning with the continuous development effort.

  • Alignment with user expectations: Ensure your site continually meets and exceeds audience expectations with regular updates based on user data.

Growth-driven design is an innovative approach to website redesign that minimizes the wait time, mitigates risk, and delivers a website that continuously evolves to meet your company’s and audiences’ needs. By embracing GDD, you can ensure that your website is always a powerful tool for growth without the lengthy wait of a traditional redesign.

Ready to fast-track your next website launch? Reach out to our growth-driven design experts. We’ve helped many companies experience the immediate effects of a high-impact GDD website redesign and are ready to do the same for you. Let us help you grow faster!

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