- \n
- A website that looks professional can still have functional problems that affect customers.<\/li>\n
- Identify and verify the problem before deciding whether you need a content update, technical fix, or redesign.<\/li>\n
- Prioritize improvements that help customers complete important tasks rather than making cosmetic changes without a clear purpose.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Table of Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Before Changing Your Website, Identify What’s Actually Broken<\/a><\/li>\n
- Make Sure Customers Can Actually Contact Your Business<\/a><\/li>\n
- Update Business Information That No Longer Reflects Your Services<\/a><\/li>\n
- Replace Outdated Portfolio and Business Proof With Relevant Evidence<\/a><\/li>\n
- Fix Mobile Experiences That Prevent Customers From Completing Tasks<\/a><\/li>\n
- Repair Broken Functions and Performance Bottlenecks<\/a><\/li>\n
- Which Website Problems Should You Fix First \u2014 and Do You Need a Developer?<\/a><\/li>\n
- Frequently Asked Questions About Improving an Existing Website<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Before Changing Your Website, Identify What’s Actually Broken<\/h2>\n
When a website is not delivering the results you expected, it is tempting to conclude that the design needs to change. But a disappointing business outcome is not automatically evidence of a website defect.<\/p>\n
For example, a contact form that fails to submit is a functional problem. A contact form that works correctly but receives very few enquiries may indicate a different issue, such as the audience visiting the page or the information provided.<\/p>\n
Start by asking three questions:<\/p>\n
- \n
- What was the visitor trying to do?<\/strong> Find a service, view a project, contact your team, or complete another important task?<\/li>\n
- What actually happened?<\/strong> Did the page work as expected, display an error, or prevent the next step?<\/li>\n
- Can the problem be repeated?<\/strong> Does it occur on a particular page, browser, or device?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Record the affected URL, device, steps taken, expected result, and actual result. This gives your team a specific issue to investigate instead of a vague request to “make the website better.”<\/p>\n
\n<\/p>\n![\"Annotated](\"https:\/\/www.kesato.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Five-Website-Redesign-Checkpoints-1024x576.webp\")
Five areas to inspect on an existing business website before deciding which improvements are necessary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
1. Make Sure Customers Can Actually Contact Your Business<\/h2>\n
For a service business, the contact process may be one of the most important functions on its website. A working enquiry form, phone link, or messaging button gives interested visitors a clear way to reach the team.<\/p>\n
Consider a company that receives fewer quotation requests than expected. Its team assumes the website needs a redesign, but a simple test reveals that the contact form displays a success message while sending notifications to an outdated email address.<\/p>\n
This is an illustrative scenario, not a Kesato client case study.<\/em><\/p>\n
How to diagnose it:<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Open the homepage and important service pages on mobile and desktop.<\/li>\n
- Follow every main contact path, including forms, email links, phone links, and messaging buttons.<\/li>\n
- Submit an identifiable test enquiry using safe test information.<\/li>\n
- Check both the on-screen confirmation and whether the message reaches its intended destination.<\/li>\n
- Test what happens when required fields are missing or incorrectly completed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What to fix first:<\/strong> Repair incorrect destinations, submission failures, missing confirmations, or confusing field errors. The W3C guidance on form notifications<\/a> explains why clear submission feedback and actionable error messages matter.<\/p>\n
How to verify:<\/strong> Repeat the same test and confirm that the visitor receives the correct feedback and your team receives the enquiry. If delivery depends on another system, verify that part of the process as well.<\/p>\n
A successful test does not guarantee more enquiries. It confirms that an important customer contact function is operating as intended.<\/p>\n
2. Update Business Information That No Longer Reflects Your Services<\/h2>\n
Businesses change. Services are added or discontinued, teams move offices, contact details change, and operating procedures evolve. Websites do not always keep up.<\/p>\n
An outdated page can create unnecessary confusion. Imagine a potential customer requesting a service that your company stopped offering months ago because it is still prominently listed on your website.<\/p>\n
The problem is not necessarily poor visual design. It is a mismatch between what the website communicates and what the business can actually deliver.<\/p>\n
How to diagnose it:<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Compare your homepage and service pages with your current service offering.<\/li>\n
- Check business addresses, phone numbers, contact details, and operating information.<\/li>\n
- Identify discontinued services or outdated descriptions that may mislead visitors.<\/li>\n
- Review whether different pages provide conflicting information about the same service.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What to fix first:<\/strong> Correct inaccurate information on pages most important to your customers. Remove or revise misleading statements, update contact details, and ensure service availability reflects current operations.<\/p>\n
As a practical principle, Business Queensland’s website improvement guidance<\/a> recommends aligning website functionality and content with the business’s purpose.<\/p>\n
How to verify:<\/strong> Ask the responsible business or marketing team to review the updated pages against the current service list and operating information. Confirm that important details are consistent across the website.<\/p>\n
Accurate information will not solve every marketing problem, but it gives prospective customers a more reliable understanding of your business.<\/p>\n
3. Replace Outdated Portfolio and Business Proof With Relevant Evidence<\/h2>\n
A website may describe what a company does without helping prospective customers evaluate whether it has relevant experience.<\/p>\n
This is particularly important when clients are considering services that require a significant investment or ongoing business relationship.<\/p>\n
Imagine a company offering website development for hospitality businesses. Its website displays several project images, but provides little context about the work completed, the type of client, or the team’s responsibilities.<\/p>\n
Potential customers may struggle to understand whether those projects demonstrate the capabilities they need.<\/p>\n
How to diagnose it:<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Review whether the portfolio reflects services the company currently offers.<\/li>\n
- Check whether visitors can understand what was delivered for each featured project.<\/li>\n
- Identify outdated company information, unsupported claims, or credentials that require verification.<\/li>\n
- Examine whether important examples are easy to locate from relevant service pages.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What to fix first:<\/strong> Update selected projects with accurate descriptions of the work performed, the business context, and any results that can be substantiated and shared with permission.<\/p>\n
A project does not need an impressive performance statistic to be useful. Clearly explaining the scope, deliverables, and your company’s involvement can already make the evidence more meaningful.<\/p>\n
How to verify:<\/strong> Ask someone unfamiliar with the business to review a relevant project. Can they understand what the company did and why the example demonstrates relevant capability?<\/p>\n
The objective is to make existing evidence easier to evaluate, not to manufacture stronger claims.<\/p>\n
4. Fix Mobile Experiences That Prevent Customers From Completing Tasks<\/h2>\n
A website can display correctly on a desktop screen and still be difficult to use on a smartphone.<\/p>\n
For example, a customer may open a service page on mobile, but a sticky menu covers the enquiry button. In another case, a form might extend beyond the screen, making its Submit button difficult to reach.<\/p>\n
These are practical usability problems that can often be addressed without redesigning the entire website.<\/p>\n
How to diagnose it:<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Open important pages on a real smartphone, not only a resized desktop browser.<\/li>\n
- Test the menu, navigation, buttons, and links.<\/li>\n
- Check whether content remains readable without horizontal scrolling.<\/li>\n
- Try completing forms and other key tasks using touch interaction.<\/li>\n
- Repeat the test on different screen sizes or browsers if the issue is inconsistent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What to fix first:<\/strong> Prioritize overlapping components, inaccessible controls, unreadable text, and forms that cannot be completed. Ask your developer or UX specialist to investigate the affected component rather than proposing a site-wide redesign immediately.<\/p>\n
The W3C’s preliminary accessibility checks<\/a> provide useful starting points for assessing forms, labels, readable content, and interactive elements. These simple checks do not replace a complete accessibility assessment.<\/p>\n
How to verify:<\/strong> Retest the exact task on the device and browser where it previously failed. Then check comparable pages to ensure the repair has not introduced another layout problem.<\/p>\n
5. Repair Broken Functions and Performance Bottlenecks<\/h2>\n
Some website problems are less visible than an outdated page or poorly positioned button. A broken internal link, failed image, malfunctioning menu, or delayed interactive element can interrupt the experience even when the website looks normal at first glance.<\/p>\n
Consider a service page where the main image loads slowly and the enquiry button becomes usable only after other elements finish loading. Before changing the layout, the team needs to determine what is slowing down or blocking the interaction.<\/p>\n
How to diagnose it:<\/strong><\/p>\n
- \n
- Test essential internal links, buttons, menus, forms, and page components.<\/li>\n
- Check for failed images or important elements that do not load correctly.<\/li>\n
- Open priority pages on mobile and desktop under realistic conditions.<\/li>\n
- Use PageSpeed Insights<\/a> to investigate potential loading or responsiveness problems.<\/li>\n
- Compare laboratory diagnostics with real-user data when that data is available.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
What to fix first:<\/strong> Address functions that prevent customers from completing important tasks. Then investigate performance issues that have been observed or supported by measurement, instead of attempting to optimize every technical score.<\/p>\n
Google’s PageSpeed Insights documentation<\/a> distinguishes laboratory testing from real-world user measurements. These sources help identify problems, but a single score does not explain every user’s experience.<\/p>\n
How to verify:<\/strong> Repeat the failed task after the repair. For performance improvements, compare measurements under similar conditions and examine real-user trends when sufficient data is available.<\/p>\n
Not every slow page requires a redesign. Some issues may be resolved by correcting a specific component, image, script, or configuration.<\/p>\n
Which Website Problems Should You Fix First \u2014 and Do You Need a Developer?<\/h2>\n
Once you have identified problems, the next decision is not simply whether to redesign your website. It is which issue deserves attention and who is best equipped to resolve it.<\/p>\n
Evaluate each issue using three questions:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Impact:<\/strong> Does the problem prevent customers from completing an important task?<\/li>\n
- Evidence:<\/strong> Can you reproduce the issue or verify that the information is inaccurate?<\/li>\n
- Fix complexity:<\/strong> Can your team correct the problem, or does it require development or UX expertise?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Website](\"https:\/\/www.kesato.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/Website-Fix-Decision-Tree-1024x576.webp\")
Use the problem’s impact, evidence, and technical complexity to choose between targeted fixes, internal updates, and specialist support.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
The following examples can help turn those questions into an initial action plan.<\/p>\n
- Evidence:<\/strong> Can you reproduce the issue or verify that the information is inaccurate?<\/li>\n
- Compare laboratory diagnostics with real-user data when that data is available.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- What actually happened?<\/strong> Did the page work as expected, display an error, or prevent the next step?<\/li>\n
- Make Sure Customers Can Actually Contact Your Business<\/a><\/li>\n
- Before Changing Your Website, Identify What’s Actually Broken<\/a><\/li>\n