Introduction: "We're Going to Redo the Site" — A Phrase Often Hiding a Wreck
Every week, Le Mans and Sarthe businesses decide to redesign their site. Old design, poor mobile display, no Google visibility, contact form not working for months... Reasons are legitimate. The decision is right.
But between decision and result, there's a path strewn with pitfalls many don't anticipate. And mistakes made during a redesign can cost dearly — not just financially, but in lost traffic, customers who can no longer find your site, and months of work to catch up.
41% of sites experience traffic drop after a poorly prepared redesign. This figure isn't inevitable — it's the consequence of predictable and avoidable mistakes.
Here are the 5 most common mistakes observed in Le Mans SMEs, and how to avoid them.
Mistake #1 — Choosing Provider on Price Criterion Alone
It's the most widespread mistake, and one of the costliest long-term.
The reasoning is understandable: "I have three quotes, I take the cheapest." But a website isn't a standardized service like supplies delivery. Two quotes at €2,000 and €8,000 don't cover the same thing at all.
What the €2,000 quote often hides:
- A template bought on Themeforest and superficially customized
- No SEO strategy integrated from conception
- Sloppy SEO migration that will tank your Google ranking
- Contract without maintenance or support after delivery
- An overwhelmed, sometimes unreachable freelance provider
What to evaluate before choosing:
- Do they have references in your sector or region?
- Can they show you sites they created with measurable performance?
- Do they include an SEO migration strategy in their proposal?
- Who will be your contact throughout — and after delivery?
- Are they available locally for work meetings?
The right provider for your redesign isn't the cheapest. It's the one understanding your business, talking about concrete goals (traffic, leads, conversions), and will still be there in two years when you need evolutions.
Mistake #2 — Ignoring Existing SEO During Migration
This is technically the most destructive mistake. And it's the one most surprising business owners who've never faced it.
Here's what happens when a redesign ignores SEO:
Your old site had pages indexed by Google — URLs the search engine knew, trusted, and displayed in results. When your new site arrives with new URLs, without configured redirections, Google interprets this as your content disappearing.
Result: months of SEO go in the trash overnight.
Cases are numerous in local economy: a Sarthe company redoes their site, changes URLs without redirection, and sees organic traffic drop 60% in two weeks. Recovering this position often takes 6 to 12 months.
What must be done before, during and after redesign:
- Audit all existing URLs and their Google position
- Map 301 redirects (old URL → new URL) for each page
- Keep important metadata (titles, meta-descriptions)
- Check Search Console after launch to quickly detect errors
- Never launch to production without validating redirections
An SEO-safe redesign takes longer to prepare. But it's the difference between a launch reinforcing your online presence and one erasing it.
Mistake #3 — Redoing Site for Yourself, Not Your Customers
Many redesigns result in a site the business owner loves — and their customers find difficult to use.
The trap is subtle: we want a site reflecting our vision, our aesthetics, our way of presenting the company. We choose colors we like, navigation that seems logical to us, texts talking about what we're proud of.
But your site isn't for you. It's for your customer.
Questions to ask with each design decision:
- Does my typical customer understand in 5 seconds what I offer?
- Can they easily find how to contact or order me?
- Is information they seek first (pricing, hours, service area) immediately visible?
- Is the journey from site arrival to contact smooth on mobile?
An effective practice: organize a simple user test before launch. Ask 3 or 4 people who don't know your site to explore it for 5 minutes and tell you where they get stuck. It's often revealing.
Le Mans SMEs doing this correct on average 8 to 12 friction points before launch — problems that, uncorrected, would have cost leads for months.
Mistake #4 — Neglecting Content Thinking "We'll Deal With It After"
A website without quality content is a beautiful storefront with an empty shop behind.
Content is often the last thing treated in a redesign, because it's the part requiring the most effort from the client. And this effort is often postponed: "We'll fill it after launch." This "after" sometimes lasts years.
Concrete consequences:
- Pages with generic texts giving no useful information to visitors
- No page optimized for local searches ("craftsman Le Mans", "HR firm Sarthe", etc.)
- Empty or 2-article blog from 2019 sending wrong signal to Google
- Product or service descriptions copy-pasted from suppliers, identical to competitors
Our recommendation: treat content before development, not after. Before the site is even designed, we must know what each page will say, which keywords it targets, and which action it seeks to trigger in the visitor.
Good content takes time. But it's what makes the difference between a site generating prospects and a site that looks nice.
Mistake #5 — Delivering Site and Considering Project Complete
Launching a site isn't the end of a project. It's the start of a digital asset requiring regular maintenance to stay performing.
Here's what happens on average in the 12 months following an unmaintained redesign:
- Plugins and CMS (if WordPress) accumulate ignored updates → open doors to security flaws
- Content ages and no longer reflects your current offer → falling credibility
- Performance degrades: new images added by client aren't optimized, site slows
- Links break (deleted pages, moved resources) → degraded user experience and negative signal for Google
- SSL certificate expires → site goes "not secure" in browsers
Maintenance isn't a luxury. It's the minimum cost for your initial investment to keep producing results.
What a serious maintenance plan includes:
- Regular CMS and dependency updates
- Automatic backups
- Availability monitoring (alerts if site goes down)
- Monthly performance and error verification
- Small content evolutions
At nexIT, we offer maintenance contracts adapted to Le Mans SME needs — not a standard package to take or leave, but support calibrated to your site and update rhythm.
What a Good Redesign Really Changes
To put in perspective, here's what figures say about a well-executed redesign's impact:
- Companies reconfiguring their site with integrated UX and SEO approach see on average +35% organic traffic within 6 months
- A redesign reducing loading time to under 2 seconds can increase conversion rate by 20 to 50%
- Sites redesigned with local content strategy see their positioning on geolocalized queries progress significantly in 3 to 6 months
It's not magic. It's the logical consequence of a prepared, executed and properly followed redesign.
How We Approach Redesign at nexIT
Our process for Le Mans and Sarthe SMEs follows a sequence avoiding the 5 errors described above:
1. Existing audit: before touching anything, we analyze your current site — SEO, performance, content, UX friction points. It takes time, but avoids breaking what works.
2. SEO migration strategy: all redirections are mapped and validated before launch. No page is lost.
3. User-centered brief: we start from who your customers are, not your aesthetic preferences. Design follows strategy, not the reverse.
4. Content first: we work on content parallel to development, with pages optimized for local SEO from the start.
5. Progressive launch and follow-up: we don't click "publish" and move to next. We monitor the first weeks, correct, optimize.
Conclusion: A Redesign is an Investment Deserving Protection
Redesigning your site is often an SME's first serious digital investment. This budget deserves intelligent use — not wasted on a nice site losing half its SEO and generating no new leads.
✅ Choose provider on their competence, not price alone ✅ Protect your existing SEO with serious migration ✅ Design for your customers, not your ego ✅ Treat content before, not after ✅ Plan maintenance from contract signing
If you have a site over 4 years old, customers sometimes tell you "I had trouble finding you" or you look at your site with shame — it's probably time.
Let's Discuss Your Redesign
We offer a free audit of your current site to Le Mans and Sarthe businesses. 30 minutes to understand your stakes, identify priority issues, and give you a clear roadmap — without commitment.
nexIT — Website redesign in Le Mans, with method and local anchoring.