About the Author
Corey Morris is the President and CEO of VOLTAGE, a search marketing and website agency for expertise-driven organizations. He has spent more than two decades in digital marketing and SEO, and he wrote the book on the Digital Marketing Success Plan® (DMSP), the planning process VOLTAGE uses with clients. Corey has published more than 150 articles and expert contributions across Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Land, and Forbes over nearly a decade, and he still writes regularly for the first two. His Search Engine Journal articles alone have been read nearly 1.7 million times. He has spoken at SMX, Digital Summit, and SMPS. He's also a sought-after podcast and media guest, with more than 75 speaking, podcast, and media appearances. He served as an officer on the board of the global search marketing trade association, founded a Kansas City search marketing conference, and was named the 2019 KCDMA Marketer of the Year.
At some point, almost every organization decides it’s time for a new website. The design feels outdated, the content no longer reflects the business, performance isn’t where it should be, or there’s simply a sense that it’s time. Budgets get discussed, timelines get mapped out and agencies get contacted. Then the project starts, and a critical step often gets skipped, which is planning.
A website is one of the most important assets in your digital marketing, but it’s still an asset and not a strategy. Build it without a clear plan and you risk ending up with a site that looks better but performs the same.
A website isn’t your strategy.
One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen working with hundreds of clients is treating a website redesign as the strategy itself. It’s easy to see why. A new website feels like progress. It’s visible and tangible, and teams can rally around it. Without clarity on what the site is meant to do, though, that progress often stays on the surface.
Before any design or development begins, a few foundational questions need answers. What role does the website play in your marketing and sales funnel? Who are you trying to reach? What do you want visitors to do? How will you measure success?
Without those answers, decisions about layout, content, navigation and functionality become subjective. Teams end up designing for opinions instead of outcomes. Stakeholders who sign off on the budget may also ask about goals and return on investment (ROI) that no one can answer yet.
Skipping the plan shows up in familiar ways.
When planning is skipped, the same patterns tend to appear. Content gets written to fill pages instead of guiding visitors. Calls to action compete with each other or lack clarity. Navigation mirrors the org chart rather than how people think and search. SEO becomes a checklist instead of a strategy, and measurement either isn’t in place or doesn’t tie back to meaningful outcomes. Even basic questions, like whether to write the content before the design or fit it in afterward, turn into debates.
None of this comes from poor execution. It comes from missing direction. The site may launch on time and on budget and look great, but the underlying problems remain. Traffic doesn’t convert the way it should, lead quality is inconsistent, and the website feels disconnected from the rest of your marketing.
Plan first, then build.
The most effective website projects start with alignment, not wireframes. Before anything is designed or developed, everyone involved should share an understanding of what the website needs to accomplish and how it fits into your broader marketing. That means defining your audience, clarifying your messaging, mapping your funnel and identifying the actions you want visitors to take.
Some teams use a structured framework for this, like our Digital Marketing Success Plan® (DMSP), and others build their own approach. The method matters less than having a clear, documented plan that informs every decision that follows.
With that foundation in place, design becomes more purposeful, content becomes more focused and development becomes more efficient. Grounding the project in shared, objective goals also settles subjective debates and keeps the effort from drifting off course months in.
You can start before the new site is ready.
A common concern with planning first is timing. If the plan shows your website needs to change, does everything else have to wait? It doesn’t. In many cases you can start acting on the plan right away with your current site. You can launch campaigns with dedicated landing pages, refine messaging on high-impact pages, add clearer calls to action, and improve tracking and measurement.
That often leads to a better new site, too. Instead of building in a vacuum, you’re building on real data, real visitor behavior and real insights.
A site built from a plan works like a system.
When a website is built from a clear plan, the difference is noticeable. Navigation matches how visitors think and search. Pages support specific stages of the funnel. Messaging is focused, calls to action are clear, and measurement is built in from the start. The site stops being a collection of pages and starts guiding visitors toward meaningful actions, and that’s where performance improves.
Make the redesign the result of better thinking.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting a better website, but a redesign shouldn’t be the starting point. When the strategy is clear, the build gets easier and execution gets more effective. The website then becomes what it’s meant to be, a tool that moves the business forward. If you’re planning a new site, see how our web discovery and documentation process sets up the build, or explore our website services.