Growth & Strategy
Personas
SaaS & Startup
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Last month, a potential client called me in panic. Their beautiful $50K website redesign had been live for six months, and their organic traffic was still flatlined at 300 monthly visitors. "We followed all the best practices," they said. "Mobile-responsive, fast loading, conversion-optimized. Why isn't anyone finding us?"
I've heard this story dozens of times. Business owners invest heavily in gorgeous website redesigns, expecting traffic to magically appear. But here's the uncomfortable truth: redesign doesn't equal traffic. It's like training a world-class sales rep to work in an empty building.
After 7 years building websites and watching this pattern repeat, I've learned that most businesses are asking the wrong question. Instead of "How do I make my site look better?" they should be asking "How do I get people to actually find my site?"
In this playbook, you'll discover:
Why beautiful websites often get zero traffic (and the mindset shift that changes everything)
The real difference between design-first and SEO-first website architecture
My framework for building websites that people actually discover
When redesign actually helps traffic (and when it's just expensive procrastination)
The strategy that took my clients from beautiful ghost towns to SEO-driven revenue machines
Reality Check
What the industry won't tell you about redesigns
Walk into any web design agency, and they'll sell you the same dream: a beautiful new website will transform your business. The pitch is always compelling—modern design, better user experience, mobile optimization, faster loading speeds.
The standard redesign playbook looks like this:
Visual overhaul: New colors, fonts, and layouts that look modern
UX improvements: Better navigation and user flows
Technical upgrades: Faster loading, mobile responsiveness
Conversion optimization: Better CTAs and landing page structure
Content refresh: Updated copy and imagery
This approach exists because it's what agencies know how to sell and deliver. Visual design is tangible, measurable, and impressive in client presentations. You can show before/after screenshots and demonstrate clear improvements.
But here's where this conventional wisdom falls apart: all of these improvements assume people are already visiting your website. You're optimizing the experience for traffic that doesn't exist yet. It's like renovating a restaurant in the middle of the desert and wondering why customers aren't showing up.
The harsh reality? Most redesigned websites see traffic remain flat or even decrease initially. Why? Because traditional redesign focuses on everything except the fundamental question: How will people discover this website in the first place?
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
I learned this lesson the hard way through my own evolution as a freelancer. For the first few years, I was the classic web designer—I built beautiful, functional websites that converted well when people actually found them. But that was the problem: people weren't finding them.
I remember one particular client, a B2B SaaS startup, who came to me after spending $30K on a website redesign six months earlier. The site was genuinely beautiful—clean design, smooth animations, perfect mobile experience. But their organic traffic was stuck at around 400 monthly visitors, and they were burning through their runway with expensive paid ads.
"Our conversion rate is great," the founder told me. "But we need more people to convert." They were hoping another redesign would solve their traffic problem. They wanted to optimize the homepage, add more social proof, improve the navigation—all the typical redesign suggestions.
That's when I had to deliver some uncomfortable news: their website wasn't the problem. The site was already converting well. The real issue was that it was invisible to their target audience. No amount of design tweaking would change the fact that they weren't showing up in Google searches for terms their customers were actually using.
This pattern repeated across dozens of client projects. Beautiful websites with terrible traffic. Gorgeous designs that nobody could find. I was essentially building world-class sales reps and placing them in empty malls. The tragedy wasn't the quality of the work—it was that the work was fundamentally addressing the wrong problem.
The turning point came when I realized I needed to completely flip my approach. Instead of starting with design and hoping for traffic, I needed to start with traffic strategy and build design around that. This shift changed everything about how I work with clients and what results we achieve.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
My approach completely inverts the traditional website development process. Instead of design-first, I use what I call the SEO-First Architecture—a methodology that treats every page as a potential entry point and builds content around how people actually search.
Here's the step-by-step framework I developed:
Step 1: Search Intent Mapping
Before touching any design elements, I spend weeks researching how the target audience actually searches for solutions. Not what the client thinks they search for—what they actually type into Google. I use tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush, but more importantly, I analyze competitor content and Google autocomplete suggestions.
For that B2B SaaS client, we discovered they were optimizing for "project management software" when their customers were actually searching for "team collaboration tools," "remote work platforms," and "workflow automation." This single insight redirected our entire content strategy.
Step 2: Content-Driven Site Architecture
Traditional websites start with the homepage and branch out. My approach starts with content opportunities and builds architecture around them. Every page serves a specific search intent, not just organizational logic.
Instead of the typical About > Services > Contact structure, we create category-specific landing pages, use-case pages, and comparison pages. Each page targets specific long-tail keywords while supporting the overall domain authority.
Step 3: Programmatic SEO Implementation
This is where the magic happens. Rather than manually creating dozens of similar pages, I build systems that generate high-value pages at scale. For SaaS clients, this means template pages, integration pages, and use-case variations. For e-commerce, it's category pages, product comparisons, and buying guides.
The key insight: Google doesn't care if content is created manually or programmatically—it cares if the content serves user intent effectively. When done right, this approach can create hundreds of entry points for organic traffic.
Step 4: Design Within SEO Constraints
Only after the content strategy is locked do we touch visual design. But now the design serves a clear purpose: supporting the content strategy and user journey we've mapped out. Every design decision is made with SEO performance in mind.
This doesn't mean ugly websites—it means beautiful websites that people can actually find. Clean URLs, logical heading structures, internal linking that makes sense, and page layouts that support content consumption rather than just looking impressive.
Foundation First
SEO research and content strategy must come before any design decisions. You can't retrofit discoverability into a finished website.
Content Scaling
Programmatic approaches let you create hundreds of targeted pages instead of manually building each one. Quality at scale wins over perfect individual pages.
Performance Metrics
Track organic traffic growth, not just conversion rates. A 2% conversion rate on 10,000 monthly visitors beats 5% on 500 visitors.
Mindset Shift
Stop thinking homepage-first. Every page is a potential front door to your business. Design and optimize accordingly.
The results of this approach consistently outperform traditional redesigns. That B2B SaaS client I mentioned? Within three months of implementing the SEO-first architecture, their organic traffic grew from 400 to over 2,800 monthly visitors. More importantly, these were qualified visitors who converted at a higher rate than paid traffic.
The most dramatic transformation I've witnessed was with an e-commerce client who had a beautiful Shopify store getting barely 500 monthly visitors. After implementing programmatic SEO with product comparison pages, buying guides, and category-specific content, they scaled to over 5,000 monthly visitors in just four months.
But here's what surprised me most: the design quality didn't suffer. In fact, when design decisions are made with content strategy in mind, the user experience often improves. The sites feel more purposeful, navigation makes more sense, and users find what they're looking for faster.
The time investment is front-loaded—we spend 2-3 weeks on research and strategy before writing any code. But this prevents the expensive redesign cycles that plague most businesses. When you build with discoverability in mind from day one, you don't need to rebuild every 18 months.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
After implementing this approach across dozens of projects, here are the key insights that consistently apply:
Traffic strategy must precede design strategy. You can't add discoverability as an afterthought. It has to be baked into the foundation.
Most "redesign" problems are actually "no traffic" problems. Before spending money on visual improvements, audit your organic visibility first.
Content architecture beats visual architecture. How information is organized for search engines matters more than how it looks to human visitors.
Scale content creation, not content perfection. Ten good pages targeting specific search intent outperform one perfect homepage every time.
Redesign can actually hurt traffic if not done carefully. I've seen sites lose 40% of their organic traffic after redesigns that didn't preserve SEO elements.
The best time to redesign is when you have traffic. Use existing visitor data to inform design decisions rather than guessing what works.
Think distribution, not just conversion. A website that converts 2% of 10,000 visitors generates more revenue than one that converts 5% of 500 visitors.
The biggest mistake I see is treating websites like digital brochures instead of search-optimized content hubs. When you shift this mindset, everything else falls into place.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS startups specifically:
Create use-case specific landing pages before building your main product pages
Build integration pages even without native integrations—explain manual setup processes
Target "[competitor] alternative" keywords early in your content strategy
Use programmatic SEO to scale template and use-case pages
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores specifically:
Focus on category and buying guide pages before individual product optimization
Create comparison pages for popular product matchups in your niche
Implement AI-powered content generation for product descriptions at scale
Build seasonal and trend-based content calendars that drive discovery