It can be tempting with such a malleable medium to redesign your small business web site whenever the mood strikes.
There are some important questions to consider before embarking on a redesign. Here are some of them:

1. What do you want to accomplish?
What concrete improvements to the site will the redesign bring? Will there be more content, more functionality for users, easier/cleaner navigation? What problems with the current site will the redesign fix? Map your goals out carefully beforehand. Not only will this save time with design professionals, it’ll make it easy to judge your success later.

2. Is it worth it?
The companion to #1. Will the improvements be worth the disruption, and possible audience alienation of a redesign? Redesigns in both print and on the web have shown that no matter how great you think the new design is, there will be a segment of your audience that will hate it. Humans dislike change, and embrace familiarity. Even if people love it, they will have a learning curve with the new site, unless it works exactly like the old site. And if that’s the case, why do the redesign at all?

3. Who’s going to do it?
If you already have an existing site with enough problems/concerns to merit a redesign, I urge you to use a web professional for the job. Yes, it’s more expensive. Yes, it’s going to take time and effort to choose the right person or firm to do the project. But it’s worth it. You probably wouldn’t let a novice do your taxes, or design your next marketing campaign. So why let a novice mess with your web site?

4. Will it be easier to update?
This should be a major goal of any redesign that goes beyond the simply cosmetic. You should always be moving toward ease of administration, not just ease of use for the audience.

5. Will it be easier to navigate?
My pick for the other important goal of a redesign – the companion to #4. Does the redesign give users easier access to your content? This is especially important on the web, where every site has a different interface.