I came across an interesting posting on HubSpot entitled 7 Ugly Truths Websites Can’t Hide. 

It should be required reading for any new to the job CMO or VP of Marketing.  I can’t tell you, or perhaps you already know, that going through the interview process how many times the CEO says “and the first thing you need to do is redo the website.”

Whats clear from this is perhaps the old nasty website got the old CMO fired, but that doesn’t mean its the first thing that will get the new CMO popular. In fact, giving in to the redesign bug before really understanding what is happening will just perpetuate opinion vs. data driven web site design.  Give in on your first assignment to this, and in 18 months when the new site “feels” old to everyone, it will be your time to do the redesign or end up on the street.

The fact of the matter is, before doing anything, read the blog posting on hubspot, then spend 30 – 60 days really diving into the site metrics to see how the site is actually working or not working.  Nuking those pages the CEO doesn’t like may actually cripple site traffic if you are not careful. Redesigning the home page to make the sales VP happy may drive up bounce rates, and that color orange everyone hates, may be good for form completions.

Sites get ugly, sites get old, but if you do it right, you can transform the appraisal of the site by everyone from “feelings” to a data driven approach.  That is the only way to win in the website redesign game.

Today’s image is from Lingscars in the UK. I found the site by Googling “Ugly web sites”. This made a top ten list.  I like it! At least until I can figure out how it works, then do some A/B test to see if I can improve it.  Dig the music too.