How to tell if a redesign worked

A redesign worked if more of the right people get in touch with you, or the same number get in touch with fewer wasted calls. That is the whole test. Count calls and form messages that came from the website, compare them with the same months before the redesign, and look at whether they are the jobs you want. Visits, time on page and compliments on the design are nice to know, but they do not pay the bills.

Decide what "worked" means before you look

Write one sentence about why you redesigned. It keeps you honest later, because it is easy to find some number that went up and call it success.

Common reasons, and the result that would prove each one:

"The old site looked bad on phones." More form messages and calls from phones; fewer people saying they could not find your number.
"Nobody knew we did commercial work." Commercial enquiries mentioning the website.
"We got too many calls for jobs we don't do." Fewer of those calls, even if total calls stay the same.
"It looked out of date next to competitors." Fewer prospects who seem unsure whether you are still in business; more who call ready to book.

The numbers that matter

Form messages. These are the easiest to count. Every message from your website's contact or quote form lands in your inbox. Make an email folder or label for them, so they are all in one place and you can count them by month.

Calls that came from the website. Harder, but you have options:

Ask every new caller how they found you, and keep a tally. A sheet of paper by the phone works fine. It is the most reliable method a small business has.
Your Google Business Profile shows, for each month, how many people tapped "Call" and how many tapped "Website" on your listing. Open your profile from Google Search or Maps and look for Performance.
Some phone systems show calls by day; a spike after you added a "Call now" button tells you something.

The quality of the enquiry. Count, roughly, how many enquiries were for work you do, in places you serve, at a size you want. A redesign that brings fewer but better enquiries can be a real win. Counting website enquiries shows a simple way to keep this tally.

Compare fairly

Most small businesses are seasonal, so comparing October with July tells you nothing. Compare like with like:

Same months, year over year. Enquiries this March and April against last March and April.
Allow a settling period. Google takes time to reread a redesigned site, and customers who bookmarked old pages take time to find new ones. Judge after two or three months, not two weeks.
Account for anything else that changed. Did you start or stop ads, raise prices, add a truck, get a big review, lose a competitor, have a wet spring? Write those down next to your numbers. Otherwise the website gets the credit or the blame for things it did not do.

If you did not keep records before the redesign, start now and compare the next season with this one. You can also dig back: your email inbox has dated form messages from the old site, and your Google Business Profile keeps several months of history.

Numbers that can mislead you

These are not useless, but they do not answer "did it work":

Visits. A site can get more visits from people who will never hire you, for example out-of-area searches or bots. A plumber who gets fewer visits but more calls from his own county is better off.
Time on site. A long visit can mean someone is interested, or that they cannot find your phone number.
Bounce rate (people who leave after one page). For a local business, someone who lands on your home page, taps "Call" and leaves is your best visitor, and they count as a "bounce".
Compliments. Friends and family say they love it. Customers rarely mention the website at all when it works; they just call.
Search Console clicks are a useful supporting sign that Google is showing your pages. They are not enquiries.

If you want to see visits and pages anyway, whether you need Google Analytics and website analytics without spying on visitors cover the simple options.

What if it did not work

If enquiries dropped or stayed flat after a fair comparison, check the plain things first. They cause most disappointing redesigns:

Does the form actually deliver? Send a test from your phone and find it in your inbox. Check spam.
Is the phone number tappable on every page, and is it the right number?
Does the top of the home page say what you do and where, in words a customer would use?
Did old pages get lost? In Google Search Console, the Pages report lists addresses that now show "Not found". Each is a page that used to bring people and now sends them nowhere. Forward each one to its matching new page.
Is it slow on a phone? Load it over mobile data and see.
Did the redesign drop something customers relied on, like a price list, a menu, a gallery of work or the service area list?

Fix those, wait another month, and count again. A good-looking site that hides the phone number or loses its old pages can do worse than an ugly one that did neither.

What to do this week

Write one sentence on why you redesigned and what would prove it worked.
Make an email folder for website form messages and move the last year's into it.
Put a tally sheet next to the phone.
Note this year's ads, price changes and anything else that might affect enquiries.
Set a reminder to compare the same months next year.

If you are still deciding whether to redesign, you can see your site rebuilt first and start your tally now, so you have a fair "before" to compare with.