Why most website rebuilds fail before they launch

Manelik Sfez
Jun 9
3 min read

Updated: 14 hours ago

You don’t need another redesign. You need a system that converts. Most website rebuilds collapse under their own weight: over-scoped, mismanaged, and led by the wrong people. Before a single line of copy is written, before the first pixel is pushed... the project is already broken.

Game Over Website | Ultrabrand — Over-scoped, mismanaged, led by the wrong people: the all-too-common fate of most business websites

Why website rebuilds fail

Because they’re scoped like IT infrastructure projects, not business growth systems.

Overfocus on CMS specs, not UX or conversion
IT ownership, instead of marketing leadership
Endless planning cycles with no business logic

The result is more often than not a website that looks updated but performs the same in the best case scenario, sometimes worse, and that still looks outdated and does nothing business in the worst case.

For example, one of Amazon’s main Swiss competitors in online book sales claims they’re “very satisfied with their IT support.” Their words.

But one glance at their platform tells a different story: tangled navigation, outdated UX patterns, and image-based buttons straight out of the late 90s. Satisfaction with IT is not the same as progress.

How to avoid failure in your next website rebuild

Start with your business priorities, and not design trends What are you trying to achieve: leads, sales, retention? In other words, what is the one, main overarching business goal of your website? Conceptualize around that. And by the way, "provide our brand with visibility online" or "tell who we are" are not proper business goals in this case.
Make marketing the owner, not IT Marketing cares about users. IT cares about systems. Choose your lead accordingly. And it's time to get back to reality: entrusting the design of a lead capture and customer conversion process to IT is like assigning public relations to the end-of-year closing. Nonsense.
Bake in automation and SEO from day one Don’t “add it later.” These are not extras, they’re the engine. You need to know from the beginning what is the exact business process you want to automate. And when it comes to SEO, you need to identify your keyword clusters from the beginning as well, plus your on-page SEO, your content strategy with a blog and a dictionary of terms for example, as well as your landing pages by verticals, and, now more than ever, your layering for human and machine-readable content.
Prototype first, polish later A usable system in 4 weeks beats a “perfect” one in 6 months.

What a high-converting rebuild looks like (visual comparison)

	Traditional Rebuild (IT-Led)	Smart Rebuild (Growth-Led)
Owner	IT Department	Marketing / Growth Team
Timeline	4–6 months	3–6 weeks
SEO + Automation	Added later	Built-in from day one
Conversion	Rarely improves	Increases immediately

Your website isn't here to describe you. It's here to perform.

The biggest misconception we see is that a website exists to explain who you are and what you do. It doesn’t. It exists to make your business model work digitally. And in many cases, to evolve it.

Whether you're selling, educating, qualifying, or converting, the website should act as an extension of your operations. Not a pitch deck in HTML form. Legacy companies get stuck thinking their site is there to impress. Modern companies build it to produce.

Stop treating your website like a tech asset

Your website is not a server. It’s your first sales rep.

No one ever asked their printer to write and design a brochure. Yet today, many still hand over digital strategy to IT, as if the job were technical. It’s not.

Digital is a tool to drive business outcomes. Entrusting your website rebuild to IT is like asking your mechanic to plan your next romantic roadtrip. You’ll get something functional but directionless.

Rebuild it like a growth engine. Not infrastructure.

Download the Website Rebuild Blueprint and see how high-performing companies scope their websites for results, not bureaucracy.

Manelik Sfez of Ultrabrand — Manelik Sfez

About the author

Manelik Sfez, founder of the Swiss brand consultancy Ultrabrand, brings 25 years of international business, marketing, and brand strategy experience to the table. He has worked with some of the world’s most iconic brands throughout his career. From luxury goods to global retail, financial services and technological and industry giants, he has guided companies through brand-led transformations that have enabled significant business growth.