Our Website Redesign: What Changed and What the Data Shows

When we redesigned the Royal Palm Marketing website in October 2026, we wanted more than a different appearance.

We wanted a website that was easier to navigate, better organized for search engines, more efficient with its images, and clearer about the services we offer.

But how do you know whether a website redesign actually improves anything?

You measure what changed.

We compared technical SEO reports from before and after our redesign using Screaming Frog, a website-crawling tool that examines pages, links, headings, metadata, and other technical elements.

The results revealed measurable improvements in several areas.

And because we believe businesses deserve straight answers about their marketing, we're sharing the actual numbers, including what they do and don't prove.

Our Website Redesign Results at a Glance

We compared reports collected on October 24 and October 30, 2026.

The headline improvements:

• 62% lower recorded response time across five selected city web-design pages.
• 75% smaller portrait image file.
• Much stronger internal linking to our existing articles.
• Complete canonical coverage across the redesigned website.

These are technical measurements from two crawls. They do not establish that the entire website loads 62% faster, that Google rankings increased, or that more customers contacted us.

Here's what we changed and why those details matter.

1. We Organized the Website Around Clearer Search Intent

Before the redesign, some of our service pages sent mixed geographic signals.

A page title might target Des Moines while its main heading referred only to Ankeny.

We also had a general website-design page that overlapped with a more specific Des Moines web-design page.

Our redesign gave each important page a clearer purpose.

The homepage focuses on Royal Palm Marketing as a marketing agency in Ankeny, Iowa.

Our broader Central Iowa website-design page covers general regional service information, while our dedicated website design in Ankeny page serves local buyers looking for a designer in their own community.

We also retained web-design pages for Des Moines, West Des Moines, Urbandale, and Waukee.

That structure helps distinguish between someone looking for a marketing agency, someone researching website design generally, and someone specifically looking for a website designer in Ankeny.

What business owners can learn: Every important website page should have a clear purpose.

If several pages compete to answer essentially the same question, it may be time to review how those pages are organized. That doesn't mean every overlap causes a ranking problem, but it does mean the site deserves a closer look.

2. Five Local Website Pages Recorded Lower Response Times

One of the clearest changes appeared in the response times recorded by Screaming Frog.

We compared the same five city web-design URLs in both reports.

The average recorded response time declined by approximately 62%.

Ankeny and Urbandale showed especially noticeable differences.

What does response time mean?

In this context, response time measures how long the crawler recorded for an individual request.

It is not the same thing as measuring how long a complete website takes to appear and become usable in someone's browser.

A real visitor's experience also depends on images, scripts, browser processing, network conditions, and other factors.

That's why we don't describe this result as proof that the entire website is 62% faster.

What we can say is that the five selected pages recorded substantially lower response times in the post-redesign crawl.

What business owners can learn: Website performance should be tested, not guessed.

When evaluating a redesign, ask what measurements the designer plans to review and how those results will be explained.

3. We Reduced a Large Image by Approximately 75%

Images are an important part of a professional website, but oversized files can add unnecessary data.

Our old website included a portrait image measuring 791,628 bytes, approximately 792 KB.

The redesigned website used an optimized WebP portrait measuring 200,764 bytes, approximately 201 KB.

That's approximately a 75% reduction in file size for that image.

All 13 image resources discovered in the new Screaming Frog crawl used WebP.

The difference matters because the optimized portrait requires fewer bytes to transfer.

That doesn't prove the whole website is 75% smaller or that every page loads faster. It does demonstrate one specific improvement to an image asset.

What business owners should ask about images

When reviewing a website proposal, it's worth asking whether image sizing and optimization are included.

High-quality photography is valuable, but the images should be prepared appropriately for how they'll be displayed.

A website designer should be able to explain how images are handled without sacrificing the professional appearance of the site.

4. We Made Our Existing Content Easier to Find

Publishing articles is only part of a content strategy.

Visitors also need a way to discover those articles when the information is useful.

Before the redesign, each of our three retained marketing articles received internal links from only two unique pages in the crawl.

After the redesign, each received links from 23 unique pages.

We also reduced the number of clicks needed to reach each retained article from the homepage, going from two clicks to one.

This made our existing content more accessible within the website.

Why internal links matter

An internal link connects one page of your website to another.

For example, an Ankeny website-design service page can link to an article explaining how to compare website proposals.

That helps visitors move from understanding the service to answering a specific buying question.

Internal links also help search engines discover pages and understand how information relates across a website.

The 23 linking-page count includes sitewide links, so it doesn't represent 23 individually written editorial recommendations. It also doesn't represent new backlinks from other websites.

The improvement is that useful articles became more accessible through the site's navigation and linking structure.

What business owners can learn: Before publishing dozens of new articles, make sure the useful content you already have is easy to find.

5. We Corrected Canonical Tags and Improved Page Titles

Some technical SEO improvements aren't immediately visible to customers.

Canonical tags are one example.

A canonical tag tells search engines which URL the website identifies as the preferred version of a page.

In our earlier crawl, two HTML pages were missing canonical tags.

In the post-redesign crawl, all 23 HTML pages had matching self-referencing canonical tags.

We also reviewed our page titles.

Using the same approximate 580-pixel audit threshold, the number of titles exceeding that benchmark decreased from 16 to 2.

That does not mean a longer title causes a Google penalty. Google does not impose a universal 580-pixel title requirement.

Our goal was to make page titles clearer and more focused, while reducing unnecessary wording.

What about indexing?

The October 30 crawl identified 23 HTML pages.

Of those, 22 were marked indexable by Screaming Frog.

Our privacy policy remained accessible to visitors but was configured not to appear in search results.

Being marked indexable by a crawler does not establish that Google has indexed a page or that it will rank.

Those outcomes need to be monitored separately.

6. We Preserved Important URLs During the Migration

Changing website platforms introduces another consideration: what happens to the addresses people and search engines already know?

A website redesign should not automatically mean changing every page's URL.

For our redesign, we retained important existing service and city-page addresses.

We also intentionally changed the URLs of three existing articles.

Previously, their addresses included /blog/ before the article name.

On the new website, the articles use root-level URLs.

We implemented permanent redirects from the old article addresses to the corresponding new pages.

After launch, we verified that all three old addresses returned HTTP 301 permanent redirects and reached their correct articles.

Why does that matter?

Imagine a customer bookmarked an article on your website two years ago.

If the article moves and the original address stops working, that customer may encounter an error.

A properly configured permanent redirect helps visitors find the replacement.

Google also recommends mapping old URLs to their new destinations and using permanent redirects during website migrations.

You can read its official website migration guidance.

What business owners can learn: If you already have a website, ask your designer what will happen to the existing page addresses before agreeing to a complete rebuild.

7. The Original Website Wasn't Broken, and That's an Important Distinction

One detail deserves attention.

Our previous website was already technically functional.

The October 24 crawl recorded successful HTTP 200 responses for every resource it discovered.

We weren't trying to rescue a website filled with broken pages.

Instead, we wanted to improve specific aspects of a website that was already operating.

Those improvements included clearer geographic targeting, a more deliberate page structure, optimized image files, stronger internal linking, and more consistent technical SEO.

Not every website redesign needs to start from scratch.

Sometimes the right recommendation is to improve a few pages, simplify the navigation, or fix specific technical problems.

Other businesses may benefit from a more substantial redesign.

The decision should come from evaluating the existing website and identifying what actually needs to change.

What These Results Don't Prove

We believe it's important to distinguish measurable improvements from assumptions.

The data in this case study does not establish:

• Higher Google rankings after launch.
• Increased organic search traffic.
• More form submissions or phone calls.
• Higher conversion rates.
• Additional sales or revenue.
• Improved Core Web Vitals scores.

Those require different measurements, including Search Console, analytics, lead tracking, and user-experience performance data.

The response-time comparison also comes from two separate crawls rather than a controlled performance experiment. Server load, caching, network conditions, and crawl configuration may affect the recorded values.

We can document what changed and what was measured without claiming every business outcome has already improved.

What Should You Expect From Your Own Website Redesign?

If you're considering a new website for your business, I would ask the designer five questions.

1. What problems are we trying to solve?

Be specific about whether the issue is appearance, usability, search visibility, poor lead generation, outdated information, or something else.

2. What should stay the same?

Identify useful existing pages, content, photography, domain settings, and page addresses before replacing them.

3. What changes will be made?

The proposal should explain the planned pages, features, content, functionality, and responsibilities.

4. How will the work be tested?

Ask about mobile usability, contact forms, internal links, redirects, indexing settings, and other appropriate checks.

5. What will we measure afterward?

Agree on what the website is supposed to accomplish and which measurements will help evaluate its performance.

You can also use our website design proposal comparison checklist to organize the questions when reviewing different companies.

See What Your New Website Could Look Like

Royal Palm Marketing is based in Ankeny, Iowa, and provides website design and digital marketing services to businesses throughout Central Iowa.

Our approach begins with understanding the business, its customers, and what the website needs to accomplish.

We also offer free website mockups for qualified businesses, allowing you to review a proposed design direction before committing to a project.

If your current website is outdated, difficult to manage, or not generating the inquiries you expected, we'd be happy to take a look.

Learn more about our website design services in Ankeny, Iowa.

Request Your Free Website Mockup

About the Author

Marcus Pitts is the owner of Royal Palm Marketing, an Ankeny, Iowa-based website design and digital marketing agency. He brings more than 30 years of marketing experience working with businesses and organizations.

Measurement Notes

This case study compares Royal Palm Marketing Screaming Frog SEO Spider exports dated October 24 and October 30, 2026.

The five-page response-time average covers the same Ankeny, Des Moines, West Des Moines, Urbandale, and Waukee web-design URLs in both crawls.

• Unrounded average response times: 0.7442 seconds before and 0.2852 seconds after.
• Approximate average response-time reduction: 61.68%.
• Portrait image reduction: approximately 74.64%.
• The 580-pixel title-width threshold is an audit benchmark, not an official Google limit.
• Internal-link counts include links from shared site components.

The measurements are observations from the recorded crawls. They are not controlled experimental results and do not demonstrate changes in rankings, website traffic, leads, or revenue.