TechBehemoths Web Development Expert Insights 2026 – Second Edition

A website can look polished and still be slow, confusing, or difficult to use. And when budgets are limited, a full redesign is not always the answer.

In this edition of TechBehemoths Web Development Expert Insights, Vo Hoang Duc Khoa, Natalie Miller, and Priyank Savani discuss what makes a website perform well, the mistakes that can make a rebuild more expensive, what to ask before choosing a web development partner, and where to focus when a complete redesign isn’t an option.

Meet the Experts

Vo Hoang Duc Khoa is a Frontend Developer at Relia Software, a software development company building web, mobile, and custom software solutions for clients across international markets.

His frontend work gives him a practical view of how website performance, usability, and design affect how people interact with a website.

Natalie Miller is a Content Writer at First Line Software, an AI-native engineering company that delivers more than 1,000 solutions across industries.

With a background in journalism, marketing, and employer branding, Natalie brings a communication-focused perspective to web development, looking at how websites support business goals, reach their audiences, and continue to deliver value after launch.

Priyank Savani is the Chairman and Managing Director of Identixweb Limited, where he leads a team working on Shopify development, custom integrations, and eCommerce solutions for DTC and B2B brands.

His work focuses on building websites and digital solutions that solve business problems, support growth, and make the online buying experience easier for customers.

What separates a website that looks good from a website that performs well?

Vo Hoang Duc Khoa, Relia Software

A good-looking website gets attention and compliments, but a high-performing website gets people to take action and convert. What I mean isn’t just about design; it’s about business results. Performance means fast load times, usability, clear value, and making the next step clear.

Natalie Miller, First Line Software

A homepage that looks sharp gets someone to click. Whether they stay depends on load time, whether checkout holds up when three hundred people hit it at once, and whether the site works on two bars of signal in a parking lot. We see the same gap with AI adoption: 72% of enterprises have deployed a tool like Claude, but McKinsey found only 38% of knowledge workers actually use it for real work. Deployment and performance get confused constantly, on websites and everywhere else.

Priyank Savani, Identixweb Limited

A good-looking website creates a strong first impression, but a high-performing e-commerce website is built around customer psychology, and it should understand how people make buying decisions and deliver a seamless shopping experience.

What is the most expensive mistake businesses make when building a new website?

Vo Hoang Duc Khoa, Relia Software

The most expensive mistake? Building for yourselves instead of your audience. Businesses often get trapped in internal debates over colors, layouts, and animations, but ignore user behavior. If a potential customer can’t figure out what you do within three seconds of landing, you’ve wasted your budget.

Natalie Miller, First Line Software

The most expensive mistake is redesigning the front end while leaving the architecture untouched. The website looks new, but the rigid CMS, the outdated content model, and the developer dependency all remain, and that content model still can't feed AI search or AI agents any better than it could before. Two years later, the company needs another rebuild. That isn't modernization. It's a subscription to rebuilding, and it only ends when the CMS itself becomes composable enough to change without a developer.

Priyank Savani, Identixweb Limited

The biggest mistake is believing that once a website is launched, the job is done, but in reality, a website is like a physical store; you don't just open it and walk away. It should be observed regularly, customer behaviour, and make improvements.

What questions should a company ask before hiring a web development partner?

Vo Hoang Duc Khoa, Relia Software

Don’t just ask 'how much?' Ask these three things instead:

• ’Can you show me case studies where you actually improved conversions?',

• 'What is your SEO migration strategy?',

• and 'What does post-launch support look like?'

Actually, you should hire a strategic business partner, not just someone who only writes code.

Natalie Miller, First Line Software

Ask four questions, and listen for what the answer reveals, not just the answer itself.

1. Can our team update the site without a developer? If not, you're buying dependency, not a website.
2. Can you show us something you built three years ago? That's the only way to see how their work and their methodology actually ages.
3. What will you measure after launch: traffic, conversion, or whether AI systems can find and cite you? No metric means no accountability.
4. And who will actually do the work: the senior team in this room, or a junior team you'll meet after the contract's signed?

Those four answers reveal more than a polished portfolio ever will.

Priyank Savani, Identixweb Limited

Companies should ask about real business results, such as what conversions they achieved. How do they measure success? What's their development process, and what steps do they take continuously to improve the website after it goes live?

What should companies prioritize if they cannot afford a complete redesign?

Vo Hoang Duc Khoa, Relia Software

If you can’t afford a full redesign, just focus on two quick wins. Firstly, speed up your mobile site because slow loading completely kills sales. Secondly, make your message and buttons clearer on your top 3 pages. Sometimes, fixing the right pages first can already make a big difference.

Natalie Miller, First Line Software

Fix what customers run into first: slow pages, mobile checkout that breaks, forms that don't submit. A full redesign takes longer and costs more than most budgets allow. Start with one team, prove the model, then scale, rather than rebuilding everything at once. Target your highest-traffic pages with the worst conversion numbers, fix those, and use the time you've bought to plan the bigger rebuild properly.

Priyank Savani, Identixweb Limited

Don't redesign the entire website based on assumptions. Use analytics to identify where customers are dropping off, then improve those high-impact areas first. Often, a few targeted changes can mainly increase conversions without the cost of a complete redesign.

All Three Experts Agreed That

Performance matters more than appearance.

A website should be fast, easy to use, and built to turn visitors into customers.

Build around what customers need and what the business wants to achieve.

Design choices should be based on customer behavior and measurable results, not assumptions or aesthetics alone.

Keep improving the website after launch.

Post-launch monitoring, testing, and continuous improvement are essential.

Choose a web development partner based on the results they can deliver.

Companies should ask about conversions, measurement, process, and ongoing support, not just price or portfolio.

Fix the problems that affect customers and conversions first.

When budgets are limited, use data to identify the pages and issues hurting users or conversions most, then fix those before considering a full redesign.

Thank you to Vo Hoang Duc Khoa (Relia Software), Natalie Miller (First Line Software), and Priyank Savani (Identixweb Limited) for sharing your expertise and contributing to TechBehemoths Web Development Expert Insights 2026.