A showcase site launched three years ago, never updated, that takes several seconds to load on mobile and which no one internally knows how to edit: this scenario is common in most SMEs. Simplifying IT does not start with changing servers or hosts, but by regaining control over the tool that clients see first, the website.
Web accessibility and the European Accessibility Act: the constraint that most redesigns ignore
Since June 28, 2025, the European Accessibility Act requires relevant digital services in the European Union to comply with the EN 301 549 standard and the WCAG 2.1 level AA guidelines. Specifically, an e-commerce site or an online service aimed at European consumers must provide sufficient contrasts, keyboard navigation, text alternatives for images, and a coherent HTML structure.
The rule does not apply only to new sites. Existing sites at the time of enforcement are also affected, without a general grace period. This changes how to prioritize a redesign: one can no longer settle for a “pretty” theme if the underlying structure blocks compliance.
Microenterprises may be exempt in certain cases, but only for service obligations. Before launching a simplification, one must check the exact scope of their obligations. A visually lighter site that is not compliant with accessibility is not a simplified site; it is a site at regulatory risk. On the Simpler Computing website, the approach incorporates these constraints from the design stage to avoid having to redo everything six months later.
Mobile performance and maintenance: two criteria before design
We often talk about simplifying the interface, reducing the number of pages, or cleaning up the menu. These are useful actions, but they come after two technical checks that competitors rarely mention.
Loading time on mobile
A site that takes more than three seconds to load loses the majority of its visitors. Simplification starts by lightening what slows it down: uncompressed images, unnecessary third-party scripts, web fonts loaded in bulk. A visually clean site but technically heavy does not provide any concrete benefit.
The situation can be checked in a few seconds with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. The mobile score is often much lower than the desktop score, and it is the one that matters most for organic search ranking.
Maintenance capability without a developer
A “simplified” site that cannot be updated by oneself is not simple; it is static. The question to ask before any redesign: who will modify the homepage text in six months? If the answer is “no one internally,” simplification has already failed.
Feedback varies on this point depending on the tools used, but a good CMS allows for editing text and images without touching the code. This is a more decisive selection criterion than the number of templates offered.
Website creation by artificial intelligence: what it really changes
AI website generators today allow for a functional first version to be obtained in just a few minutes. You describe your activity, choose a tone, and the tool suggests a page structure with pre-written content. For a small business starting from scratch, the time savings are real.
The problem arises at the next stage. An automatically generated site raises three concrete questions:
- Is the produced HTML code clean and compliant with accessibility standards (semantic tags, alt attributes, coherent heading structure)?
- Is the generated content specific enough to the activity so that it does not resemble that of all competitors using the same tool?
- Does the platform allow intervention on the source code if a technical need arises, or does it lock you into a proprietary ecosystem?
AI accelerates initial creation, not maintenance or compliance. You save time on the mockup, but the work of adaptation, technical verification, and customization remains intact. Entrusting this step to an approach that integrates AI as a tool (and not as a final solution) yields better results than a fully automated site left as is.
Concrete checklist for simplifying an existing site
Rather than a complete redesign, significant results can often be achieved through targeted step-by-step actions. Here are the actions that have the most impact, ranked by operational priority:
- Remove pages that have received no visits in a year (they dilute SEO and complicate navigation).
- Compress all images to WebP format and limit their size to a few hundred kilobytes maximum.
- Reduce the main menu to five entries or fewer, moving the rest to a structured footer.
- Check color contrasts and keyboard navigation on each remaining page to move towards WCAG 2.1 AA compliance.
- Set up a CMS access with limited rights so that a non-technical person can modify the current texts.
Each action is tested individually, with a check of the PageSpeed score before and after. This avoids the marathon redesign that stretches over months without visible results.
Simplifying IT through the website is not about choosing the most streamlined template or generating pages in five minutes with AI. It is about ensuring that the site loads quickly on mobile, that anyone internally can update it, and that it complies with accessibility obligations in effect since 2025. The rest, the graphic charter, the number of pages, the choice of colors, comes after these technical foundations.