The site works and you just find it boring
You look at your website far more than your customers do. If it converts and loads, being bored of it is not a business reason — and a redesign carries real risk to rankings.
Website redesign
Website redesign, without losing what already works
The risk in replacing a website is not the design — it is throwing away rankings, content and links you spent years earning. Redesigns here start with what to keep.
When it is time
Six reasons to replace a website
Most sites that need replacing show several of these at once. One on its own is usually a fix, not a rebuild.
It was built for a different business
Services have changed, the team has changed, you serve different customers than you did five years ago — and the site still describes the company you used to be.
You cannot change it yourself
The person who built it is gone, nobody has the logins, or every edit means an invoice. A site you cannot update is a site that slowly stops being true.
It falls apart on a phone
Most of your visitors are on one. If they are pinching to read your phone number, the design is costing you calls regardless of how it looks on your desktop.
It is slow enough to notice
Usually unoptimised images and a decade of plugins. Often fixable without a redesign, which we will tell you if that is the case.
It does not say what you want people to do
No clear next step, a contact form nobody fills in, a phone number in the footer only. The most common problem we see, and the cheapest to fix.
It is a security liability
Out-of-date CMS, abandoned plugins, no SSL, no backups. This one is urgent in a way the others are not — a compromised site can take your email reputation with it.
The other answer
When a redesign is the wrong call
We would rather tell you this now than take the project and have you wonder later. Three situations where replacing the site is not what you need.
The real problem is that nobody is finding it
A beautiful site nobody visits is still a site nobody visits. If traffic is the issue, that is a search and marketing problem, and redesigning first spends the budget in the wrong place.
It needs three fixes, not a rebuild
Compressed images, a clearer call to action and a mobile fix will sometimes get you most of the benefit for a fraction of the cost. Send us the link and we will tell you if that is you.
What we protect
Six things a redesign can quietly destroy
Every one of these is recoverable before launch and expensive afterwards. This is the part of a redesign that does not show up in the mockups.
Rankings
Pages that rank keep their URLs where possible. Where a URL has to change, a 301 redirect goes in before launch — not after someone notices the traffic drop a fortnight later.
Content worth keeping
Years of service descriptions, FAQs and location details took effort. We migrate what is still true, rewrite what is not, and delete what was only ever filler.
Backlinks
Other sites link to your pages. A broken URL is a wasted link — redirect mapping is what preserves them, and it is the step most often skipped.
Your Google Business Profile
Name, address and service information on the new site has to match the profile, or the inconsistency works against you in local search.
Analytics history
Tracking carries over so you can actually tell whether the redesign worked. Starting a fresh property loses the comparison, which is the only way to answer that question.
Anything already converting
If a page or a form is bringing in work, we find out why before touching it. Redesigns that quietly remove the thing that was working are more common than they should be.
How it runs
Five steps, and one of them is “don’t”
- 01
Look at what you have
Current structure, what ranks, what converts, what is broken and what is simply out of date. This is also where we tell you if you do not need a redesign.
- 02
Decide what carries over
A page-by-page call: keep, rewrite, merge or drop — and the URL each one will live at.
- 03
Design the replacement
Layouts built around what the site has to achieve now, not a reskin of the old structure.
- 04
Build and map redirects
The new site is built and every changed URL gets a redirect written before anything goes live.
- 05
Launch and watch
We check indexing, redirects and Search Console after launch rather than assuming it went fine.
What it costs
From $3,500, same as a new build
A redesign is not automatically cheaper than starting fresh. Migration, URL mapping and redirects are real work that a blank-slate project does not carry — and they are the work that stops the project costing you traffic.
Full detail on the small business website pricing page. For how the design itself is put together, see custom website design; for platforms and custom functionality, website development. Local? Las Vegas website design.
FAQ
Redesign questions
Will a redesign hurt my search rankings?
It can, and that is the main risk of the whole exercise. Rankings are lost when URLs change without redirects, when content that was ranking gets cut, or when the new site is slower or less crawlable than the old one.
All three are avoidable. Redirect mapping happens before launch, content that earns traffic is identified before anything is deleted, and we check indexing afterwards instead of assuming. Handled properly, a redesign usually helps.
How much does a website redesign cost?
The same as a new build: from $3,500. A redesign is not automatically cheaper — migration, URL mapping and redirects are work a blank-slate project does not have.
Then $250 a month for hosting, security, backups and unlimited content updates. Full detail on the small business website pricing page.
Can you keep my current content?
Yes, and usually we should. Content that already ranks is an asset. We migrate what is still accurate, rewrite what has aged, and drop what was only ever there to fill a page.
What if I am happy with my domain and email?
Both stay. The domain does not change, email is unaffected, and we handle the DNS move so there is no downtime on either.
How long does a redesign take?
Two weeks is the minimum, same as a new build, and content is usually what decides whether it lands near that. A large site with a lot of URL mapping takes longer, and we set the timeline against the real scope before starting.
Do I have to move to a different platform?
No. Sometimes the existing platform is fine and the problem is the design, the structure or the content. We will say so rather than sell a migration you do not need.
Send us the link
We’ll look at what you have and tell you honestly whether it is worth keeping, worth fixing or worth replacing. Those are three different answers and three very different amounts of money.
Book a 15-minute call