When is a website redesign worth it?
In short: A redesign renews an existing website: its design, its technology and its content, often all at once. It’s worth it when your website no longer fits your business, for example when it’s hard to use on a phone, brings in few enquiries or doesn’t show what you offer today. So that visitors and Google find your pages again, the old addresses redirect to the new ones.
What is a website redesign?
A fresh start for a website that already exists. The domain stays, what has worked comes along, and the rest is new.
What stays
Your domain, your email addresses and the content customers find and value today.
What’s new
The design, the technology underneath and every text and image that no longer fits. If you like, the system too, for example a move from a website builder to WordPress.
What redirects
Every old address leads to the matching new page, so no connection is lost.
Unlike a brand-new website, yours already has visitors, rankings on Google and links from other sites. A redesign builds on them instead of starting from zero.
How can you tell it’s time for a redesign?
By what your website no longer manages to do. If more than one of these points applies, a redesign is worth a look:
Hard to use on a phone
Visitors have to zoom and swipe, buttons are too small, text runs off the edge.
Few enquiries
People visit, but few get in touch, because the way to an enquiry is missing or hidden.
Older than your business
The design looks dated and doesn’t show how good your work is today.
A new offer
You offer something different today or want to sell online, and the website still tells the old story.
New languages
You want to reach customers in more languages, and your website can’t do it.
Hard to look after
Every small change takes ages, or nobody looks after updates and backups any more.
One example from our projects: since its redesign, the website of Dream Garage shows the business’s finished garages and leads visitors straight to an enquiry.
How much does a website redesign cost?
That depends on how much is new. The more of your website can stay, the less work it is:
Design
A refreshed design keeps the structure and the colours. A new one starts from your brand, with a new logo if you like.
Less work: Refreshed
More work: All new
Content
Text and photos that are still right simply move over, and so do files such as PDFs that other websites link to. Whatever no longer fits is rewritten or photographed again.
Less work: Carried over
More work: Newly written
Pages and data
A few pages are moved quickly. Many posts or a whole product range need a planned move of their data, usually straight from the old system.
Less work: A few pages
More work: Many pages, posts or products
Features
If it stays with the contact form, that part is quick. Bookings, a shop or a chat assistant are items of their own, and so are connections to a calendar or stock management.
Less work: As before
More work: New ones added
Languages
Each language moves with its own pages. A new language gets pages and copy of its own.
Less work: One language
More work: Several, new ones too
Moving
If your website stays with its provider, there is no move. If it moves, a new home for the domain and the email accounts is planned in advance, so both work on launch day.
Less work: Stays where it is
More work: Moves to a new provider
What drives the price of a website in general, and what you pay once and what on an ongoing basis, is covered in How much does a website cost?
How do you keep your Google rankings in a redesign?
By redirecting every old address to the matching new one. Then visitors, bookmarks and links from other websites still land in the right place, and Google passes on what the old page achieved in search.
Your domain stays the same
| Before | After the redesign |
|---|---|
| /services | /services/ |
| /team | /about-us/ |
| /offer-2019/ | /offers/ |
| /contact | /contact/ |
If a page no longer exists, its address leads to the closest new one, not simply to the home page.
In a redesign with us, the old addresses redirect to the new ones, and after launch we keep an eye on your results on Google. Nobody can promise rankings, and neither can we. But your pages don’t start again from scratch. More on this under SEO.
What should you prepare before a redesign?
The better you know your current website, the smoother the move. These points are worth sorting out beforehand:
Checklist
The logins
Who has access to the domain, hosting, email, your website’s system and Google Search Console, and whose name each one is in.
The most important pages
Which pages bring in visitors and enquiries today. They deserve the most care in the move.
The goals
What the new website should do better: more enquiries, a new offer, more languages, less effort.
The content
Which texts, photos and documents stay, which are newly made and who supplies them.
The features
What your website can do today, such as forms, bookings, a shop or a newsletter, and what should be added.
The legal pages
Whether the legal notice (Impressum) and the privacy policy are still correct, especially when new features come in.
How does a website redesign work?
In five steps, from your website as it is today to the care afterwards. Your current website stays online until the new one is ready.
Review
What your website can do today, which pages are found and what should stay.
Quote
Scope, schedule and price in writing, with the running costs listed separately.
Preview
You see the new website before it goes online and say what should still change.
Launch
The new website goes online, and the old addresses redirect to the new ones.
Afterwards
Watching your results on Google, plus updates, backups and your changes. More on this under hosting and maintenance.
Frequently asked questions
What’s the difference between a website refresh and a redesign?
A refresh renews the look, while the structure and technology stay. A redesign goes further: often the technology, the content and the structure are renewed too. What your website needs becomes clear when you look at what it can’t do today.
How long does a website redesign take?
That depends on the scope and the content. A smaller website is usually renewed in a few weeks; bigger projects take longer. Your quote includes a schedule for your project.
Will a redesign cost me my Google rankings?
Usually not, if the old addresses redirect cleanly to the new ones and the content people find today is kept. Shortly after launch, rankings can move around while Google reads the new pages. No serious provider guarantees rankings.
Do I keep my domain?
Yes. The domain stays; only the website behind it is new. Your email addresses can stay as they are, too.
Can you redesign a website someone else built?
Yes. We also renew websites and shops we didn’t build, and move them from your current provider to us if you like.
Who writes the copy for the new website?
As you prefer: you supply your texts, or we write new ones, with the words your customers search for. The same goes for photos and the logo.
What happens with a multilingual website?
Each language moves with its own pages and addresses, and afterwards the versions point to each other again. What a multilingual website needs is covered in What does a multilingual website need?