Do you need a redesign, or just a few fixes?

The expensive default

Ask three agencies to look at a website that isn’t working and you’ll usually get three quotes for a rebuild. That isn’t always dishonesty. A rebuild is easier to price, easier to scope, and more fun to work on than a list of repairs.

But it’s often the wrong answer, and it’s always the more expensive one. Plenty of sites that aren’t working need two weeks of fixes rather than two months of building.

Signs you only need fixes

• The structure makes sense and the pages you need already exist
• It looks dated rather than broken, and the layout still holds together on a phone
• It is slow, which is usually images, plugins and hosting rather than the build itself
• It does not rank, but nobody has ever done the titles, headings or Business Profile
• There is no clear next step for visitors, which is a content problem, not a build problem
• You can still edit it, and somebody at your business knows how

If most of those describe your site, a rebuild would recreate what you already have at considerable cost. Fix the speed, rewrite the titles, add the missing pages, and put a real call to action on it. Then judge.

Signs you really do need a rebuild

• It does not work properly on a phone, and cannot be fixed without rewriting the layout
• It runs on a platform nobody supports, or a page builder that is no longer updated
• You cannot change anything without paying the original developer
• You do not control the domain or the hosting account
• It has been hacked, or it is running software that is years old
• What the business does now is not what the site describes
• Adding the pages you need means fighting the theme every time

The middle path nobody offers you

There’s an option between patching and rebuilding that rarely gets quoted. Keep the platform, keep the content, and replace the theme and the templates. You get a current design and a fast site without recreating every page from nothing. The light theme and builder we would move you onto are on the tools we use.

It suits a WordPress site with decent content and a bad or bloated theme, which describes a great many business websites here. Ask for it by name, because you’ll usually not be offered it.

Fix or rebuild: a side-by-side

Most decisions come down to a handful of facts about the current site. Answer these honestly and the choice usually makes itself.

Three or more answers in the right-hand column usually means a rebuild is cheaper over two years than repeated repairs. Fewer than that, and fixes recover most of the value for a fraction of the cost.

How to decide in an afternoon

Write down what you actually want the website to do. Get more enquiries. Take bookings. Stop the phone ringing with the same three questions. Show up in search for four specific terms.

Then go through your current site and mark each goal as: already possible, possible with changes, or not possible without rebuilding. If almost nothing lands in the third column, you don’t need a rebuild, whatever anyone quotes you.

We’ll do that assessment for you and tell you honestly which column you’re in, including when the answer costs us the bigger job. That’s what the free audit is for.

Go further: the website guide, our web design service, web design prices, or care plans.

Questions people ask