Website Redesign: When You Need One and How to Plan It

Most of the established and growing businesses we work with are not building their first website. They have one already, and it has gradually fallen behind: the design is a few years old, the mobile experience is poor, nobody dares update it, and the enquiries have dried up. A redesign fixes all of that, but it is also one of the easier ways to accidentally lose the search rankings and content you have spent years building. This guide covers how to tell when you need a redesign, what the options are, how to plan it and how to protect what is already working.

Signs Your Website Needs a Redesign

• It looks dated. Design conventions change, and a site that looked modern five years ago now signals that the business may be behind too.
• It is slow or awkward on mobile. Most visitors to most business websites now arrive on a phone. If text is tiny, buttons are hard to tap or pages take seconds to load, those visitors leave.
• It is hard to update. If changing a phone number or adding a team member means calling someone and waiting, content goes stale and the site stops reflecting the business.
• It no longer generates enquiries. Fewer contact form submissions and calls than there used to be, or none at all, is the clearest sign of all.
• Your business has changed. New services, a new brand, a different kind of customer or a new location that the website does not reflect.
• The platform is holding you back. You want to add bookings, a members' area or an integration and your current site cannot do it.
• Security worries. Out-of-date software, plugins that no longer receive updates, or warnings in the browser.
• Competitors look better. If a prospective customer compares you side by side and your site is the weakest, you are losing work you never hear about.

Refresh, Redesign or Rebuild?

"Redesign" covers three quite different projects, and knowing which one you need saves money and time.

In practice, most dated business websites need a redesign or a rebuild rather than a refresh, because the problems are rarely only skin deep. If your current site was built with a modern framework and only needs updating, our website update service may be all that is required.

How to Plan a Website Redesign

1. Review your analytics. Before changing anything, find out which pages attract visitors, which ones lead to enquiries and where people leave. These are the pages to protect and improve, not throw away.
2. Set clear goals. More enquiries, online bookings, better mobile performance, easier updates, a new brand. Write them down; they decide every later choice.
3. Audit your content. List every page and decide whether to keep it as it is, rewrite it, merge it or remove it. Our guide to which pages a website should have is a useful checklist.
4. Decide what to keep. Content that ranks well or converts, your best photography, testimonials and anything customers rely on.
5. List new requirements. Features the old site could not provide, such as booking, a members' area, a portal or integrations with your other systems.
6. Write a brief. Pull all of the above into a short document so that designers can quote accurately. Our website design brief template covers everything to include.
7. Gather your assets. Logo files, brand guidelines, photographs and login details for your domain and current hosting, all of which are needed sooner than most people expect.

Protecting Your Search Rankings

This is where redesigns most often go wrong. Your existing website has page addresses that Google knows, links from other websites pointing at those addresses, and content that ranks for searches your customers make. A careless redesign throws all of that away. To keep it:

• Keep page addresses the same where you can. If a page is simply being redesigned, there is no need to change its web address.
• Set up permanent redirects for every address that changes. Each old address should send visitors and search engines to the most relevant new page. Keep a spreadsheet of old and new addresses so nothing is missed.
• Never delete pages without a redirect. A page that disappears loses its ranking and breaks any links pointing to it.
• Keep the page titles and content that rank. Rewriting a page that already performs well is a risk; improve it carefully rather than starting again.
• Keep the technical signals in place. Page titles, descriptions, headings, image descriptions and structured data should be carried across or improved, not forgotten.
• Submit a new sitemap after launch through Google Search Console, and check it for errors in the following weeks.
• Check for broken links after launch, both within the site and from any marketing material, directories or social profiles that point to it.

Done this way, a redesign usually holds rankings and often improves them, because the new site is faster, better structured and easier for search engines to understand.

What a Website Redesign Costs

A redesign costs roughly the same as a new website of the same size and complexity, because the design and development work is much the same. For a custom-designed small business site, that means around £2,000 to £6,000. The figure rises if a large amount of content needs migrating, if new functionality such as bookings or member areas is added, or if the redesign includes new branding. A visual refresh of a sound site costs less. Our guide to how much a website costs in the UK gives typical prices for every type of site, and our own website design prices start at £2,400.

How Long It Takes

A redesign of a typical small business website takes four to eight weeks from an agreed brief to launch. Content migration, new features and larger sites extend that. The single biggest cause of delay is waiting: for content, for photographs, for feedback on designs, or for login details. Having those ready before the project starts makes more difference to the timeline than anything the designer does. Our guide to the website design process explains what happens at each stage and what will be needed from you.

Redesign Launch Checklist

• Every old page address redirects to the right new page
• Page titles and descriptions are in place on every page
• Contact forms have been tested and emails arrive
• The site has been checked on phones, tablets and desktops
• Analytics and Search Console are connected to the new site
• The new sitemap has been submitted
• Links from your email signature, social profiles and directories still work
• A backup of the old site has been kept in case anything needs to be recovered

How We Handle Redesigns

Redesigns for established businesses are a large part of what we do. We start by reviewing what your current site does well and badly, then plan the new structure around your goals rather than simply redrawing the old pages. We map every existing page address to its new equivalent and set up permanent redirects so your rankings carry across, migrate the content that is working for you and improve the rest, and build the new site on a modern foundation designed to be extended, so the next change to your business does not mean another rebuild. Hosting and support are available afterwards from £20 per month, with quick updates whenever you need them.

You can read more about our website redesign service, see examples of recent work in our portfolio, or contact us with a link to your current site and a note of what is not working. We will give you an honest view of whether you need a refresh, a redesign or a rebuild, and a fixed price for whichever it is.