Your website isn’t doing its job any more. Maybe it looks dated, maybe it’s slow, maybe updating it has become a chore. The question is whether to improve what you have or start again.
Both are reasonable answers. Which one is right depends on what’s wrong.
What the two options mean
A redesign keeps the foundations and changes what people see: layout, colours, typography, images, and often the wording and page structure.
A rebuild replaces the foundations too. The site is built again from scratch, usually on a better setup, with the content moved across.
A redesign is normally quicker and cheaper. A rebuild costs more and fixes problems a redesign can’t reach.
Signs a redesign is enough
- The site is easy enough to update, and you actually update it.
- It loads at a sensible speed.
- It works on a phone, even if it doesn’t look great.
- The pages and content are broadly right, but the look has aged.
- It’s built on something that’s still supported and maintained.
If that sounds like your site, the foundations are sound. Improving the design, tightening the wording and making the important actions more obvious may be all it needs.
Signs it’s time to rebuild
- Nobody can update it without breaking something.
- It’s slow, and tweaks haven’t helped.
- It was never designed for phones.
- It relies on a theme or plugins that are no longer maintained.
- Simple changes take far longer than they should.
- The business has changed, and the site’s structure no longer fits what you offer.
Problems like these sit underneath the design. A new coat of paint won’t fix them, and money spent on one is usually money spent twice.
Protecting your search rankings
Whichever route you take, look after the search traffic you already have. This is the part that’s most often forgotten, and the part that hurts most when it goes wrong.
- Keep useful pages. If a page brings in visitors, don’t delete it without a plan.
- Keep addresses where you can. If a page’s address has to change, redirect the old one to the new one.
- Keep the wording that works. Rewrite to improve, not for the sake of change.
- Check afterwards. Look for broken links and missing pages once the new site is live.
Done carefully, a redesign or rebuild is a chance to improve how you appear in search. Done carelessly, it can undo years of progress in an afternoon.
What a review involves
Before recommending either, I look at how the current site is built, how it performs, what content is worth keeping and what you find hard about running it. That usually makes the answer obvious, and it means you’re paying for the right piece of work.
The short version
If the site works but looks tired, redesign it. If it fights you every time you touch it, rebuild it.
If you’re not sure which you have, send me the address and I’ll tell you what I’d do. You can also read more about WordPress website redesigns.