Website redesign
For established businesses whose website no longer matches the quality of their work: a clearer, faster, custom-coded replacement, with the move planned carefully so the search visibility you have built up is protected as far as possible.
01 — When to redesign
Signs your website is holding the business back.
A redesign is worth considering when the website stops doing its job: when it no longer represents the business well, or makes it harder for customers to get in touch.
It no longer reflects the business
Your services, standards or market have moved on, but the website still describes an earlier version of the company.
It is difficult to use on a phone
Text is small, buttons are hard to tap or important information is buried, so mobile visitors give up.
It is slow
Pages take too long to appear, particularly on mobile connections, and visitors leave before they read anything.
Enquiries do not reflect your traffic
People visit, but the route from interest to getting in touch is unclear, so too few of them do.
It is hard to change or maintain
Small updates need workarounds, or the site depends on ageing themes, plugins or code that nobody wants to touch.
Accessibility has not been considered
Poor contrast, missing labels or keyboard traps make the website harder or impossible for some people to use.
Honest advice
Sometimes a redesign is not the answer
If the foundations are sound and the problems are specific, such as slow pages, unclear service pages or technical SEO issues, targeted improvements may serve you better than a full replacement. An SEO review of the current website shows which applies, and we will tell you plainly.
02 — What it can improve
A replacement that works harder for you.
Every redesign is planned around what your current website gets wrong and what your customers need. These are the areas we focus on, rebuilt as a custom-coded website.
- Structure & clarity
- Pages organised around the questions your customers ask, in the order they ask them, with clear headings and navigation.
- Speed
- Lean, custom-coded pages and properly prepared images, so the website loads quickly on phones as well as desktops.
- Mobile usability
- Layouts designed for small screens from the start: readable text, comfortable tap targets and forms that are easy to complete.
- Routes to enquiry
- Calls to action placed where decisions are made, and contact forms that are simple to use on any device.
- Accessibility
- Semantic structure, keyboard access, readable contrast and clear labels, following WCAG 2.2 guidance.
- Maintainability
- A clean codebase without unnecessary plugins, so the website is easier to keep secure, update and extend.
03 — Protecting search visibility
Search visibility, managed as a risk.
A redesign changes addresses, content and code at the same time, and careless launches can lose search traffic that took years to earn. Nobody can guarantee that rankings will be unaffected, and some movement after a launch is common. What a careful process does is reduce the avoidable risks and catch problems early.
- Benchmark
- Record how the current website performs before anything changes: the pages that attract search traffic, the searches they appear for (from Google Search Console where available) and the pages other websites link to.
- URL mapping
- List every important existing address and decide where it belongs on the new website. Where an address has to change, it is matched to the most relevant new page.
- Redirects
- Permanent (301) redirects from old addresses to their new equivalents, so visitors, bookmarks, links and search engines arrive in the right place instead of at an error page.
- Content & metadata
- Carry across the content that is working, and review page titles, descriptions, headings and structured data so each page is at least as clear to search engines as before.
- Pre-launch checks
- Crawl the new website before launch: broken links, redirect chains, canonical tags, the XML sitemap, robots.txt and any accidental noindex settings left over from development.
- After launch
- Submit the new sitemap and check Google Search Console and the redirects once the new website is live. How long post-launch checks continue, and any support after that, is agreed in your proposal; it is not an ongoing monitoring service.
04 — Keeping what works
Nothing important left behind.
Before anything is designed, we take stock of what the current website does, so the new one keeps everything your customers and team rely on.
- Content worth keeping
- Pages that answer customer questions well, perform in search or are linked to from other websites.
- Forms & enquiry routes
- Every way people currently get in touch, so nothing is lost in the move.
- Integrations
- Connections to booking, CRM, mailing list or other systems, reviewed and rebuilt or reconnected as needed.
- Important functionality
- Features customers or staff rely on, identified at the start rather than discovered missing after launch.
05 — The process
From review to a calm switch-over.
We normally aim to keep your current website running while the new one is built separately, where that is technically feasible, and plan the switch-over with you.
Timelines depend on scope and are set out in your proposal.
Step 1: Review the current website
We look at what you have: its structure, content, performance, search data where available, and what works well and what does not.
Step 2: Proposal & quotation
A written proposal sets out what will change, what will be kept, the stages, a realistic timeline and a tailored quotation.
Step 3: Structure & URL map
We plan the new page structure and map existing addresses to it, before design begins.
Step 4: Design
Key layouts are designed for desktop and mobile and refined with you at defined review points.
Step 5: Build & migrate
The approved design is custom-coded on a separate preview, normally while your current website keeps running; content, metadata and redirects are carried across.
Step 6: Check & launch
Pre-launch checks and a planned switch-over, then any post-launch checks and support agreed in your proposal.
06 — Cost & timelines
What shapes the cost of a redesign.
Every redesign is quoted individually, so we do not publish prices. After reviewing your current website, we provide a written proposal with a tailored quotation. These factors make the biggest difference to both cost and timeline.
Size of the current website
How many pages there are, and how much of the content moves across or needs rewriting.
Redirect mapping
More existing addresses, or a bigger change in structure, means more mapping and checking.
Design scope
The number of distinct page designs the new website needs.
Functionality & integrations
Features and connections to other systems that have to be rebuilt, replaced or reconnected.
Content readiness & feedback
How quickly new content, images and approvals are available at each stage.
Ongoing support
Whether you would like us to host and maintain the new website after launch.
More on how projects are scoped, and what to include in a quotation request, on our web design page.
07 — After launch
Looked after once it is live.
If you would like us to look after the new website, we offer hosting and ongoing maintenance as optional services, including hosting management, updates and technical support. What is covered is agreed in a support plan for your website.
Ownership, access and handover are set out in your contract, so responsibilities after launch are clear from the start.
Hosting & maintenance08 — Questions
Redesign questions, answered.
Something else on your mind? Ask us directly; there is no obligation.
Will we lose our Google rankings if we redesign?
Nobody can guarantee that rankings will stay exactly as they are, because Google decides them and a redesign changes many things at once. What we can do is reduce the avoidable risks: recording how the current site performs, mapping every important old address to its new equivalent with permanent redirects, carrying over content and metadata that are working, and checking the new site technically before launch. Checks and support after launch are agreed in your proposal.
Can you keep our existing page addresses?
Where the current structure works, keeping addresses unchanged is usually the safest option. Where it needs to change, every important old address is mapped to the most relevant new page and redirected, rather than left to return an error.
Can you redesign a website that another company built?
Often, yes. Each one is assessed case by case: we review the existing website and how it was built, then propose a custom-coded replacement that carries over the content, page addresses and functionality worth keeping. We cannot guarantee compatibility with every existing website, platform or integration, and if targeted improvements would serve you better, we will say so.
Will our website go offline during the redesign?
We normally aim to keep your current website running while the new one is designed and built separately, where that is technically feasible. The switch-over is planned with you, with checks before launch. We cannot guarantee that there will be no downtime at all, but we plan to keep any disruption to a minimum.
How long does a website redesign take?
It depends on the size of the existing website, how much content and functionality is moving across, how many page designs are needed and how quickly content and feedback are available. Your proposal sets out the stages and a realistic timeline.
Do we need to rewrite all of our content?
Not necessarily. Content that is accurate and performing well can often be kept, sometimes with light editing to fit the new structure. A content review early in the project identifies what to keep, improve, merge or retire.
How much does a website redesign cost?
Every redesign is quoted individually, so we do not publish prices. The main factors are the size of the current website, how much content and functionality has to move across, the number of new page designs, any integrations, the amount of redirect mapping involved and whether you would like ongoing hosting and maintenance. After reviewing your current website we provide a written proposal and a tailored quotation.
Request a redesign quotation
Tell us about the website you want to replace.
Send us your current website address and a few lines about what is not working. We will review it, arrange a conversation and follow up with a written proposal and quotation.