A redesign is a large piece of work, and a website that ranks and brings in inquiries today can lose both if the change is handled carelessly. This guide is about the decision and the plan: when a redesign is worth it, what to keep, and how to launch without losing what the current site already does.
Signs a website needs more than a refresh
Age on its own is not a reason. These are:
- It no longer explains the business. Services, customers or positioning have moved on, and the site still describes the company you were.
- It works badly on phones. Text is small, menus are awkward, forms are hard to fill in. Many visitors now arrive on a phone; your analytics will show how many.
- It is slow. Large images, heavy scripts and old themes make pages load slowly, which costs both visitors and search visibility.
- It is hard to update. Small changes need a developer, so the content falls out of date.
- It does not turn visitors into inquiries. There is no clear next step, or the contact route is buried.
- The technology underneath is at its end. An unsupported platform, plugins without updates or a codebase nobody wants to touch is a security and maintenance risk.
If only the first two apply, a content and design refresh on the existing platform may be enough. If the last one applies, a rebuild is usually the honest answer.
Redesign, rebuild or refresh?
- Refresh: new design and content on the same platform. Lowest risk; works when the platform is sound.
- Redesign: new structure, design and content, often on the same or a similar platform. The page list and addresses change, so redirects matter.
- Rebuild: new platform and code. Everything changes underneath; plan it like a migration, not a visual update.
Naming which of these you are doing early stops a “quick refresh” turning into an unplanned rebuild.
Start with an inventory of what exists
Before any design, list every page the current site has. For each, note:
- its address;
- whether it brings visits from search, and roughly how many;
- whether other sites link to it;
- whether it leads to inquiries;
- what will happen to it: keep, merge into another page, rewrite, or retire.
Search Console and your analytics show which pages earn traffic and links. Those pages need the most care, because they carry the visibility the business has built.
Plan the new structure around what people look for
A redesign is the right moment to check that each service people search for has one clear page, and that the pages do not compete with each other for the same search. Group related content, remove thin or duplicate pages, and decide where each old page’s content lives in the new structure.
Redirects: the part most redesigns get wrong
When an address changes, search engines and visitors following old links need to be sent to the right place:
- Permanent redirect (301) from each old address to its closest new page, in one step — no chains of redirects.
- “Gone” (410) for pages that are deliberately retired and have no real replacement.
- No blanket redirects to the home page. Search engines treat many unrelated redirects to one page as missing pages, and visitors lose the thing they came for.
Write the redirect map before launch and test every old address against the new site.
Keep what already performs
Titles, headings and content that already bring the right visitors should not change by accident. Carry them over where they still describe the page, and when you do change them, change them for a reason. The same goes for structured information about the business, such as address and contact details.
Design for phones, speed and accessibility
Design the phone layout as carefully as the desktop one. Keep pages light: optimised images, few scripts, fast first load. Readable contrast, clear headings and keyboard access help every visitor and make the content easier for search engines to understand.
Launch, then watch
On launch day, check that every important page loads, that redirects work in one step, that the new pages are indexable and that forms reach the right inbox. Submit the new sitemap in Search Console. For the following weeks, watch for crawl errors, missing pages and changes in search visibility, and fix problems as they appear. Some movement in rankings after a redesign is normal; a plan like this keeps it small and temporary.
How we approach it
When we redesign a site, we start with the inventory and the redirect map, design the new structure and pages, build them, and check the launch against the list. Our web development and UI/UX design teams work on it together, so what is designed is what gets built.