Website redesign

Not every old website needs a new design. If the structure makes sense, the content editor works and the trouble is local, such as a slow homepage, a broken form or dated images, it is cheaper to fix those by the hour or under a maintenance plan. A redesign pays off when the problems come from the foundation: a theme that is no longer updated, a page builder that makes every page heavy, or a mobile view that cannot be repaired without rebuilding everything.

The second reason is a changed business. You have added services, your audience has shifted, yet the site still describes the company you were five years ago. Patching a site like that produces a confusing menu and pages nobody finds. The third reason is brand: a new logo and colours on an old layout look half-done. In the free audit we tell you plainly which of these applies. If fixes are enough, that is what we recommend.

Google does not rank a website as a whole; it ranks each address separately. If a service page has spent years earning links and a position in search, and the new site gives it a different address, then without a redirect the new page starts from zero and the old address returns a 404 error. That is why the work starts with an inventory. We collect every URL from the sitemap, Search Console and analytics, and check which pages bring visitors and which ones other sites link to.

The result is a URL map: a table with the new address next to every old one. Where possible we keep the address unchanged, because the best redirect is the one you never need. Where the address changes, we set a permanent 301 redirect straight to the final page, not a chain through intermediate stops. Sending every old address to the homepage is not an option: Google often treats that as a missing page, and the ranking is lost anyway.

Content matters just as much. On pages that perform well in search we keep headings, body text and the page title, or change them with care. Images, internal links and structured data are carried over. Pages with no visitors are not deleted blindly: we merge them into a suitable page and redirect the address there.

What stays: the domain, the copy, the blog, good photos, the logo, and your Google Analytics and Search Console accounts with their history. What is rebuilt: the design, page templates, mobile view and technical base. How much changes depends on the tier. Refresh keeps the structure and content editor and replaces the look and improves speed. Redesign also changes page structure and navigation. Migration changes the platform, which means the way you edit content changes too, so we finish with training.

We review content page by page. Some copy moves over untouched, some needs updating, some can be merged. Old low-resolution images look poor in a new design, so it helps to have fresh photos ready or to let us find a workable alternative.

Everything connected to the site needs separate attention: inquiry forms, newsletter sign-up, booking system, payments, CRM. These have to be reconnected on the new site and tested one by one. We ask you to list them before work starts, because some were added years ago and forgotten.

The new site is built in a staging environment that is closed to search engines. The old site keeps running the whole time and visitors notice nothing. Before publishing we go through a list: every old address redirects to the right place, forms deliver to your inbox, analytics records visits, and the staging no-index setting is removed. That last one is a common mistake: the new site is live, but Google is still told not to look at it.

The switch itself happens at a quiet hour and takes little time. Afterwards we submit the new sitemap in Search Console and watch for 404 errors and indexing. If an address turns up that was not on the map, we add a redirect. Rankings may fluctuate in the first weeks while Google works through the new addresses. That is normal and does not mean something is broken. We keep a backup of the old site in case anything needs to be looked up later.