If your website feels dated, you have two options: improve what you have, or rebuild from the ground up. Here's how to think it through without getting upsold.
When a refresh is enough
- Your platform is modern and maintained (it receives updates and you can log in and edit it)
- It already works well on phones
- The structure makes sense; it just looks tired
- You rank for some important searches and don't want to disrupt that
A refresh can mean new design, better photos, rewritten headlines, faster images and SEO cleanup, all while keeping the same foundation.
When it's time to start over
- The site is built on an abandoned platform, or nobody has the login anymore
- It's not mobile-friendly and can't easily be made so
- It's slow even after compressing images
- Your services or brand have changed significantly
- Every small edit requires paying a developer
Protecting your Google rankings either way
The biggest risk in any redesign is losing search visibility you've already earned. To avoid it:
- List your existing pages, especially any that bring in traffic (Google Search Console shows this).
- Keep valuable content, and improve it rather than deleting it.
- Set up 301 redirects from old URLs to their new equivalents.
- Keep page titles and headings relevant to the same searches.
- Submit your new sitemap in Search Console after launch and watch for errors.
What it should cost
Pricing varies widely, from cheap templates to five-figure agency projects. For most small local businesses, the right answer sits in between: a custom-looking, fast site with solid SEO fundamentals and someone to call when you need changes. Ask any provider for a clear scope, what's included, and who owns the domain and content when you're done.
The easiest way to decide
Look at a concrete alternative. That's why we offer a free homepage mockup: you can see what your new site could look like before spending anything.