“Our website needs a refresh” is one of the most common things we hear on a first call. It is also one of the vaguest. Sometimes it means the colours look dated. Sometimes it means the site takes eight seconds to load on a phone, nobody can update it, and the enquiry form has quietly stopped sending emails. Those are very different jobs with very different price tags.
Here is how we work out which one a site actually needs.
First, separate the three layers
Every website has three parts that can go wrong independently:
- The content. The words, the pages, the structure. What you offer, to whom, and what you want visitors to do.
- The design. How it looks and feels. Layout, type, colour, imagery, how it behaves on a phone.
- The build. What it runs on. The platform, the theme, the plugins, the hosting, the code underneath.
A redesign changes the second layer and usually tidies the first. A rebuild replaces the third, and normally the other two come with it. The mistake people make is asking for one when they need the other.
Signs you only need a redesign
A redesign is the right call when the foundations are sound and the surface isn’t. Typically:
- The site is on a current, well-supported platform (WordPress, Shopify, Webflow) and updates without breaking.
- It loads reasonably fast and works on mobile, it just looks like it was made several years ago.
- The page structure is roughly right, but the messaging is off: the homepage doesn’t say what you do, the services are buried, the calls to action are weak.
- You can log in and edit things yourself.
In that situation, a redesign keeps your URLs, your search rankings and your content, and gives you a site that looks like the business you are today. It is quicker and cheaper than starting again, and there is no reason to throw away a working foundation.
Signs you need a rebuild
A rebuild is the right call when the foundation itself is the problem. The usual tells:
- The site runs on something nobody supports any more, or on a page builder so heavy that every page loads slowly no matter what you do.
- Simple changes (adding a service, swapping a photo) need a developer, or break something else.
- Plugins are years out of date because updating them takes the site down.
- You’ve been told the site “can’t do” something basic: online booking, a proper shop, a form that goes to the right person.
- Google flags it as slow, insecure or not mobile-friendly, and previous fixes haven’t stuck.
Trying to redesign on top of this is like repainting a house with a cracked slab. It looks better for a while, then the same problems come back and you’ve paid twice.
The questions we ask before quoting
You can run this check yourself before speaking to anyone:
- How fast is it on a phone? Run it through Google’s PageSpeed Insights. Under 3 seconds is fine. Over 6 is a build problem, not a design one.
- Can you edit it? If a text change needs a developer, the build is working against you.
- When were the platform and plugins last updated? Log in and look. If it’s more than a year, ask why.
- Does it do what the business needs now? If you’ve added services, locations or online payments since the site was made, and it hasn’t kept up, that’s a scope question.
- Do you like what it says, or just dislike how it looks? If the words are right and the look is wrong, that’s a redesign.
What each one involves
A redesign usually means a new visual direction, new page layouts, refreshed copy where needed, and a careful migration so nothing that ranked before is lost. A rebuild means a new platform or theme, a clean set of plugins, a new content structure and a plan for keeping it that way. Both should end with a site you can update yourself and a handover that explains how.
If you’re still not sure
Send us the address. We will tell you which one it is, and why, before you spend anything. We’ve done both: two of the sites on our work page were redesigns of existing sites, and two were built from scratch, and the right answer was different every time. You can also read more about how we approach web design and development.