The type looked like 2016. Three leads a week still came through the form. They sent a Figma and a twelve-week quote to start over. Should you redesign a business website, or start over? I asked if the words still worked. They did. That is new templates on the live URLs.
I want the live URL before I write a brief. If it is WordPress and slow, that is keep WordPress, or rebuild. If people log in and the last person left, that is a takeover. This page is the look. A second site, if you actually need one, is how much a custom website costs.
What a website redesign actually is
Same URLs. Same form, if the form still converts. New type, new layout, a page that does not look like 2016 on a phone. Google already has the paths. You are changing what the phone downloads, not the address in the bar.
People say redesign when they are bored of the screenshot. I have opened those live URLs. The copy was fine. Three leads a week. The quote in the inbox was twelve weeks to pretend that site did not exist.
How to tell a redesign from starting over
Open the live site. If a stranger can tell what you do and send the form, the look is the job. If the quote starts from a blank map of the pages, they priced a site you already have.
Redesign
New templates on the live URLs
- The live URLs still send people
- The words still get a message or a call
- You can change a heading without a vendor week
- The job is type, layout, how it looks on a phone
Start over
A second site next to one that works
- The quote opens with a blank sitemap
- The pages only exist because a builder drew them
- The offer changed. The current pages describe a company you don't run
The cut
This is website work. A look on live URLs is not the same weeks as how long a custom website takes. You threw the old one out if you bought that calendar. Paths that already send people are whether a custom website will rank. New slugs for a launch month give that away.
What a twelve-week start-over quote includes
A blank page. A new sitemap. A launch date that ignores the form that already works. I have sat on those calls. They needed new type. They bought a second homepage, and a quarter of meetings about URLs nobody had asked them to leave.
Starting over is earned when the current pages cannot take a new look. I click a heading and half the interior moves. The homepage only exists inside a builder. Nobody can ship a line. Then you are replacing how the pages exist. Keep the words if they convert. Keep the paths if they send people.
Starting over is also earned when the offer itself changed. The live pages describe a company you do not run anymore. Then the words are wrong, and a new coat will not save them. If the Figma has a login, stop. That is a website or a web product. If the shop is the problem, that is Shopify or a custom store.
When a website redesign will not help
New type on a three-second page is a prettier wait. I will not quote that as a redesign.
The page is slow
Compress the images. Cut the scripts. Time it on a phone. A slow website is a product problem. A late page with new type is still a late page. Do the pass. Then talk about how it looks.
The pages only exist in a builder
A Figma on top of that builder is another year of fighting it. If it is WordPress, start with keep or rebuild. If the templates can change, I change them. If they cannot, I replace how the HTML arrives and I keep the URLs. The consulting site in selected work was that pass. The company stayed. The type could wait.
I opened the inner pages. The Figma was only the homepage.
Send the live URL. Tell me what you're selling. I'll count the templates that have to change.
