Should you fix, redesign or rebuild your website? Four questions, in order
Most people jump straight to "redesign". Ask four questions first, in this order: can people find it on Google, does the first screen say what you do, can your team update it, and is the platform blocking something you need? The first "no" tells you what to do.
1. Can people find it on Google?
Search for your business name, then your main service and your city. If your own site doesn't come up for your own name, the problem isn't the design.
No → fix first. Page titles, the sitemap, broken pages, pages Google can't index. A new design won't fix a page Google can't find. We cover the usual causes in Why your website is not ranking.
2. Does the first screen say what you do, and for whom?
Open the home page on a phone and don't scroll. Could a stranger say what you do and who it's for? Most visitors decide in that first screen whether to stay.
No → redesign the message. Rewrite the first screen before you touch the colours. Often this is a copy job, not a design job.
3. Can your team update it without calling a developer?
Adding a project, changing a price, publishing a post. If each of those needs a developer, the site goes stale, and stale sites stop converting.
No → rebuild on a CMS, so adding a project or a price takes minutes, not a request.
4. Is the platform blocking something you need?
Logins, bookings, payments, speed. Sometimes the platform the site was built on simply can't do what the business now needs.
Yes → rebuild. And redirect every old page to its new address, so you keep the traffic Google already sends you. We redirect old pages on every redesign; on our own site, one old article that had stopped loading was carrying 79% of our Google impressions until we redirected it.
Yes, yes, yes and no? Keep it
If people can find it, the first screen is clear, your team can edit it and nothing is blocked, don't start over. Improve one page at a time, starting with the pages that get the most impressions in Search Console.
Next step
Not sure which answer applies to you? A free discovery call is where we work that out, before anyone quotes for a redesign. Book a discovery call.