Rebuild your website or improve the one you have?

The real question: what isn’t working?

“The website isn’t working” can mean very different things: no visitors, visitors who don’t get in touch, a site you’re embarrassed to show, or every change taking a week. Each problem has a different solution, and not all of them involve a new website.

Before deciding, try to answer with data: how many visits it gets, where they come from, which pages they view and how many end in an enquiry. If you don’t know, that is the first thing to sort out.

When improving it is enough

If the technical foundation is solid, many improvements can be made on the current website:

• Rewrite the copy to talk about the client rather than the company, starting with the first screen.
• Replace stock photos with real ones.
• Make contact options visible and simplify the form.
• Reorganise services into their own pages, explained from the client’s problem.
• Fix specific technical issues: speed, security warnings or the mobile version.

These changes are faster and cheaper, and often the ones that make the biggest difference to enquiries.

When a rebuild makes sense

• Your business has changed: different services, a different type of client or a new positioning, and the website no longer reflects it.
• The technology is obsolete: a CMS not updated for years, an abandoned theme or a site builder that is no longer supported.
• It has been hacked repeatedly or has security problems nobody manages to fix.
• You aren’t in control: you have no access, it depends on a company that no longer responds, or every change is an ordeal.
• It can’t be fixed piece by piece: slow, poorly adapted to mobile and with a structure that prevents growth.

A diagram to help you decide

In practice, many cases fall in between: a technically acceptable website with a confusing message, or a good message on technology that causes problems. The diagram helps you see which way the balance tips.

Mistakes when rebuilding a website

• Changing only the design. A prettier website with the same copy and structure usually gets the same results.
• Losing what worked. Pages with Google traffic, external links or reviews. Review them first and redirect old addresses to the new ones.
• Forgetting redirects. Without them, old pages return errors and rankings are lost.
• Starting without goals. If you don’t know what the website should achieve, you can’t tell whether the new one works better.

When I rebuilt this website, I checked in Google Analytics which old pages were still getting visits, wrote new guides on the topics people were interested in and redirected every old address to its equivalent.

Quick review before deciding

• Do you know how many visits and enquiries your website gets each month?
• Is it clear within five seconds what you do and who for?
• Can you change some text or a photo without depending on anyone?
• Is the website up to date and free of security warnings?
• Does it look and work well on mobile?
• Does it represent what your business is today?

If most answers are yes, improving it is probably enough. If they are no, start thinking about a new one. And if you’re unsure, the guide what a website audit is and when it is worth it will help.

Frequently asked questions about rebuilding or improving a website