Redesign your website without throwing away what already works

Who this suits

Owners of a live website that already has pages, addresses and some visitors, and that now needs a clearer design, a better phone layout or a larger structure. If you have no website yet, the website developer for hire page is the better starting point.

When a redesign is the right move

A redesign makes sense when the current site is hard to use on a phone, hard to update, unclear about what you do, or built on something you can no longer maintain. It does not fix a problem that is not on the website. If visitors arrive and do not enquire, the cause may be the page. If very few visitors arrive, the cause may be the content, the structure or something else, and a new design alone will not change that. I will tell you which I think it is, in the discovery call.

What can go wrong

Most of the damage in a redesign comes from a short list of mistakes:

• Pages that already bring visitors are renamed or removed, and nothing points the old address to the new one.
• Content that answered visitors’ questions is shortened or removed because the new design has less space.
• Titles and headings change on pages that were working.
• Tracking is lost, so nobody can tell what happened afterwards.

How I plan it

1. Inventory. List the pages that exist today. If you have Search Console or analytics, mark the ones that bring visits and enquiries.
2. Decide. For each page: keep it, improve it, merge it into another, or remove it.
3. Address map. Where an address changes, record the old address and the new one. Where possible, I keep an address unchanged.
4. Redirects. Every old address that changes is redirected permanently to its closest new equivalent, directly and not through a chain of redirects.
5. Build and check. The new site is built and checked before launch: links, redirects and the enquiry routes.
6. Launch and watch. After launch, the old addresses should be checked to confirm they redirect as planned and the new pages are being found. In Growth and Complete that check is part of the first 30 days of SEO work after launch. In Essential it is not, so ask for it to be written into the proposal if you want it.

What I need from you

• The address of your current site, and who has its hosting and domain logins.
• Search Console and analytics access, if they exist. If they do not, say so; Growth and Complete set them up with your account access.
• A list of the pages you know matter, such as the ones customers use to reach you.
• The content you want to keep, and what you want to change.

What a redesign does not promise

It does not promise rankings, traffic or enquiries, and nobody honestly can. A good redesign gives you a site that works better for visitors and is easy for search engines to understand. How well it performs afterwards also depends on your market, your competitors and what you publish next.

Which package

A redesign can be done in any package. What changes is how much search work comes with it. Essential is frontend only: it covers building the new pages and does not include the search, analytics or Search Console work described above. If your addresses will change, say so at the start so the proposal states what happens to the old ones. Growth and Complete include agreed SEO implementation and the first month of SEO work. The pricing page lists each package exactly.

Questions people ask

Will I lose my Google rankings during a redesign?

I cannot promise you will not. Google's own guidance says to expect some temporary fluctuation after addresses change. What you can control is the planning, the redirects and the checks, which is what lowers the risk.

Do I need a new domain name for a redesign?

Usually not. Keeping the same domain is simpler and safer. Changing domain is a larger move and should be done only for a clear reason.

Can you keep the text from my current site?

Yes, where it is accurate and works. Often the structure and wording of a few key pages can be kept, and weaker pages are rewritten or merged.

How long do redirects stay in place?

Google advises keeping them for at least a year. They cost almost nothing to leave, and removing them early can break links people still use.

Is search work part of every package?

No. Essential is frontend only and includes no SEO services, GA4, Search Console or tracking setup. Growth and Complete include agreed SEO implementation, and the first month of SEO work after launch.

My site is slow or hard to use on a phone. Do I need a full redesign?

Not always. Slow pages are often caused by oversized images, heavy scripts or embeds, which can sometimes be fixed without changing the design. If the structure itself makes the site hard to use on a phone, a redesign is the better route. Send me the address and I will say which it looks like before suggesting a package.

Sources

• Google Search Central, Site moves with URL changes

Related Craft Notes

• Planning a redesign without losing search visibilityMost search losses after a redesign come from changed addresses and missing redirects. This is the order of work that Google's own site-move guidance recommends, in plain language.
• What a business website project includesA walk through a website project in order, so you know what happens, what is asked of you, and which items need to be written into the agreement to be included.
• Measuring enquiries with GA4 and Search ConsoleTwo free Google tools answer two different questions. Here is what each one shows, what counts as an enquiry, why a tap is not a sale, and what to decide about privacy first.
• Why your website is not showing on GoogleMost missing sites are brand new, blocked by a setting, or not yet found. Work through these checks in order before you pay anyone to fix it.
• A launch checklist for website ownersLaunch day is when small mistakes become public. Work through this checklist with your developer before the site goes live, on launch day and in the first week.
• Sitemaps and canonical URLs explainedA sitemap lists the pages you want found. A canonical address says which version of a page is the main one. Neither guarantees anything, but mistakes in either can cause real problems.
• Visits but no enquiries: what to check firstVisitors who leave without calling are telling you something. Check whether they are the right people, whether the next step is obvious on a phone, and whether the page answers the question they came with.
• Mobile speed and Core Web Vitals, explainedSpeed is not one number. Here are the three measures Google publishes, what usually makes a business site slow on a phone, and what a good score does and does not buy you.