A redesign that does not wipe out what already works.
You already have a site. The question is not whether you need a new one, but what is worth keeping, what needs fixing and what should go. An audit answers that. A quote cannot.
Who it is for
Better to know this now.
This is for you if
- Your site has run for years and brings in something, but you do not know what exactly and you are afraid of breaking it.
- Someone built the site before you and nobody knows what is inside it or who holds the logins.
- You would rather pay for a look before you pay for the work, instead of buying blind.
This is not for you if
- You have no site yet. Then you need a build, not a redesign, and that is the cheaper route.
- You only want a new colour and a new font, with nothing touched in the structure or the copy.
- You expect a guarantee that rankings will not move for a single day after the move.
The problem
The site works, and everyone is afraid to touch it.
It is slow and people feel it
On a phone the page takes so long that the visitor gives up before seeing anything. Google measures that and takes it into account.
Nobody knows what is inside
The site was built by someone before you, there are a dozen plugins, and nobody knows what each one does or what is safe to switch off.
Fear of moving it
You know it should be moved or rebuilt, but you have heard about companies that vanished from Google after a redesign.
What is kept
Whatever already brings work stays.
A redesign that loses rankings is not a redesign, it is a fault. These four things are carried over, and that is part of the job, not an extra service.
- 01
Page addresses
Every page keeps its old address wherever it can. An address that has to change gets a redirect, so an old link still leads somewhere.
- 02
Google rankings
Before we start I record what the site appears for. After the move the same thing is measured again, so it is clear what dropped and why.
- 03
Content that works
Pages and copy that already bring visits are not rewritten out of habit. What does not work gets changed, the rest is carried over.
- 04
The redirect map
A list of old address against new, in one file that stays with you. Without it nobody can check later where anything went.
A dip in traffic in the first weeks after a move is normal and expected. What is not normal is not knowing why it happened.
Six routes
It does not have to be everything at once.
Work on an existing site comes in six sizes. Most jobs fit in the first three, and a rebuild is the last option, not the first.
- 01
Audit
A review of the site with a list of what to fix and in what order. The entry point for everything else.
When it makes senseYou do not know where to start, or you are comparing quotes without knowing what to ask for.
RoughlyBAM 250 to 600
- 02
New landing page
One new page on the existing site, for one service or one campaign.
When it makes senseThe site is fine, but for one particular job there is nowhere to send people.
RoughlyBAM 250 to 700
- 03
Development sprint
A few days of focused work on the list of fixes that came out of the audit.
When it makes senseThe findings are clear and small, but nobody has time to work through them.
RoughlyBAM 400 to 1,200
- 04
Partial redesign
A new look and a new structure across part of the site, keeping the foundation.
When it makes senseThe foundation is sound, but your three most important pages no longer do the job.
RoughlyBAM 1,200 to 2,800
- 05
Full rebuild
The site built again, carrying over addresses, content and rankings.
When it makes senseThe existing code is tangled enough that fixing it costs more than building new.
Roughlyfrom BAM 1,800
- 06
Migration and rescue
A move to another host or platform, or bringing back a site that has gone down.
When it makes senseYou are moving, you have lost access, or the site has stopped working.
RoughlyBAM 400 to 1,500
For inherited or unclear code a fixed price comes only after the audit. Before that any number would be a guess, and a guessed price always ends up billed to somebody.
Prices do not include VAT
The audit
A look first, a quote second.
The audit is a separate service and commits you to nothing. If you take the findings to somebody else afterwards, they are yours to take.
Delivered in5 working days
A screen recording
I go through your site out loud and show you what I see, instead of sending a list you have to interpret yourself.
A short document
The findings ordered by weight, on one or two pages. That is the part you can forward, or hand to another developer.
The order of the fixes
What comes first, what can wait and what should be left alone. Each item says why it is on the list, not just that it is bad.
If a redesign or a migration follows the audit, part of what you paid for the audit comes off the price of that work. How much depends on the size of the job the audit turns up.
In practice
Three systems that run every day.
Not demo pages. All three companies use them in their work, and all three have been changed and extended since launch.
- mglass-design.com
M Glass Design
Made to measure LED mirrors. A catalogue of options and explainer pages on glass, light and installation.
- tus-art.com
Tuš Art
Made to measure shower enclosures. The path from enclosure type to submitted measurements and an estimate.
- staklodom.com
StakloDom
Glazing work. A wider service catalogue, a gallery of finished jobs and pages by town.
The process
Five steps, and none of them overnight.
Each step also says what is needed from you, because that is the question people rarely ask out loud.
- 01Review and audit
I go through the site, measure speed, check what is indexed and what you appear for. The list and the order come out of that.
From youThe address of the site and the logins if you have them. If you do not, that is a finding in itself.
- 02Deciding the scope
I propose which of the six routes makes sense and why. Only then does a fixed price appear.
From youA decision on how far we go now and what is left for later.
- 03Preparing the move
I record the current state: addresses, rankings, content. The redirect map is written before anything is touched.
From youConfirmation of which pages may disappear and which have to survive at any cost.
- 04The work and two rounds of revisions
I do the agreed scope, then two rounds of smaller changes on the finished result, before it goes live.
From youComments collected in one place rather than in ten messages across a week.
- 05Going live and checking
I put it live, report the changes to Google and watch indexing and rankings over the first weeks.
From youAccess to the domain, or an agreement that I handle the move on your behalf.
What it costs
The audit has a price, the rest comes out of it.
Below is what raises and what lowers the cost of the redesign itself. For the audit the price is fixed and known in advance.
Lowers the price
- Existing logins and hosting details, in one place and correct.
- Content that stays as it is, so nothing has to be written again.
- Work in stages, starting with whatever hurts most.
Raises the price
- Inherited code nobody knows, so the first job is working out what it does.
- A large number of existing pages, all of which need a redirect.
- A move to a different platform, because content does not carry itself over.
- A site that has already gone down or been infected, so it has to be cleaned first.
Not included
These are billed separately.
It says so here so it does not first appear on an invoice. I can arrange all of it, but it is not in the price of the redesign.
- Hosting and the domain, with the old provider and the new one.
- Licences for themes, plugins and photographs the site already uses.
- Writing content from scratch where the existing copy is not kept.
- Recovering data for which no backup of any kind exists.
Questions
What people ask before they get in touch.
- Will I lose my Google rankings?
- A short dip in the first weeks is normal while Google crawls the site again. Lasting loss comes from addresses that disappear without a redirect, which is exactly why the redirect map is part of the job and not an add-on.
- How long does the audit take and what do I get?
- Five working days. You get a screen recording of me going through the site and a short document with the findings ordered by weight.
- Do I have to do the whole redesign straight away?
- No. The audit is a separate service, and most jobs that follow it fit into a sprint or a partial redesign. I only propose a rebuild when fixing costs more than building new.
- Do you work on sites you did not build?
- I do, and on this page that is in fact the usual case. That is why the audit exists: without it I would be guessing at the price.
- What if I have no access to the old site?
- It happens more often than you would think. First we track down who holds the logins, and if they cannot be found there is still a way through, only a longer one, and that shows in the price.
Next step
First let me see what you have.
Send the address of your existing site. I will tell you what I would look at in the audit and whether a redesign is what you actually need.