Signs your website needs a redesign
A website rarely ages overnight. It gradually stops keeping up with the business, and eventually starts holding it back. Several symptoms, especially when they pile up, show it's time for an in-depth overhaul:
- 1TechnicalMobile display, slowness, a CMS no longer updatedSymptom
- 2MessageAn offer and an image that no longer fitSymptom
- 3ResultsFewer inquiries, declining Google trafficSymptom
- It looks bad on mobile: text too small, cramped buttons, menus that overflow.
- It's slow: pages take a while to load and PageSpeed Insights scores stay in the red despite fixes.
- Your team is afraid to touch it: every change goes through a developer, or the CMS is no longer updated.
- It no longer reflects your offer: new services missing, old ones still featured, a brand image that has changed.
- Inquiries are drying up while traffic holds steady: the user journey no longer convinces.
- Traffic from Google has been declining for several months with no obvious explanation.
- It no longer meets current requirements: accessibility, security, cookie consent, data protection.
A single one of these signs doesn't always justify starting over. That's why every project begins with a diagnosis of the existing site, to separate what can be fixed from what needs to be rebuilt.
Visual, technical or full redesign: what are we talking about?
The word redesign covers very different projects, and both budget and risk vary widely from one to the next:
- Visual redesign: new brand guidelines, new mockups, same content and same structure. It's the lightest option, useful when the look has aged but the site works.
- Technical redesign: changing CMS, hosting or theme, to gain speed, security or independence. Moving from a closed tool to WordPress falls into this category.
- Content redesign: rewriting pages, merging content that competes with itself, a new site structure built on customers' searches.
- Full redesign: all of the above, often with a change in the company's positioning.
Sometimes the best answer isn't a redesign at all. If the structure is sound, a few revised templates, updated content and performance fixes deliver a similar result for a fraction of the effort; we tell you when that's the case. Conversely, a store that switches platforms is closer to launching an online store, plus migrating the catalog and customers.
Redesigning your website without losing your SEO
The most common fear before a redesign is justified: a new site launched without precautions can see its Google traffic drop for months. URLs change, well-ranked pages disappear, links from other sites land on errors. Since SEO is where we started, this part of the project is a separate workstream with its own deliverables:
- The baseline: a crawl of the existing site with Screaming Frog, an export of pages receiving traffic and links, a record of rankings for important queries. A broader SEO audit can come before the redesign if the site already has weaknesses.
- The URL mapping: every old URL is matched to its new address, or to the closest page if it goes away. Nothing is left to a blanket rule that would send everything to the homepage.
- 301 redirects: set up from that mapping, then tested one by one on the staging site.
- Pre-launch checks: title tags and descriptions carried over or improved, structured data, XML sitemap, robots file, internal linking verified.
- Post-launch monitoring: daily tracking of errors in Google Search Console for the first weeks, then a comparison of rankings and traffic with the previous period.
- The freeze before switchover: content on the old site is frozen a few days before launch, or a new crawl is run the day before, so the URL mapping also covers pages created during the project.
Google itself details the process in its documentation on moving a site with URL changes, and notes that a temporary dip is possible while the new pages are recrawled.
If the domain name also changes, we submit the change of address in Google Search Console and keep the old domain redirected for at least a year, so links from other sites are credited to the new one.
Our commitment is to the method: no page that received traffic is left without a redirect, and every discrepancy found after launch is analyzed and fixed.The stages of a website redesign
A successful redesign is mostly decided before the first mockup. The project follows seven stages, each ending with a document submitted for your approval:
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01
Diagnosis
Analysis of the current site (audience, SEO, performance, accessibility, content) and interviews with the people who use it.
Deliverable: A report on what to keep, fix and drop
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02
Strategy and site structure
Goals, audiences, priority journeys, new page structure.
Deliverable: The new site structure, with the project brief
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03
Content
Inventory, rewriting or creation of copy, starting from the questions your customers ask.
Deliverable: Approved copy, page by page
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04
UX and UI design
Wireframes, then mobile and desktop mockups of the main templates.
Deliverable: The approved mockups
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05
Development
Building on the chosen CMS, content migration, connecting forms and analytics tools.
Deliverable: The site on staging
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06
Testing and migration
Tests on the main browsers, on phones and tablets, an accessibility check with WAVE, supplemented by keyboard navigation and contrast checks that an automated tool doesn't cover, and verification of redirects.
Deliverable: The signed-off test checklist
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07
Launch and follow-up
Launch on a chosen date outside a busy period, training for your team, monitoring of the first weeks.
Deliverable: The launch report
A site with a few pages can be redesigned in a few weeks; a site rich in content, languages or features takes several months. The dated timeline is included in the proposal.
What the redesign will ask of you
An agency can produce everything except knowledge of your business. Your input is still needed at a few specific points, and we plan it from the start so it doesn't spill over into your day-to-day work:
- One main point of contact, available to make decisions and route approvals internally.
- Diagnostic interviews with the people who sell, answer customers or update the site.
- Reviews of copy and mockups, within the deadlines set in the schedule.
- Company-specific materials: photos, documents, access to existing accounts (hosting, domain name, analytics tools).
If you're short on time for content, the copywriting can be handled entirely by us: you then only step in to approve.
What a redesign budget depends on
The price of a redesign is set by quote, after diagnosing the existing site, because that's what reveals the real scope of the work. The quote is broken down by stage and depends mainly on:
- The depth of the redesign: a simple visual refresh or a complete rebuild.
- The number of pages to migrate, rewrite or remove, and therefore the size of the redirect plan.
- A CMS change: staying on the same technology costs less than moving everything to another one.
- Design ambition: an off-the-shelf theme or custom-designed templates.
- Features: customer accounts, booking, catalog, connections to a CRM or other software.
- Languages: each language version adds translation, checks and redirects.
- Copywriting: content provided by you or written by us.
The proposal also separates the project cost from recurring costs (hosting, licenses, maintenance), so the annual budget is clear from the start.
Who this offer is for, and who it isn't for
Our approach suits companies whose website already has a history: traffic, pages that rank, inquiries that come in through the web. It's designed for businesses that want to modernize without starting from zero on Google, that target several countries or languages, or that want to take back control of their site without relying on a developer for every change.
It's less suited if you're only looking for a color change delivered in a few days, or if the site has no traffic or content worth preserving: in that case, building a new website is often simpler and cheaper than a redesign.
After launch: measure and evolve
Launch opens an observation period. During the first weeks, we track crawl errors, rankings and conversions, then deliver a report comparing the new site with the old one on the same metrics, chosen from those described in our guide to SEO KPIs.
Next come the adjustments: pages to expand, forms to simplify, content to create for queries that are still poorly covered. New pages are also written to be picked up by assistants like ChatGPT or Gemini, an approach we explain in our guide to Generative Engine Optimization. This in-depth work can continue through ongoing support from our SEO agency, and technical maintenance can be handled by our team or stay in-house, with complete documentation.
Your questions: Website redesign
Can’t find your question? Ask us
How much does a website redesign cost?
A redesign is priced by quote, after diagnosing the current site. The amount depends on the depth of the project, the number of pages to migrate, any CMS change, the design, features, languages and who writes the copy, you or us.
Will I lose my SEO by redesigning my website?
Not if the migration is prepared. We inventory the pages that generate visits, map each old URL to the new one, test redirects before launch and monitor Google Search Console afterward. A temporary fluctuation in rankings is still possible while Google recrawls the site.
How long does a redesign take?
A few weeks for a small site that keeps its technology, several months for a site rich in content, multilingual or changing CMS. The dated timeline for each stage is included in our proposal.
My site was redone recently: does it already need a redesign?
Not necessarily. If the structure and technology are sound, targeted improvements to content, speed or user journeys are often enough. The diagnosis exists precisely to avoid an unnecessary redesign.
Should I change CMS as part of the redesign?
Only if your current tool is holding you back: updates that aren't possible, slowness, dependence on a single provider, missing features. We compare staying and switching for your situation, taking into account migration costs and your team's independence.
Full redesign or gradual evolution: which should you choose?
A full redesign is necessary when the technology or structure can no longer hold up. A step-by-step evolution works better when the foundation is good: you begin with the pages that matter most, which spreads out the budget and limits risk.
What if I don't have time to follow the project?
We schedule the moments when your input is needed from the start and can handle all the copywriting. Your role is then limited to the initial interviews and approvals, on the planned dates.