The short answerRedesign when the address, the pages and the platform are sound and only the look and the wording are dated. Build new when you cannot edit the site, do not control the account it lives on, or it is slow and broken on a phone in ways a new coat of paint will not fix. Either way, keep your domain and keep the addresses of the pages Google already knows.
What the two words actually mean
People use "redesign" for two different jobs. One is a reskin: the same site on the same platform with new colors, photos and wording. The other is a rebuild: a new site made from scratch that goes live on the same domain and replaces the old one.
A visitor cannot tell the difference. You can, because the two cost different amounts, take different amounts of time, and leave you owning different things. Ask whoever is quoting you which one they mean before you compare prices.
When a reskin is enough
A reskin makes sense when the bones are good. Check these before you decide.
- You can log in and change a phone number or a price yourself, or somebody you trust can.
- The site loads quickly on a phone on mobile data, not only on the office Wi-Fi.
- The contact form actually delivers. Send yourself a test message and see if it arrives.
- Each service you sell has its own page, and the pages say which towns you cover.
- The account, the domain and the hosting are in your name.
When to start over
Start over when the problems are underneath the design. A site that takes a long time to appear on a phone is usually slow because of how it was built: a heavy theme, a stack of plugins, oversized images. New colors do not change that.
Start over when you are locked out. If the person who built it has gone quiet, or the site lives on their account and you cannot get a login, you are renting something you thought you owned. A rebuild on an account in your own name fixes that for good.
Start over when the site was built for a business you no longer are. If you have dropped services, added towns or changed your name, patching old pages often takes longer than writing clear new ones.
What to carry across so you do not lose ground
The risk in any rebuild is losing what the old site had earned. Search engines know your old page addresses. Other sites link to them. Customers have them bookmarked. Before the old site is switched off, make a list of every page address on it.
On the new site, either keep the same address for the same page or set up a redirect from the old address to the new one. A redirect is a forwarding instruction: somebody who follows an old link lands on the right new page instead of an error.
- Keep the same domain. A new domain starts from nothing.
- Keep your business name, address and phone number written exactly as they are on your Google Business Profile.
- Keep real photos of your own work and any reviews you have permission to show.
- Keep the wording of pages that already bring in calls, and improve around it.
- Check Google Search Console after launch for pages it can no longer find.
Questions to ask before you pay anybody
Whichever way you go, the answers to a few questions tell you most of what you need to know about the person doing the work.
- Whose name will the domain and the hosting account be in when you finish?
- Is there a monthly fee, and what stops working if I stop paying it?
- Will my old page addresses still work on launch day?
- How many rounds of changes do I get, and what counts as extra work?
- Can I see it on my own phone before I pay the full amount?
How I handle it
At Novyx I rebuild rather than reskin, because the things owners complain about are usually speed, phones and access. Website is $500 one time for 5 pages with a 7-day turnaround, on a hosting account in your name that costs $0 a month. You see a working version before you decide.
Questions people ask
Will a new website hurt my Google ranking?
It can if old page addresses stop working. Keep the same domain, keep or redirect every old address, and keep your name, address and phone number unchanged. Nobody can tell you in advance what Google will do, so check Search Console in the weeks after launch.
Do I need a new domain for a new site?
No. The domain is your address and the site is the building. You can replace the building and keep the address, and you almost always should.
How long does a rebuild take?
It depends on who builds it and how fast you can send photos and wording. A small service site is days or weeks of work, not months. The wait is usually for content and approvals.
Can I keep my old site while the new one is built?
Yes. The new site is built at a separate address and the old one stays live until the day you switch the domain over.