It describes who you were
The commonest one. The services list is two years out of date and the tone is from a smaller company.
Problem
The business moved on. The site did not.
How to tell whether you need a rebuild or just a tidy, without paying for the wrong one.
The short answer
The usual signs are that the site describes a smaller version of the business, nobody can update it without a developer, and every new service means an awkward compromise with a structure built for something else.
The question is whether that is a content problem, a structure problem or a platform problem. They cost wildly different amounts and the answer is often the cheapest of the three.
Nobody can edit it
If a text change needs a developer, the site will keep drifting out of date.
New services do not fit
A structure built for three services fighting a business with nine.
Proof is missing
Your best work from the last two years is nowhere on it.
It is slow
Years of accumulated plugins and unoptimised images.
You avoid sending people to it
The most reliable signal of all.
FAQ
Common questions
Rebuild or fix?
If the structure still fits and the platform is maintained, fix it. Rebuild when the information architecture itself is wrong, because reorganising content inside a structure that fights you costs more than starting again.
Will we lose our rankings?
Not if the redirects are done properly, which is the single most important technical task in any rebuild. Rankings are lost by sloppy migrations, not by new sites.
Start a project
Recognise this?
Tell us what is happening. If the answer is simple, we will just tell you what it is.
- A reply within one working day
- Fixed price, agreed in writing
- No obligation, and no hard sell