Signs your website needs a redesign
Looking dated is the most common reason people give, and the least important one on its own. These signals matter more:
- Enquiries have flattened or dropped while your business and reputation have grown.
- The site no longer describes what you do. New services, a new market or a new positioning have been bolted on as extra pages.
- It is slow or awkward on a phone, which is where many Australians first look you up.
- Your team avoids updating it because the editor is confusing or changes break the layout.
- Accessibility problems such as poor contrast, unlabelled forms or content that cannot be used with a keyboard.
- Security and maintenance worries: an outdated platform, abandoned plugins or a developer who has disappeared.
- Competitors look more credible to the clients you most want, even when your work is better.
Refresh, redesign, rebuild or replatform?
Not every tired website needs to be torn down. The right scope depends on what is actually wrong.
| Option | What changes | When it fits | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Refresh | Visual updates, copy improvements, small fixes | Structure and platform are sound; the site just looks and reads older | Underlying problems remain |
| Redesign | New design and content structure, same platform | Messaging and layout no longer fit, but the platform is fine | Losing rankings if URLs change carelessly |
| Rebuild | New design and new code, often new structure | The site is slow, fragile or hard to edit | Larger scope; needs a migration plan |
| Replatform | Moving to a different system, for example to Shopify or a custom build | The current platform limits growth or costs too much to maintain | Data, URL and functionality migration |
The real risk: losing what already works
An established website carries value you cannot see on the surface. Pages that rank for searches your clients make every week. Backlinks from industry bodies, suppliers and local media that point at specific addresses. A Google Business Profile that links to a particular page. Enquiry forms that feed your CRM. Reviews embedded in product pages.
A redesign that changes URLs, removes pages or rewrites content without a plan can cut that value off overnight. Rankings drop, links point to error pages, and the new site launches to less traffic than the old one had. It is one of the most common and most avoidable mistakes in web projects.
We start with an audit of your current site
Before any design work, we establish what the current site does well and what it does badly:
- Which pages attract search traffic, and for which queries.
- Which pages produce enquiries, calls or sales.
- Which external links matter and where they point.
- Technical issues: speed, indexing, broken links, duplicate content.
- Content gaps compared with what your buyers search for.
- Accessibility barriers and outdated privacy information.
That audit shapes the new structure, so pages that earn their keep are kept or improved rather than lost. For a deeper technical review on its own, see our SEO audit.
Redirects, migration and launch
Every old URL gets a destination: the same address if it still makes sense, or a permanent redirect to the closest new page. We test the redirect map before launch, move metadata and structured data across, update internal links and check that analytics and conversion tracking carry over.
Google's guidance on site moves with URL changes describes the principles. After launch we watch indexing, crawl errors, rankings and enquiries closely in the weeks that follow, and fix anything that slipped. Some movement after a migration is normal; a plan keeps it small and short.
Ecommerce website redesign
An e-commerce website redesign carries extra moving parts. Product and category URLs often carry most of the search traffic. Customer accounts, order history, product reviews and saved payment methods all need to survive the move. Shipping rules for Australia Post, StarTrack or Sendle, GST settings and buy now, pay later options such as Afterpay or Zip have to be reconfigured and tested with real orders.
We map every product, category and filter URL, migrate data in stages and test checkout end to end before switching over. If you are moving platform as part of the redesign, our ecommerce website design page explains how we choose between Shopify, WooCommerce and custom builds.
NDIS providers, clinics and accessibility
For NDIS providers and health clinics, a redesign is a chance to fix problems that matter more than looks. Many visitors use screen readers, magnifiers or keyboard navigation, or simply prefer plain language. An NDIS website redesign should make services, eligibility questions and contact options easy to find and use.
The Disability Discrimination Act 1992 applies to the provision of services, and WCAG is the accepted benchmark for accessible websites in Australia. Health providers also handle sensitive information, so forms, privacy policies and data storage deserve a fresh look. This is general information; check specific obligations with your adviser.
Should you rebrand and redesign at the same time?
If your brand no longer reflects the business, doing both together avoids paying twice and launching a new site with an old identity. If the brand is sound, keep it and focus the redesign on structure, content and usability. The deciding question is whether your clients would describe you the way your current brand does. When the answer is no, our brand identity work can run ahead of the redesign so the site is built on the new foundation.
Our website redesign process and what drives the cost
- Strategy session. Fifty minutes with the founder (A$425 excl. GST) about your goals and whether we fit. Afterwards we decide whether to take the project on.
- Proposal. Fixed scope, fixed price, realistic timeline.
- Audit. Traffic, rankings, links, conversions, technical health and content.
- Structure and content. A new page plan with every old URL accounted for.
- Design and build. On a staging site you can review, on the current platform or a new one.
- Migration and launch. Redirects, tracking and testing, then go-live.
- Monitoring. Close checks on indexing, rankings and enquiries after launch.
Cost depends on the size of the site, the number of templates, copywriting, platform changes, data migration and accessibility work. We do not publish prices or ranges. If the right answer is a full new build, it follows the same method as our web design projects, with the migration plan added.