A website needs redesigning when it costs more than it brings in: a dated look that drives people away, slowness that makes them leave, a structure that stops you being found. In practice, a brochure website lasts 3 to 5 years before the gap with your competitors starts to show.
But age alone tells you nothing. Here are the seven objective signals that justify a redesign, and the cases where it can wait.
The 7 signs it’s time for a redesign
- 1. You no longer dare give out the address. If you would rather send people to your Instagram, the website is working against your brand instead of for it.
- 2. Mobile is an afterthought. Most of your visitors arrive on their phones: a site designed for desktop first loses them.
- 3. More than 3 seconds to load. You pay for slowness twice: in lost visitors and in Google rankings.
- 4. The website no longer reflects what you offer. New services, new prices, a new team: if everything is wrong, everything needs redoing.
- 5. Nobody can update it. A website that only a long-gone contractor knows how to edit is already dead.
- 6. Invisible for your key searches. If your customers can’t find you on Google or through AI tools, the structure is to blame, not luck.
- 7. The tech is holding you back. An abandoned CMS, plugins without updates, security holes: patching it up costs more than starting fresh.
Full redesign or continuous improvement?
Two or three isolated signals can be dealt with without redoing everything: speed optimisation, a content update or a visual facelift cost less than a redesign. From four signals upwards, or as soon as the structure itself is at fault (site architecture, CMS, mobile), continuous improvement amounts to repainting a cracked wall.
What should you prepare before a redesign?
- Measurable goals: quote requests, calls, bookings, not “a more modern website”.
- An inventory of what exists: which pages get traffic, which have links (they will need to be redirected).
- Your content: copy, photos, proof. It is almost always the content that delays a launch.
- A point person on your side: a redesign without an available decision-maker gets bogged down.
FAQ
How long does a website redesign take?
Between 6 and 10 weeks for a bespoke brochure website, from audit to launch. The timeline depends mainly on how quickly content is approved on the client side.
Does a redesign make you lose your SEO?
No, provided every old URL is kept or 301-redirected and the content that ranks is carried over. It is the first thing to demand from your agency.
Should you redesign or start from scratch?
Keep everything that has value: content that ranks, links you have earned, the reputation of your web address. Starting from scratch is only justified when the domain has been penalised or the brand renamed.
BLACKT audits your website before any quote: what to keep, what to drop, what it changes. Our expertise or let’s talk about your website.
This article is part of the complete guide to website redesign, which covers pricing, the stages and the switchover method.
Further reading
- website redesign: when it is justified and how we run it.
- the Simont Braun case study: the redesign of an international law firm’s website, with its SEO preserved.
