Build, redefine or improve: what does your website actually need?

Our name for what we do is build, redefine and improve, and the order matters less than the diagnosis. Choosing the wrong one wastes months: rebuilding a site that only needed better copy, or polishing one that is broken underneath.

Build: when there is nothing worth keeping

Start fresh when you are launching a new company or product, or when the current site cannot do what the business needs: it cannot be edited, cannot be found on Google, cannot take payments or cannot handle your traffic. A rebuild is also the right call when the platform underneath is the problem.

Redefine: when the business has outgrown the site

Redesign when the technology is sound but the site no longer describes the company you have become. New services, a new audience, a new market or a new brand all count. Keep the URLs that rank, keep the content that converts, and rebuild the story around it.

Improve: when the site works but should earn more

Improve when visitors arrive but too few become customers, or when good pages rank on page two. This is the work of conversion fixes, faster pages, better content, tracking and tools such as calculators or booking flows. It is cheaper and quicker than either of the other two, so it is worth ruling in or out first.

Five questions to decide

• Can your team update the site without a developer?
• Does the site load in under three seconds on a mobile connection?
• Can you find your main pages on Google by searching for what you sell?
• Does the site describe what you do today, in your customers' words?
• Do you know how many visits become enquiries each month?

Mostly no to the first three points to a rebuild. A no to the fourth points to a redesign. A no to the fifth means start by measuring, then improve. If you are not sure, an audit takes a few days and gives you the answer in writing.