Website relaunch: when is it worth it?

Seven signs it's time

Not every older site needs replacing. Some have been running reliably for years and do their job just fine. But if several of the following apply, it's worth thinking about a relaunch:

• It's a pain on mobile. Tiny text, pages you have to scroll sideways, buttons you can't hit. For many businesses, far more visitors now arrive on a phone than on a computer.
• It no longer gets updates. If the system or its extensions are no longer maintained, the site is a security risk.
• It loads slowly. Anyone left waiting several seconds for a page has often already moved on to a competitor.
• You're a little embarrassed by it. Sounds unscientific, but it's a good indicator. If you'd rather not send customers to your website, it has a problem.
• The content is out of date. Services you no longer offer, old prices, a team that no longer looks like that.
• Nobody can change it anymore. Whoever built it back then can't be reached, and nobody dares to touch the admin area.
• The legal pages are outdated. Your privacy policy and imprint have to match what the site actually does.

Relaunch or just a refresh?

You don't always have to start from scratch. If the technology is solid and only the look no longer fits, a new design on the existing system is sometimes enough. But if the foundation is crumbling, meaning an outdated system that can no longer be updated, a fresh start usually costs less than endless patching.

A simple rule of thumb: if bringing the old site up to a secure state costs more than half of a new one, you're better off starting over. That way you don't just get up-to-date technology, you can also clear out everything that has piled up over the years.

How to relaunch without crashing on Google

The biggest mistake in a relaunch is simply switching off the old site and putting the new one in its place. Google knows the old URLs of your subpages, other sites link to them, and customers may have bookmarked them. If those URLs suddenly lead nowhere, you lose visitors and rankings.

1. Take stock: Which pages exist, which ones get visited, and which search terms bring people to you?
2. Plan the new structure: What stays, what goes, what gets merged?
3. Set up redirects: Every old URL points permanently to the matching new page. The technical term is a 301 redirect.
4. Move and improve the content: Good copy stays, outdated copy gets reworked.
5. Test before switching over: The new site first lives at a test address, so you can click through it at your own pace.
6. Monitor after launch: In the first few weeks, we check that Google is picking up the new pages and that no URLs lead nowhere.

What a relaunch costs

Basically, a relaunch costs about as much as a new website, because at its core that's what it is. On top of that comes the work of taking stock, moving the content and setting up redirects. For a small business site, that's manageable. You'll find what a new site costs with us in the guide What does a website cost? and on our pricing page. For the relaunch itself, we'll send you a fixed-price quote after a quick look at your old site.

Special case: your old site runs on Joomla

Lots of sites from the 2010s still run on Joomla, often on a version that stopped getting security updates long ago. How to decide whether updating is worth it or moving is the better option is covered in the guide Replacing Joomla.

Whatever system your site runs on right now: send us the URL, and we'll tell you honestly whether a relaunch makes sense or whether a few targeted improvements will do.