Five Signs Your Website Can Be Repaired Instead of Rebuilt

When a website embarrasses its owners, the first instinct is to tear it down and start over. Sometimes that’s right. Often the structure is fine and the problems can be fixed in place for a fraction of the cost of a new site. These are the signs.

1. The design is dated, but the content is true

If your pages still describe what you do, the hard part is done. Refreshing how a site looks, its type, spacing, colors and photos, is far less work than rewriting what it says. Dated design with accurate content is a repair job.

2. It’s slow, and nobody knows why

Slow websites are rarely mysteries. The cause is almost always oversized images, too many plugins, or cheap hosting, and all three can be fixed without rebuilding. You wouldn’t replace a car for a flat tire.

3. Nobody on your team can update it

This feels like a website problem and is usually a setup problem. The site was built in a complicated way, or nobody was shown how to use it. Both can be fixed: simplify the editing screens, write down the steps, teach the team. I build sites specifically so your own people can run them.

4. It looks broken on phones

If the site predates the mobile era this can go either way, but modern themes can often be adjusted to behave on phones without a full rebuild. It’s worth an assessment before a demolition.

5. You’re afraid to touch it

The cure for that fear is backups. When every change can be reversed, the fear goes away. Backups cost almost nothing to set up and are part of any sensible care arrangement.

When rebuilding is right

Two cases. The site was built on a proprietary platform that locks you in and is dying underneath you. Or what your organization does has changed so much that the old site tells the wrong story. In those cases, start fresh, and this time set it up so it can be maintained.

Not sure which situation yours is? Send me the address. It costs nothing to ask, and I’ll tell you which it is, including when the answer is a few fixes rather than a project.