Repair or rebuild a business website? How to decide before commissioning the work
A decision table, the evidence to gather and a free checklist for a business considering repairs or a new website.
In this article
Your website no longer looks the way you want it to. Some services are missing, customers keep asking questions it should answer, or it brings in too few enquiries. You are starting to think about a new one.
Before asking for a quote, it is worth finding out what a new website needs to solve. Sometimes a clearer explanation of your services or a form repair will help. In other cases, the business has changed so much that the old website no longer fits. You may also discover that customers are getting in touch, but their messages go unanswered.
This guide will help you choose what to check first and prepare for a conversation with a website provider. The situations below are illustrative.
What is not working on your current website?
Try describing a specific example. “The website is old” does not tell a provider very much. Something like this is more useful: “Customers do not understand the difference between our two services. We explain it again on every phone call.”
That gives you something to work with. You can look at how the services are explained and whether visitors can find them easily. Updating a few pages may be enough. If the business now offers different services or serves different customers, however, you may need to reorganise the whole website.
If traffic is low, you also need to check how people find the website. A rebuild alone will not ensure that more people visit.
When to start with a repair and when to consider a new website
Find the situation closest to yours in the table. The final column shows what to check before deciding.
| What is happening | Where to start | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| The website still reflects your offer, but a form or one part of it is broken. | Have the specific fault repaired. | Send a test enquiry and confirm that it reaches the person who should answer it. |
| Customers do not understand your services or cannot find the information they need. | Improve the service explanations and how people find them. | Which questions keep coming up? Can customers find the answers after the change? |
| Your services, customers or sales process have changed substantially. | Consider reorganising the website. | Which parts of the current content still help customers, and what needs adding or replacing? |
| The changes you need are too difficult in the current system, or it cannot be maintained reliably. | Compare updating it with building a new website, together with your provider. | What exactly can the system not do? How much work would each option involve now and in ongoing maintenance? |
| Enquiries arrive, but customers do not get back in touch. | Look at what happens after someone submits the form. | Who replied, when, and what did they agree with the customer? |
| Visits and enquiries are scarce, and you are unsure what the analytics data mean. | Have the measurement checked, along with how people find the website. | Does measurement capture visits? Are people who might need your services finding the website? |
A repair can still be useful before a larger rebuild. If the form is not sending messages, there is no need to wait for a new website. Fix the form first so that further enquiries are not lost.
What to prepare before speaking to a provider
You do not need a finished brief. It helps if you can work through these five areas together.
1. What customers should be able to do on the website. Should they choose a service, send an enquiry or book an appointment? Explain what you expect from the website and what you think is getting in the way. Include a specific page, a customer question or an example of a form that does not work.
2. What already works and needs to stay. List important pages, documents and functions. Point out any pages that already bring customers. If their addresses change, make sure people following old links still reach the right place.
3. What connects to the website and who looks after it. This might include bookings, payments or the system that receives enquiries. Find out who manages the domain and hosting, and who has the access needed. Do not put passwords in the brief. If you must keep the current system, say so early and have its ability to support the changes checked.
4. Who will prepare the content and approve the result. Copy, photographs and decisions need someone responsible for them. If nobody in your business can prepare the content, agree that work with the provider. Without that, a completion date will be difficult to estimate.
5. How much you can invest and when the website needs to be ready. Give the budget and explain the deadline. Separate what must work at launch from what can wait. The provider can then suggest a scope that is manageable.
If you do not know something, note the question and the person who can help answer it. Missing information need not stop preparation, but it may affect the price or timing.
If you cannot trace what happened to incoming enquiries, the analysis of their journey after first contact can help. First find out where communication stopped; then you can decide whether the website needs changing too.
A checklist before commissioning a website
You can copy this checklist without registering or providing an email address. Mark each item ready / missing / not applicable. Add a link to the relevant information or the name of the person who will supply it.
- We can explain what is not working or is missing for customers on the current website.
- We have a specific example that shows the problem.
- We know what visitors should do on the website and who in the business will receive their enquiry or booking.
- We have listed the pages, files and functions we want to preserve.
- We know what connects to the website, what its system cannot do and who has the access needed.
- We have agreed who will prepare the content and who will approve it.
- We know the budget, the reason for the deadline and what must be ready first.
- We have agreed with the provider what to test before launch and how to assess the result later.
When comparing quotes, look at what they include. One may cover writing the copy and moving the old content, while another expects you to supply them. A price difference may also mean a difference in how much work is left to you.
Need help deciding?
If you already know what needs to change, explore the website creation and renewal options or Website Reset.
If you are still unsure what is causing the problem, we can start with a diagnostic. We will look at whether the website needs updating, measurement needs checking or the handling of incoming enquiries needs improving.
For the first conversation, a website link and a brief description of what is troubling you are enough. We can work through the rest together.