The question of whether to redesign an old website is usually raised in two situations: first, the boss thinks that the official websites of peers look better than their own, and second, the official website has not received any inquiries for several months in a row. The former is easy to make into a skin replacement project, while the latter truly points to the problem that needs to be solved.

This article is written for business leaders and colleagues in marketing and operations who are preparing to launch their official website. Firstly, it should be clarified that website redesign and rebuilding are not the same thing. Then, provide comparative judgment signals, a five step process, and how to maintain the original search traffic during the redesign period.

What does website redesign refer to? What is the difference between rebuilding a website?

One sentence answer:Revision is the process of redoing the visual, information structure, and interaction while preserving the domain name, historical content, and search accumulation; Rebuilding a website means building a new one from scratch, replacing the program and backend system together.The cost difference between the two is far, and the risks are also different.

revampThe core is' the content is still there, the shell has been replaced '. The domain name remains unchanged, and the themes of most pages remain unchanged. The changes include column division, page layout, mobile adaptation, and access speed. Suitable for websites where the content itself is valuable but the expression cannot keep up.

Build a new websiteIt is a case of starting over from scratch, suitable for situations where the website building program has stopped updating, the backend cannot be expanded, and the column system is completely incompatible with the current business. The cycle and cost are significantly higher, requiring the migration of all historical content.

Only change templateIt is a file with less changes: changing color schemes, changing homepage layouts, and changing images. It can solve the visual problem, but cannot solve the problem of 'customers not finding what they want'.

How to determine whether an old website should be revamped?

One sentence answer:Look at six signals - difficult to use on mobile devices, program updates suspended, disconnection between columns and business, difficulty updating content, slow loading on the first screen, and expired design language.If three or more hits are made, the benefits of the redesign are usually greater than continuing to apply patches.

1. Poor mobile experience.The page needs to be zoomed in and out with two fingers to see clearly, the buttons are too small to be centered, and the form is misplaced on the phone. This directly affects the inquiry.
2. The website building program has not been updated for a long time.The backend version stopped a few years ago, and the official maintenance has been discontinued. Security patches cannot keep up, and the risk of being suspended or injected will increase.
3. The column is disconnected from the business.The main promoted products or services are hidden on the third level pages, and the first screen of the homepage still talks about their positioning from a few years ago.
4. Difficulty updating content.To send a news article, we need to contact the technical team to change the code. Our operations colleagues can only wait for the schedule, and the official website will naturally not be updated for a long time.
5. Loading is noticeably slow.The first screen image is not compressed, and the script is stacked at the top. It takes several seconds to open it on the mobile network.
6. The design language has expired.Large area gradient, flashing carousel, and text font size less than 12px can discount the professionalism of the company for visitors.

On the other hand, it should be made clear that if you just feel that it is not good-looking, but the access speed is normal, the content can be updated by yourself, and there are stable inquiries every month, priority should be given to local optimization rather than overall redo. The redesign itself comes with costs and also carries the risk of traffic fluctuations.

How many steps does website redesign usually take?

One sentence answer:Five steps - current situation inventory, goals and indicators, structural plan, design and development, launch and observation.Skipping the first two steps and directly entering the design process is the main reason for rework and redesign.

The first step is to take stock of the current situation.Pull the existing page's traffic, source keywords, form submission, and bounce status, and also list the URL of the entire site. This step determines which pages must be kept as is.

The second step is to set goals and indicators.Is the redesign aimed at addressing inquiry volume, retention rate, or content update efficiency? The indicators are not set, and acceptance can only rely on intuition.

The third step is the structural scheme.Reorganize the column hierarchy, draw the path from the homepage to the form, and determine which information each type of page carries. At this stage, using wireframes for communication saves time compared to directly reading visual drafts.

The fourth step is design and development.After the visual draft is confirmed, it enters the front-end. The mobile and PC ends share a set of content sources to avoid two sets of maintenance.

Step five, go live and observe.It is recommended to first launch low-frequency column verification, switch to low access periods on the main site, and continuously observe data changes for a period of time after launch.

Will the redesign result in a decrease in ranking and traffic?

One sentence answer:Yes, but not necessarily. The vast majority of traffic drops come from three actions - large-scale URL changes without redirection, deletion of old content with traffic, and loss of titles and descriptions after page structure changes.These three things can be handled in advance in the process, and fluctuations can be kept within a smaller range.

• Try not to move the URL.What must be changed is to perform a 301 jump to the new address one by one, retaining the original directory hierarchy, and not jumping all old addresses to the homepage uniformly.
• Transfer the title and description as is.It is a common mistake to easily change the title, description, and H1 of a page with search traffic during redesign.
• Leave old content first and then delete it.Pages with low traffic can be merged, but it is recommended to keep and update pages with external links or stable traffic, and not delete them directly.
• Create a full site mapping table before going live.Match the old URL with the new URL one by one, and randomly check whether the redirect is effective after going online.
• Submit the site map after going online.Observe the natural flow curve for four to eight weeks, and do not add other major changes during this period to avoid confusion in attribution.

Also, do not replace both the server and domain name resolution during the revision period. Domain name resolution, SSL certificate, and CDN caching should be done in batches to locate issues when they arise.

What content must be retained and what can be removed during the revision?

One sentence answer:Retain content that has traffic, external links, and can directly facilitate communication; Cut down empty columns and duplicate pages that have not been accessed for a long time.The basis for judgment is data, not whether the page looks rich or not.

Suggest retaining four categories: product pages and articles with stable search traffic, qualification certificates and real cases, trust information such as contact information and addresses, and existing forms and data statistics codes.

Consider cutting three categories: news columns that have not been updated for many years and have almost zero visits, product categories that are unrelated to the main promotion business, and duplicate content pages generated to increase quantity. When merging similar pages, incorporate valuable information into the new page instead of letting it disappear directly.

How much does a website redesign cost and how long does it take?

One sentence answer:The quotation range for enterprise website redesign is very large, ranging from several thousand yuan to tens of thousands of yuan, and the cycle is usually three to eight weeks. The difference mainly comes from four things: whether to redo the information architecture, whether to customize the design, whether to migrate historical content, and whether there is system integration.

The cost structure roughly consists of: planning and structuring, visual design, front-end and back-end development, content migration and input, testing and launch. For projects that only change templates and color schemes, the cost is concentrated on one design item; The overall redesign should take into account the manual labor involved in content migration and testing.

In terms of cycle, the number of pages, the speed of content organization, and the number of round trips in the confirmation process have a greater impact than the development itself. Projects with complete documentation and confirmation that can be replied to within one or two days are usually faster than expected; On the contrary, it is easy to drag on.

Conclusion and Action Checklist

Website redesign is not a visual upgrade, but a reorganization of information structure. Determine whether to proceed based on data signals rather than visual perception; If you really want to do it, write URL mapping, content retention, and online observation into the process.

1. First, pull up the data: the number of visits, source keywords, form submissions, and the proportion of mobile devices in the past year, and list a list of high-value pages.
2. Set an acceptable indicator, such as the monthly average number of valid inquiries or the frequency of content updates, and write it into the project goals.
3. Confirm the revision method: only changing templates, partial optimization, overall revision, or rebuilding the website, choose according to the number of signals, without the need for a one-step approach.
4. Complete the old and new URL mapping table before going online, set 301 for each item, and retain the original title and description.
5. After going online, observe for four to eight weeks, first check if the traffic curve stabilizes, and then observe the changes in inquiry quality.

About Moen Network

Shanghai Moen Network Technology Co., Ltd. (MOEN+) was established in Shanghai, focusing on brand website customization, cross-border independent website construction, and GEO AI promotion, with services covering over 50 industries. We help enterprises to turn content into a source that AI is willing to quote, so that brands can be preferred on DeepSeek, Doubao, Tongyi Qianwen, ERNIE Bot, Yuanbao and other platforms.

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