Redesign
Rebuild it or patch it
A redesign is not a new coat of paint. If the form 404s, a prettier 404 is still a 404. If nobody can tap the phone on a parked car, a new font will not fix it. Patch the bones when the bones work. Rebuild when the bones are the problem. Most small-business sites we see are the second one, dressed up as the first.
People delay because the current site “sort of works” and a rebuild feels like admitting the last check was wasted. It was not wasted if it got you through a few years. It is wasted if you keep paying a freelancer to shuffle slides on a platform you cannot leave.
Patch it when the bones work
Stay and patch if all of this is true: HTTPS lock icon in the browser, a phone number a thumb can hit, a form that actually arrives (or a mailto that you answer), hours that are not from 2019, photos of the real place, and a title tag that is not “Home | Welcome.” Then you need copy edits, new pictures, a dead link fixed — not a new brand movie.
We will tell you to stay. That is a cheaper sentence than a rebuild. Run the free check first. If the basics pass, hire someone for an afternoon of fixes, or send us the URL and ask.
Rebuild when the bones are the problem
- The form goes nowhere or the thank-you page 404s.
- There is no tap-to-call. The number is a photo of a business card.
- No lock icon — browser warnings before a customer even reads.
- It is a builder you cannot export (old Wix, old GoDaddy, a theme the guy took with him).
- Flash, splash pages, music on load, or a PDF of a menu from a different address.
- Stock photos of a skyline you do not live in, stock handshakes, stock plates of food you do not cook.
- It takes a designer login you do not have, on a host whose invoice you also do not have.
That list is not aesthetic. It is “can a stranger hire you.” If three items fire, a patch is rearranging a house with no door.
| Patch | Rebuild | |
|---|---|---|
| Contact path | Works; maybe ugly | Broken, missing, or behind a login |
| You have the keys | Yes — host, domain, files | No, or the keys are a builder rental |
| Speed / phone | Fine on a thumb | Pinch-and-hope |
How we decide
A rebuild here is a standard marketing site: custom layout, your photos, contact path, basic SEO (title, meta, Open Graph), hosting setup, help pointing the domain, one round of changes. Most finish in under 72 hours when the brief is clear. Not a cart, not an app, not a member portal — those are quoted.
If the old site is one screen of hours and a phone, you may only need the $49 hosted, not a full redesign story. Worldwide, 24/7. Phone (813) 328-6079. Look at live work if you want to see what “rebuilt” means in this shop.
Free next step: paste the current site before you decide.