Refresh when the platform is current and the structure fits how customers look for you; rebuild when the platform, structure or code would make every change slow and expensive over the next two years.

Two quotes for the same tired site

The site went live in 2010. The photographs show the old premises, the text describes services the business no longer offers, and on a phone the menu is hard to use.

The owner asks for prices and gets two. One is to freshen it up: new photographs, rewritten pages, a cleaner look. The other is to start again.

The gap between them is wide, and the smaller number is tempting. Sometimes it is the right choice.

The way to tell is to look at what sits underneath the design, because that is what a refresh keeps.

What a refresh can fix

The fourth is the one people underestimate. A slow site often has nothing wrong with its design: just oversized photographs, no caching and an old version of PHP, all fixable without touching the layout.

What a refresh cannot fix

A refresh changes what visitors see. It leaves the foundations where they are, and three kinds of foundation problem survive any amount of new paint.

The platform: the software the site is built on, along with its theme and page builder. If those no longer receive updates, every refresh sits on something ageing underneath it.

The structure: how the pages are organised. A site built around the company's departments, when customers look for services and places, needs new pages and a new menu, not new photographs.

The code: core files edited directly, plugins modified so they cannot be updated, or a fixed-width layout that never adapted to phones. Google has counted a poor phone layout against sites in mobile results since 2015.

The platform question

This is the one a web company can answer in an hour, and it usually settles the matter.

Which version of the content management system does the site run, and can it be updated? Is the theme still maintained by whoever made it? Is the page builder? Are any of the plugins abandoned?

Then there is PHP, the programming language most sites like this run on.

PHP 5.6 stops receiving security fixes at the end of this year. A site whose code only works on 5.6 has to be fixed or replaced within months, whatever else happens.

If the answers are current, maintained and compatible, a refresh is building on something sound.

The structure question

Write down the pages a customer would need: one for each service you want enquiries for, one for each area you serve if location matters, and the questions people ask before calling.

Then compare that list with the site. If most of it can be added within the existing menu and templates, the structure holds.

If the list means a different menu, different page types and different addresses for most pages, a refresh would be redecorating rooms whose walls are about to move.

Counting over two years

The refresh is cheaper this month. The comparison that matters runs longer.

On the refresh side: its price, the extra time every later change takes on an awkward platform, the security work an old platform keeps needing, and the rebuild that may follow anyway.

On the rebuild side: its price, and ordinary maintenance on something current.

A refresh followed by a rebuild eighteen months later is the most expensive outcome of all, since the business pays for both and keeps only one.

Asking for both quotes as two-year costs, rather than one-off prices, makes that visible before anything is signed.

A worked example

A farm equipment dealer had a site built in 2011 on a premium theme whose developer stopped releasing updates a few years later. The theme came with its own page builder.

The owner asked for a refresh: new photographs of the yard and the service shop, rewritten product pages, and a faster home page.

Before quoting, the web company checked the platform. The theme would not run on PHP 7, its slider carried a known security flaw, and the host was retiring PHP 5.6 on its servers before the year was out.

Every refresh change would have sat on code due for replacement within months. The dealer chose a rebuild on a current, maintained theme instead.

The new photographs and the rewritten text went straight into the new site, and the product pages that brought in most visitors kept their addresses, so they did not start again from nothing in search.

Content travels, design does not

That example points to the safest first step when the choice is unclear.

Words and photographs are useful whichever way the decision goes. Rewritten service pages and a folder of good pictures move into a rebuilt site as easily as they improve the existing one.

Layout tweaks, custom styling and work done inside an old page builder are what get thrown away if a rebuild follows.

So if you are unsure, commission the content first, and decide on the design work once the platform has been checked.

The counter-case

Plenty of older sites do not need rebuilding. A simple site on a current, maintained platform, with a layout that works on phones, may need nothing more than words, photographs and an afternoon of speed work.

A rebuild is also no cure for a site whose real problem is that nobody writes for it. New templates holding the same old text produce the same results.

And a business expecting a merger, a move or a new name next year might refresh now and rebuild once the change is settled.

Check the platform and the structure first, then choose the option that costs less over two years, not this month.

The order to decide in

  1. Ask what platform and version the site runs.
  2. Check whether it runs on PHP 7.
  3. List the pages customers actually need.
  4. Compare that list with the current structure.
  5. Price both options over two years.
  6. Start with words and photographs either way.
  7. Keep the addresses of pages that bring visitors.

Step five is where the decision is actually made. A one-off price compares two numbers; a two-year price compares two futures, including the work the cheaper option keeps creating.

Who inside the business should own that decision is covered in the website project nobody inside the business owns.

Frequently asked questions

What can a website refresh fix?

The words, the photographs, layout details such as spacing and buttons, speed through image compression and caching, HTTPS, and forms. Anything visitors see, provided the platform underneath is sound.

When does a site need rebuilding?

When the platform no longer receives updates, the structure cannot hold the pages customers need, or the code has been edited so heavily that every change is slow and risky.

Why does the PHP version matter this year?

PHP 5.6 stops receiving security fixes at the end of 2018. A site whose code only runs on 5.6 has to be fixed or replaced within months, whatever else happens.

Why compare costs over two years?

Because a refresh on an ageing platform keeps costing: slower changes, security work, and often a rebuild later. A refresh followed by a rebuild means paying for both and keeping one.

What should I do first if unsure?

Commission the content: rewritten pages and new photographs. They improve the current site and move straight into a rebuilt one, while layout work on an old platform is what gets discarded.

Will a rebuild lose my search rankings?

It should not, provided the pages that bring visitors keep their addresses or are redirected properly. Losing those addresses is the usual way a rebuild throws away what the old site earned.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Two quotes and no way to choose?

Tell us the address. We will review the platform, structure and code, and say which option costs less over two years.

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