New website or redesign: the decision tree I use with my clients

Three phrases ring in my ear 80% of the time a new client calls me:

1. “I’ve been told I need a new website”
2. “I think my website needs a redesign”
3. “I just want to change the look, I don’t want to lose what I have”

All three have different answers. And all three are a symptom of a deeper problem: the decision between new website, redesign, or tune-up is not made with data, it’s made with intuition or with whatever the agency salesperson says. That’s enormously expensive. I’ve seen clients pay €4,000 for a new website when a €600 tune-up would have done. And I’ve seen clients pay €1,500 for a redesign when what they needed was to throw everything away and start from scratch.

After migrating and redesigning more than 40 websites, I have a method that works for me. I apply it in 30 minutes on the first call with the client, and at the end I always know what to recommend. I share it here, with the 7 criteria I weigh, in order of importance.

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The decision tree in 30 seconds

Before getting into the 7 criteria, the visual summary:

Does the website take more than 4 seconds to load on mobile?
  → YES → Is the platform more than 5 years old?
    → YES → New website
    → NO → Tune-up + change platform underneath
  → NO → Next criterion

Does the website have correct Schema.org and llms.txt?
  → NO → Technical tune-up (without touching design)
  → YES → Next criterion

Do you have 30+ pages ranking that bring SEO traffic?
  → YES → Visual redesign + technical tune-up (do NOT migrate)
  → NO → Next criterion

Can the team maintain the website without external help?
  → NO → New website with custom CMS
  → YES → Tune-up or redesign depending on budget

If after this tree you’re still in doubt, the 7 criteria below will clarify it for you.

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The 7 criteria I weigh (in order of importance)

1. The platform: what’s under the hood

This is the first thing I look at, and it determines 60% of the decision. A WordPress website with 22 outdated plugins and a theme the developer abandoned in 2021 is a bomb. It doesn’t matter how nice the design is: the cost of keeping that alive for another 2 years exceeds the cost of migrating.

Signs that you need a new website (not patches):

• WordPress with 15+ plugins, several not updated in more than 1 year.
• Made with Elementor, Divi, or Visual Composer. The HTML that comes out weighs 800 KB - 2 MB for a 5-section page.
• Wix, Squarespace, or Weebly. You can’t touch the code, you can’t migrate SEO well, you can’t install full Schema.
• Joomla or Drupal not updated in more than 2 years.
• A 2015-2020 custom build with jQuery, no forced HTTPS, no PHP 8 support.
• Your website is a subdomain of the platform: yourbusiness.wixsite.com/my-website. This kills SEO.

Signs that a tune-up or redesign is enough:

• WordPress with a modern theme (Kadence, GeneratePress, Astra, Blocksy) and few plugins, all updated.
• Custom build from the last 3-4 years with a modern stack (Astro, Next, Nuxt, SvelteKit).
• Website in Webflow or Framer, recent and well maintained.

2. Speed: how long does it take to load on mobile, with real 4G

Not at your office on fibre. On a real mobile phone, with 4G and 60% signal, what your client sees. The test is to open pagespeed.web.dev with the “mobile” option enabled and look at the Lighthouse score.

Score (mobile)	Diagnosis	Recommended action
90-100	Excellent. Don’t touch it.	Invest in content, not in platform.
70-89	There’s room.	Tune-up: images, fonts, CSS. 1-2 days of work.
50-69	The user notices the slowness.	Redesign on the same platform, or migration.
30-49	Very bad. Google penalises you.	New website or full migration.
0-29	Critical. Your website feels broken.	New website, without doubt.

For a small business with clients in Europe, below 50 on mobile is lost revenue. People don’t wait. They go to Google and click on the next result. And Google, which measures this, lowers your ranking.

3. SEO: what position are you in for the searches that matter

The question is NOT “are you on Google?” (almost everything is). The question is: are you in the searches that bring you clients?

The searches that matter for a small business are those with purchase intent or local search intent. Examples:

• “employment lawyer in Madrid” (transactional + local)
• “best pizzeria near me” (transactional + local)
• “how to apply for unemployment in 2026” (informational, does NOT bring you clients)
• “second hand car prices” (transactional, without location)

For each search important to your business, open Google in incognito mode and look at what position you appear in.

• You don’t appear in the first 3 pages: you have an SEO problem. Before deciding between new website and redesign, do an SEO audit first. Sometimes the problem isn’t the platform or the design, it’s that your website doesn’t have the right content. That gets fixed in an afternoon.
• You appear on the first page but below position 5: you have a content and authority problem. This isn’t fixed with a new website, it’s fixed with content SEO (1-2 good posts per month for 6 months).
• You appear in the top 3: your problem isn’t SEO, it’s conversion or design. Tune-up.

4. Content: what you have and how updated it is

I count the pages, look at the quality, look at the last time it was updated. This tells me if a migration is worth it.

• 3-5 pages with 200-400 words each: you have minimum content. It’s fine for a cover letter, but not for SEO. You need more pages, either on the current site or on a new one.
• 10-20 pages with 500-1000 words, not updated in 2+ years: you have a content problem, not a platform problem. Before migrating, consider rewriting.
• 30+ pages, updated content, all coherent: your website has real SEO value. Be careful with migrating. If you lose URLs or the content changes a lot, you’ll eat a 3-6 month traffic drop. The migration has to be impeccable, and that’s why a visual redesign + technical tune-up is better than a new website.

5. Conversion: how many leads does the website bring you per month

This is the most important data of all, and the one almost nobody looks at. If your website brings you 5 leads per month and each lead is worth €200 on average, that’s €1,000/month or €12,000/year. A new website of €3,000 pays for itself in 3 months if you get +2 leads/month. A new website of €3,000 that maintains the same 5 leads/month is throwing money away.

Quick formula to decide:

1. How many leads do you get per month? (forms, calls, WhatsApp)
2. How much is each lead worth on average? (average ticket × close ratio)
3. How much do you lose because of a bad website? (a 30% lower conversion is typical)
4. How much does the new website cost? (includes content migration and SEO)
5. In how many months does it pay for itself? If less than 6 months, go for it. If more than 12, no.

If your current website brings you 0 leads (no form properly placed, no phone number visible, etc.), the decision is easy: whatever you do, you’ll get more leads. But you may not need a new website, just fix the basics.

6. Age of the website: how long has it been published

This is counterintuitive, but a website more than 4-5 years old accumulates technical debt that’s not visible at first glance:

• Plugins and themes not updated.
• Obsolete technologies (jQuery, Flash, external sources that no longer load).
• Code from whoever did it who is no longer in the business and there’s no one to maintain it.
• Accumulated SEO penalties (Google sometimes “forgets” websites for years).
• Design that no longer matches the current brand.

After 5 years, consider a full migration. Not out of caprice, but because maintaining a 2018 website with its technologies is more expensive in 3 years than making a new one.

7. Your team: who maintains the website now and who will maintain it later

This is the criterion that almost nobody mentions and it’s the one that kills the most websites.

• A cousin or friend who “knows about computers” maintains it: you need a website that anyone can maintain, not one that requires a senior. Migrate to something self-manageable or assume that you’ll pay external maintenance forever.
• The one who made it maintains it, but they’re no longer available: you have a vendor lock-in problem. Migrate.
• You maintain it yourself and you handle WordPress well: don’t migrate just to migrate. Invest in good plugins and training.
• You don’t want to maintain anything and prefer to pay someone: hire monthly maintenance and forget about it. But choose who well (or read my maintenance service).

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When migrating is a mistake

In case you thought I always recommend migrating: no, there are cases where it’s a mistake.

• Your website has 30+ pages, ranks well, brings leads: migrating implies risk of SEO traffic loss. Sometimes a technical tune-up is best (change platform underneath without it being noticed) and a visual redesign.
• Your website is 2 years old, made with a modern stack, loads in 2 seconds: leave it alone. Invest in content, not in platform.
• You don’t have time or money for a migration now: better a tune-up of €500-1,500 that fixes the urgent stuff (speed, basic SEO, schema) and leave the migration for when you’re ready.
• Your market is local and your website is “good enough” for what you need: you don’t need to be the fastest in the neighbourhood for the client to find you on Google Maps and call you.

In those cases, I tell you “don’t migrate” without charging you anything for the consultation. My reputation depends on that.

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How I apply it on the first call

When a new client calls me, I do this in order:

1. I ask for the URL and open it on mobile with 4G. I time it. (2 min)
2. I open PageSpeed Insights mobile and note the score. (1 min)
3. I ask: “how many leads did the website bring you last month?” If the answer is “I don’t know” or “zero”, I already have data. (3 min)
4. I ask: “who made the website and who maintains it today?” This tells me the vendor lock-in. (3 min)
5. I look at the source code (View Source) and look for data-w-id= (Wix/Webflow), et_pb_section (Divi) or elementor- (Elementor). If I find it, I know what’s underneath. (2 min)
6. I ask: “how many pages does it have and when was the last time you updated content?” (3 min)
7. I summarise: “your website needs X, and costs between Y and Z. If it fits, we start. If not, I recommend someone to you.”

That’s 15 minutes. The rest of the call we dedicate to talking about your business, not technology.

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If you want me to look at your specific case

If after reading this you’re still doubting between a new website, a redesign, or a tune-up, write to me at landinowebs@gmail.com or via WhatsApp and I’ll give you an honest diagnosis in 30 minutes by call. No commitment.

And if you end up deciding to migrate, here are the services and prices with all the breakdown. If you decide to stay with your current website and just do a tune-up, I do that too (from €500 depending on scope).