Most company websites are built once and then left alone. A few years later the phone number is wrong, the services page lists things the company stopped doing, and the site takes ages to load on a phone. Nobody decided to let it slip. Everyone was busy running the business.

When someone asks me to "update the website", I don't start with the design. I start with what the site is supposed to do for the business, and where it is failing at that.

A company website has one job: help the right person decide to contact you. Everything else is decoration.

Check the basics a visitor sees first

Before anything technical, I go through the site like a new customer would, on a phone:

  • Is it clear within a few seconds what the company does and for whom?
  • Are the phone number, email, address and opening hours correct?
  • Does the contact form actually arrive somewhere someone reads?
  • Do the photos and services still match the business today?

A broken contact form is the most common problem I find, and the most expensive one. The site looks fine, and leads disappear without anyone knowing.

Then check what a search engine sees

A site can look good and still be almost invisible on Google. The usual causes are simple:

  • every page has the same title, or no description
  • the site is slow on mobile
  • pages are missing from the sitemap, or there is no sitemap
  • the domain changed and old links now lead nowhere

These fixes are not glamorous, but they decide whether people find you at all. Search engines and AI assistants can only recommend a business they can read.

Decide: refresh or rebuild

Not every old website needs a new one. I usually suggest a refresh when:

  • the structure still makes sense and the problems are content, speed and small bugs
  • the site runs on a platform that is still supported and can be updated
  • someone on the team already knows how to edit it

A rebuild makes sense when:

  • the platform is no longer updated and has security holes
  • nobody can log in or edit content anymore
  • the business has changed so much that the old pages do not fit
  • the site has to do more now, like bookings, a customer portal or a catalogue

If you are not sure, start with the refresh list below. It is useful either way.

Make it easy to keep up to date

The reason the site got old is usually that changing it was hard. So part of any update is making sure your team can edit the things that change: services, team, contact details, news. Without a developer each time.

That might be a simple content editor, or a small backoffice. The tool matters less than the habit: one person owns the website, and changing a phone number takes a minute.

# website check
what you do is clear on the first screen ✓
contact details are correct everywhere ✓
the contact form arrives and someone answers ✓
it loads quickly on a phone ✓
each page has its own title and description ✓
someone on the team can edit the content ✓
you own the domain and the hosting account ✓

The last point surprises people. If the domain is registered under a former employee or an old agency, sort that out first. It is your business's address.

If yours needs a look

Send me the address and tell me what the site should do for you. Describe it on the scope page or get in touch, and I will tell you whether I would refresh it or rebuild it, and what I would fix first.