A website needs rebuilding when the problems hit the basics: it’s slow or awkward on a phone, it doesn’t show up on Google, it brings no enquiries, it shows outdated information, it triggers security warnings, or you can’t update it because you depend on someone who no longer replies. If there’s just one problem, fixing it is often enough; if several add up, it’s worth considering a redesign while keeping the domain you already use.
How to use this list.
For each sign you’ll find a free test you can run yourself, and what to do if the result isn’t good. We explain the tools step by step in our guide Is your website working? 7 free checks: here we focus on what the results mean.
1. It’s slow or awkward on a phone.
How to check: open it on your phone using mobile data, not Wi-Fi. Do you have to zoom in to read? Are the buttons too small? Then run it through PageSpeed Insights: Google considers it good when the main content loads within 2.5 seconds. In our research on businesses in Genoa, among the websites that work, only 12% show their main content within 2.5 seconds on a phone with a slow connection (28 out of 225).
What to do: if a few heavy images are to blame, it can be fixed. If the website was built for desktop or is weighed down by a theme and plugins, it’s better to start over with a lightweight design built for phones first.
2. It doesn’t show up on Google.
How to check: in a private window, search for your business name, then for your service plus your city. In Google Search Console you can see which searches you appear for and which pages Google has left out of its results.
What to do: page titles that say what you do and where, one page for each important service and text that answers your customers’ questions. If it’s a single page with almost no text, there’s nothing to work with: it needs rebuilding.
3. No enquiries come in.
How to check: send a request through the contact form and make sure it arrives, checking your spam folder too. On your phone, try tap-to-call and the WhatsApp button, if there is one. Then ask how many customers say they found you through the website.
What to do: a broken form needs fixing right away. If everything works but nobody writes, the website usually doesn’t say clearly what you do, who it’s for and how to reach you: that’s a content and structure problem, not a design one.
4. The information is out of date.
How to check: reread your hours, services, prices, photos, address and the year next to the © symbol at the bottom of the page. Compare them with your social media.
What to do: wrong opening hours lose you customers and confuse Google and AI assistants, which trust information more when it matches everywhere. Fix it now; if you can’t, the real problem is the next sign.
5. You can’t update it.
How to check: try changing your opening hours. If you don’t know where to start, if the admin panel is full of pending updates or if every change takes weeks, your website is stuck.
What to do: choose a setup where changes are easy: an admin panel you can really use, or someone who makes them for you, with timing and terms written into the contract.
6. Security warnings appear.
How to check: the address should start with https, and the browser shouldn’t show “Not secure” or warning pages. Anyone typing the address without https should still land on the secure version. Search Console also flags any security issues it finds.
What to do: an expired certificate can be renewed. A hacked website, or one full of plugins abandoned for years, is often better rebuilt clean than patched yet again.
7. You depend on someone who’s gone quiet.
How to check: do you know whose name the domain is registered in? Do you have access to the hosting and email? Does the person who built the website still answer your messages?
What to do: ask for the login details in writing and make sure the domain is registered in your name, because it’s your business’s address. Even if you change websites, you keep the domain: with redirects from the old pages to the new ones, you don’t lose the people who already find you.
Redesigning your website with Aleryc.
If you already have a website, Aleryc can rebuild it while keeping the domain you use, so people who know you keep finding you at the same address, and set up the necessary redirects so the ranking work done so far isn’t lost. We analyse what isn’t working, recover what’s worth keeping (content, contacts, reviews) and redesign the rest from scratch: we explain it on the Redesign your website without losing your Google rankings page. If your website doesn’t bring you customers, write to us (in English, by email or WhatsApp): we can rebuild it from scratch, because we don’t work on websites built by others. Our websites are designed from scratch, without WordPress, with the domain in your name and routine changes included in the service.