Website redesign
A redesign should fix what is not working without throwing away what is. We audit your current site, protect the rankings and links you have earned, and rebuild on WordPress on the domain you already own.
Most redesign requests start with a feeling: the site looks dated, the team avoids editing it, or enquiries have slowed. Those are real problems, but the cause is rarely only the visual design. Often it is structure, speed or a checkout that no longer matches how South African customers pay.
We treat a redesign as an evidence-led project. We look at what your analytics, search data and staff say about the current site before we suggest any new layout, then rebuild on WordPress with your existing .co.za address kept in place throughout.
The first stage is a written audit of the existing site. We list the pages that bring visitors from search, the ones that convert, the content nobody reads and the technical faults slowing things down. We review forms, payment flows and the legal pages too. You receive a short report with a recommendation: a full redesign, a lighter refresh of key templates, or targeted fixes. Sometimes the honest answer is that a refresh will do, and we will say so.
A redesign that changes every URL can undo years of search progress in a week. We crawl the old site, record every address that has traffic or links pointing to it, and map each one to its new home. Pages that stay keep their URLs where possible; pages that move get permanent redirects. After launch we check search console data for errors and fix them quickly, so rankings settle rather than slide.
Older South African sites often predate the expectations now placed on them. If you sell online, section 43 of the ECT Act asks you to show your legal name, registration details, physical address, full prices, payment methods and returns policy, and a customer can cancel within 14 days if they are missing. A redesign is the moment to build those in properly, along with separate marketing consent that reflects the Information Regulator's guidance on direct marketing under POPIA section 69.
We build the new site on a private staging copy while your current site keeps running. Your .co.za domain stays registered to you, email keeps flowing, and visitors see nothing until you approve the switch. Launch is a planned DNS or server change at a quiet hour, with the old site kept as a fallback for a period we agree. Because Lagos is one hour behind Johannesburg, both teams are online when it happens.
A redesign that keeps your platform and mainly reworks design and content falls under Strategy and Design, starting from $1,500 per project. If it needs new functionality, such as a store or member area, it becomes development work starting from $5,000. Moving from another CMS to WordPress adds a migration, from $1,000. Every option is scoped in writing after the audit, so you can compare it fairly.
Strategy & Design from $1,500 · Development from $5,000 · Managed Services from $2,000 per year. See pricing
Verbatim and WL Construction are two corporate redesigns by our team, where we refreshed established brands while keeping the content and structure their visitors already relied on.
It can if URLs change without redirects or valuable content is removed. We prevent that by recording every page that earns traffic or links, keeping URLs where possible and redirecting the rest. After launch we monitor search console for errors. Some movement in the first weeks is normal; a lasting drop usually points to a missed redirect we can fix.
If your site already runs on WordPress, yes, and that is often the simplest route. We can rebuild the theme, rework templates and tidy plugins while keeping your content. If your site uses another platform, moving to WordPress is a migration as well as a redesign, and we scope both together.
It depends on the size of the site, how much content changes and how quickly feedback comes back. We set out a timeline in the written scope after the audit, with review points at wireframes, designs and the staging build. A refresh of a few key templates moves faster than a full rebuild.
Not always. The audit shows which pages work and should stay largely as they are, and which need rewriting. Many South African clients use the redesign to cut outdated pages, update prices and policies and sharpen calls to action. We agree in the scope who writes and supplies each piece.
Yes. The live store stays as it is while we build on staging. Before launch we run test payments through your gateway, whether Payfast, Ozow, Peach Payments or Paystack, and check orders, stock and emails. We schedule the switch outside your busiest trading hours.
We also work acrossBotswanaCanadaCôte d'IvoireEthiopiaGhanaKenyaMalawiNigeriaRwandaSénégalSwedenTanzaniaUgandaUnited KingdomUnited StatesZambiaZimbabweAll countries
A new website, a redesign, a client portal, a booking system, or a move from another platform. Tell us what you need and we will tell you how WordPress can carry it.
What happens next
