A redesign changes what the visitor sees. A migration changes what Google reads. Most agencies sell the first and call it the second.Does the website need a new coat of paint, or a new engine?
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Website Redesign and Migration Without Losing Your Rankings
A website redesign changes how the site looks and reads. A website migration moves it onto a new platform. We do both in one job: your existing site is rebuilt onto a headless CMS with Next.js and Vercel, on your own domain, with the pages that already rank carried across and every old address redirected to its new one.
The rebuild is included in every package in place of a new build, so the price is the same: the monthly fee, the once-off setup fee, and pages over ten at the page rate. What you gain is a site that opens in under a second, code Google can read cleanly, and a place for the content that follows.
The part most rebuilds get wrong is the migration. A site moved without a redirect map loses the rankings it took years to earn, and the agency blames the algorithm. We map every URL before a line of code is written.
When a redesign is the right call, and when it is not
A redesign is worth doing when the site is slow on a phone, when the owner cannot change a page without a developer, when the platform underneath needs a plugin patched every week, or when the pages were never written to be found. It is not worth doing when the site loads fast, ranks for the phrases the business needs, and the only complaint is the colour of the buttons. In that case we say so in the Overview and move on.
Ask the agency proposing a redesign what happens to the rankings on launch day. If the answer is a pause, keep your money.
How the migration protects your rankings
- A full crawl of the old site: every page, image and address, and which of them rank and bring visitors in
- A redirect map: each old address matched to its new one, and a permanent (301) redirect set for every one of them
- The pages that rank are rebuilt with their content kept, and rewritten only where the copy was the problem
- Titles, meta descriptions, headings and schema markup carried across or corrected on every page
- Search Console watched through launch and the weeks after it, so a dropped page is caught in days, not months
The domain stays yours and stays the same. Changing the domain in the same move is the one thing we advise against, because it doubles the risk and there is no need for it.
What moves and what is left behind
The content, images, contact details, reviews and rankings move. The page builder, the plugins, the theme licence, the slow hosting, and whatever the last developer bolted on to keep it running are left behind. If the old site is on WordPress or another all-in-one platform, the move is a rebuild, not a copy, because the two do not share a shape.
The site you end up on is built and hosted by us on our platform. Your content, domain, data, Search Console and Google Business Profile remain yours throughout, and leave with you if you ever go.
Questions people ask about website redesign and migration
Will I lose my Google rankings if I redesign my website?
You will if the old addresses are not redirected, if the page titles and content change without a plan, or if the new site is slower than the old one. A migration done with a redirect map, the ranking pages kept, and Search Console watched through launch normally keeps the rankings and often lifts them once the speed improves.
How much does a website redesign cost in South Africa?
A rebuild onto our platform is included in every package in place of a new build: from R4,500 a month on Foundation with a once-off setup fee of R7,500, and R500 for each page over ten. The redirect mapping and Search Console work are part of the setup, not an extra.
Can you migrate my WordPress site?
Yes. We rebuild it onto Next.js and Vercel rather than copy it, because a WordPress site and a headless site do not share a shape. The content and images come across, the pages are rebuilt, and every old address is redirected. We do not keep the site on WordPress or publish into it afterwards.
How long does a website migration take?
For a site of up to ten pages, the rebuild and migration run inside the first month, the same as a new build. A larger site with a long history of pages takes longer, mostly in the redirect mapping, and we agree the date before starting.
Read the thinking behind this
Find out whether the site needs paint or an engine.
The Complimentary Website Overview looks at the site you have, what it ranks for, and what a rebuild would keep and gain.