2026-10-03 · Agentic Realism
Wix, WordPress or a redesign: what to keep, what to rebuild
A thirty-minute test, and what to preserve before touching your website
Rebuilding your website is not always the right answer. A thirty-minute test to decide, what changes with the platform, and the step redesigns skip most often: recording what works and redirecting the old addresses, so you do not lose the visits Google used to send you.
The short answer
Do not rebuild your website on principle. If you can edit it, it reads well on a phone and enquiries come in, clarify it rather than rebuild it. Rebuild it when the platform blocks you, nobody has the logins any more, or your offer has changed so much that the structure no longer holds. Either way, start by recording what works: a redesign that breaks the old addresses can lose, within weeks, the visits Google used to send you.
The situation
The site was made five or six years ago. On Wix, over a rainy weekend; or on WordPress, by a nephew, a friend, or a freelancer who has since changed jobs. It exists, it is not wrong, but it no longer looks like you. The services have changed, the photos are dated, and changing your opening hours means finding a password first.
The temptation is to throw it all away and start again. Sometimes that is the right call. Often it is money an afternoon of fixes would have saved — and sometimes it is a loss: the old site had a page Google liked, and nobody noticed until it was gone.
The thirty-minute test, on your own
1. The phone
Open your site on your phone, as a stranger would. Within five seconds, is it clear what you do, where, and how to reach you? Can the number be dialled with one tap? This is the test that matters most: most of your visitors arrive that way.
2. Speed
Paste your site’s address into PageSpeed Insights, Google’s free tool, and look at the mobile result. An average score is not a drama; a page that takes several seconds to appear is.
3. Access
Do you have, in your own name, the logins for the platform or the WordPress admin, the hosting, and the domain name? Note where each one is. If one is missing, getting it back comes first — before any decision.
4. One change
Change an opening time or a price. If it takes five minutes, the site is alive. If it takes an afternoon or a call to someone who cannot be reached, that is a strong signal.
5. What brings visits
In Google Search Console or your platform’s statistics, look at which pages get visits and from which searches. Two or three pages often do most of the work. Those are the ones not to lose.
6. The form
Send yourself a test enquiry through your own form. Does it arrive, and where? A form that goes to an address nobody reads is more common than you would think.
Keep or rebuild
| What you notice | Keep and fix | Rebuild |
|---|---|---|
| You can change your opening hours in five minutes | Yes | No: nobody has the logins any more |
| On a phone, it is clear within five seconds | Yes, or nearly | No, and the layout resists |
| Your offer has changed | One page to rewrite | The whole structure needs rethinking |
| The platform | It does what you need | It blocks what you need |
| Enquiries come in | Yes, through the site | Rarely, and the form is unreliable |
If you keep it: fix things in order
Rewrite the home page first: what you do, for whom, where, and a button to reach you. Then one page per service that matters. Replace the oldest photos, remove what no longer serves, and check the form. On WordPress, update the theme and plugins, and delete the ones you do not use: a forgotten plugin is the most common way in for hackers.
If you rebuild: what changes with the platform
From Wix or Squarespace, the site does not move: the texts and images are taken over and the site is rebuilt elsewhere. It is not a hidden flaw, it is how these tools work — you just need to know it beforehand.
From WordPress, the content can be exported, and you can choose to stay on WordPress with a cleaned-up site, or move to something else. The real question is not the tool, but who will handle the updates for the next five years.
The domain name stays yours in every case. If it was bought through the platform or by a former provider, ask for the transfer code before starting anything.
Before rebuilding, preserve
This is the step redesigns skip most often. A five-year-old site has built up invisible things: page addresses Google knows, links from a directory or your association’s site, a page that answers a local search exactly. Throwing them away unseen means starting from zero without knowing it.
Record first
- The pages that bring visits
- The addresses (URLs) of those pages
- The texts and photos that work
- The access: domain, hosting, admin
- The links pointing to you (directories, associations)
Can go
- Pages nobody visits
- News from 2019
- Plugins installed “to try”
- Texts that no longer describe your offer
In practice: every useful old address must point to the new page that replaces it, through a permanent redirect (a “301”). That is what lets Google — and visitors who kept a link — follow the move. A redesign without redirects is a house move without forwarding the mail.
What can be delegated, what stays with you
Technical checks, taking over the content, redirects, layout and a first draft of the texts can all be delegated without difficulty.
What stays with you: what you say about your work, the choice of what goes, reviewing every page — and the access. The domain, hosting and admin must be in your name, with your logins. A provider can have working access; they must not be the only owner. That is what keeps you, five years from now, from ending up exactly where you started.
What it costs
The thirty-minute test and the basic fixes cost only your time.
If you want an outside view before deciding, our express audit of the site and the Google profile is CHF 220: you receive a list of fixes ranked by priority, to do yourself or to hand over to us. If the decision is to rebuild, a three-to-six-page brochure site costs CHF 1,300 to 2,400, including taking over the content and the redirects, with optional care at CHF 90 a month. The price is fixed by quote before we start, and you only pay if you approve it.
The limits
A new site does not create enquiries on its own. If nobody finds you today, the cause is often elsewhere: an incomplete Google profile, a vague offer, or simply a trade where everything goes through word of mouth. In that case, start with the Google profile, which costs less and works faster.
And if your Wix site suits you, you enjoy editing it and it does its job, keep it. A platform you master is worth more than a more elegant site you do not dare touch.
Frequently asked questions
Will I lose my search ranking by rebuilding the site?
Not if the useful old addresses are redirected to the new pages and the content that worked is carried over. A temporary dip of a few weeks remains possible; a lasting loss almost always comes from forgotten redirects.
Wix or WordPress, which is better?
Neither, in the absolute. Wix is simple, but the site stays with the platform. WordPress is open and exportable, but needs regular updates. The right choice is the one you, or whoever looks after it, will keep up to date.
How long does a redesign take?
Two to four weeks for a brochure site, a good part of it for texts and photos. Recording what exists and setting up redirects add half a day, rarely more.
Going further
To compare redesign offers, the article How much does a website cost for an independent gives orders of magnitude and the five questions to ask before signing. And the 30-minute diagnostic is free: we look at your site together and tell you frankly whether it is better to keep it.