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Answer five questions before you sign: what is actually wrong with the current site, what the new one has to do before anyone shows you designs, whether your own team will be able to update it, whether you are choosing on value or only on price, and how you will know it worked. The expensive website mistakes are rarely about code. They come from buying before the problem is understood, choosing on price, and ending up dependent on whoever built it.
Find out before you rebuild. "It looks tired" is a feeling; what matters is what the data, your staff and your customers say is failing. A site rebuilt on a hunch recreates the problems nobody could name, so it is worth a short piece of research before the build if that is what it takes.
The order matters more than anything else. Agree what the site has to do, who uses it and what success looks like, in plain terms, before anyone shows you a mockup or mentions a platform. Start with the pictures and decisions get made on taste instead of need.
Insist on it. This is the question that quietly costs the most: a site only the developer can change is a liability with a nice homepage, and you pay for every headline change for years.
Choose on value. The cheapest quote that does not deliver wastes more than a slightly dearer one that does. Run the selection as a proper process, have a few suppliers answer the same brief, and decide on fit rather than the lowest number or the flashiest deck.
Decide on the one or two numbers that will show the rebuild paid off, and make sure they are being measured before launch rather than added after. A site you cannot measure is a site you cannot improve.
Related evidence: How a mid size regional UK law firm grew online enquiries by 190% without rebuilding their website. Next in this journey: The questions to ask before your firm buys legal AI.
Because a site rebuilt before anyone understood the problem recreates it, and you pay for two sites and the year in between. Across website projects for law firms, finance firms, charities and agencies, the expensive mistakes trace back to a handful of questions nobody asked.
Not at the start. Agree what the site has to do, who uses it and what success looks like first; start from designs or platforms and decisions get made on taste instead of need.
Most clients begin with a conversation. No pitch, no hard sell.
Just a straightforward discussion about where you are and whether I can help.
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