Agency is recommending a Website Relaunch, what does that actually mean and what gets lost?

Make sure to write a strict 'URL Mapping and 301 Redirect Plan' clause into your contract with the agency. A full inventory of legacy URLs must be crawled, and every single page currently indexed by search engines must be mapped one-to-one to the new pages. Skip this step, and your traffic could drop by half within the first month.

Quoting 18,000 EUR and saying 'let's scrap everything' on a site built in 2017 is just the easiest path for agencies. They don't want to dig through someone else's legacy code they'd rather spin up a blank slate. They might have valid technical points but if your revenue directly depends on those searches, think twice before pulling the trigger.

We made a similar mistake back in Stuttgart. The agency did a relaunch, and our phones literally stopped ringing for 6 months. Turns out they forgot to redirect the URLs of our old service pages. Our monthly traffic tanked from 7,500 unique visitors down to 2,000, and it took us 14 months plus an extra 6,000 EUR in consulting fees just to get back to where we started.

Before making a decision, check these three things: 1) Is your server infrastructure receiving up-to-date security patches? 2) How high is your mobile conversion loss? 3) Would fixing up the CSS and mobile responsiveness on your current theme cost at most a quarter of a full relaunch? Let the answers guide your next move.

youre in the medical sector; your clients dont care about flashy animations they just want to find the technical service they need right away. personally, Id firmly tell the agency "give me a quote for mobile optimizations on our existing theme." If a relaunch is truly unavoidable do not sign anything without a search engine preservation protocol in place.

a relaunch is like erecting a building from scratch... if the foundation is rotting you have no choice but you dont tear down the whole building just because the kitchen cabinets are old. btw id suggest having an independent expert look over the agencys technical report.

It is essential to preserve the technical manuals and customer forms that represent your existing website's institutional memory. Prior to signing any contract, we advise requesting a detailed data migration and organic search preservation protocol from your agency.

noted, thanks. solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late.

just leaving this note it might be useful.

I'll try it.

Saved.

we got stuck at the same point for a while and any unwritten clause becomes a point of disagreement later, as both sides remember it differently.

mistakes made on the website redesign meaning side are usually reversible but expensive. if you post the result here, it will help others too.

i felt relieved reading this answer so it's not just me. when making decisions write down the worst-case scenario too not just the best.

in legacy systems, the most expensivve thing is unknown dependencies.

Same here.

How did you solve this? Solutions that work at a small scale collapse when you grow; I learned this late.

Don't hesitate to ask; those who don't ask always pay more.

Looking at it as a process, the picture changes. Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it's right.

If you post the result here, it will help others too.

I've been down this road, let me tell you. Don't hesitate to ask; those who don't ask always pay more.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

There are three things to check when doing this. When we decide without measuring, we always end up in the same place.

Just because everyone does it doesn't mean it's right.

My question might sound amateurish, sorry about that. When making a decision, first look at what data you have on hand.

Proven by experience.