Website redesign for Irish businesses

Decide what to keep before you design

Most redesigns start with a mood board. We start with data. Which pages bring organic visits, which bring enquiries, which links point to which URLs, and which pages nobody has opened in a year. The answers decide what to keep, merge, rewrite or retire.

Our website redesign checklist shows the full process, and the redesign cost guide shows budget ranges.

Protecting search traffic during the switch

A redirect map is the most important document in the project. Each old URL points to the best new URL with a permanent redirect, and the map is tested on a staging copy before launch. Domain, folder and URL changes are the usual causes of a traffic drop, so we keep them to a minimum. If you plan to move from a .com to a .ie, or merge a .ie and a .co.uk site, the plan needs extra care, and the registry rules at weare.ie apply to the .ie name.

• Keep titles, headings and body text that already rank, and improve them rather than replacing them.
• Keep structured data, hreflang for en-IE and en-GB, and canonical tags working on the new templates.
• Submit the new sitemap on launch day and watch the Search Console coverage report daily for two weeks.
• Launch outside peak trading periods. A shop should avoid November and December, and a seasonal tourism firm should avoid its main season.
• Keep the old site available for rollback until the redirects are proven.

See our website migration checklist and the Irish technical SEO page for the checks in more detail.

Accessibility and consent in the new design

A redesign is the cheapest moment to fix accessibility. The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025 to many consumer-facing services such as online shops, banking and booking, with an exemption for very small businesses. We build templates to WCAG 2.2 AA: sufficient colour contrast, visible focus states, labelled forms, keyboard navigation and sensible heading order. Our WCAG 2.2 checklist lists what we test.

Consent is the other redesign trap. Under the ePrivacy Regulations 2011, non-essential cookies need prior consent, and the Data Protection Commission enforces GDPR in Ireland. A new theme often brings new scripts, so we re-test what loads before consent, and update the privacy notice and cookie list to match. Forms should say why each field is collected and link to the notice.

Content, design and Irish detail

A redesign is a chance to fix content that confuses visitors. We rewrite the first screen of key pages so a visitor sees who you are, what you do, where you work and what to do next within seconds. Irish detail builds trust: a county or town in the heading, an Eircode and map on the contact page, +353 numbers in the correct format, and euro prices with VAT stated.

On design, we work from your brand and your customers, not from trends. Fewer fonts, clear spacing, fast images and an obvious button usually beat decoration. We share clickable layouts early, so you comment on something real. For the broader picture of building for Irish users, see website design for Irish businesses.

Timeline and price

1. Audit and planTraffic, content and technical review, then a sitemap and redirect plan.
2. Design and buildLayouts first, then templates, content and forms in a staging site.
3. TestRedirects, speed, accessibility, forms, consent and devices.
4. Launch and watchPlanned go-live, daily checks for two weeks, then a review.

Projects start at $1,500, with extra hours at $30. A small brochure site sits near the start, while larger sites with many pages, shops or multiple languages cost more. India is 5.5 hours ahead of Ireland in winter and 4.5 hours ahead in summer, so review calls are set in your morning. Read about our website redesign service for more detail.