# Website Refresh UK

Source: https://dijitulwebdesign.co.uk/website-refresh/
Updated: 2026-10-18

> dijitul web design refreshes existing websites for UK businesses: updating fonts, colours, photos, copy, mobile layout and page speed without starting again. It suits sites that are structurally sound but look dated. Refresh work is charged at £45 an hour + VAT with the hours agreed first; if a full redesign makes more sense, that starts from £250 + VAT.

Price: £45 an hour + VAT

## Problems this solves

- Your site works but looks like it was built ten years ago
- You've rebranded and the website still has the old logo and colours
- The text is too small on phones and the buttons are fiddly
- Photos are blurry, outdated or show staff who left years ago
- PageSpeed Insights shows red scores on mobile
- You don't want to risk your Google rankings with a complete rebuild

## Key facts

- A refresh keeps your platform, URLs and structure, and updates how the site looks and performs
- Charged at £45 an hour + VAT, with hours agreed before work starts
- A health check comes first to decide between refresh and redesign
- URLs stay the same, so existing search rankings are protected
- Typical fixes: typography, colour contrast, mobile spacing, photos, calls to action and speed
- Software, theme and plugin updates are part of the work
- Full redesign from £250 + VAT if a refresh won't fix the problem

## Refresh or redesign?

A refresh updates what's already there. A redesign replaces it. If your site runs on a well-supported platform, has a sensible page structure and ranks reasonably, a refresh is usually faster and cheaper, and it carries almost no SEO risk because your URLs stay the same.

A refresh won't fix deeper problems. If your site is built on an abandoned theme or page builder, can't be made to work properly on mobile, or has a structure that hides your services, patching it costs more over time than starting again. We'll be honest about which you need, and if a redesign is the better answer we'll explain why in plain terms rather than simply selling the bigger job.

| Choose a refresh if | Choose a redesign if |

| The platform is current and supported | The platform or theme is no longer updated |
| Page structure makes sense | Services are buried or crammed onto one page |
| Mobile layout mostly works | The site isn't responsive at all |
| You mainly need it to look current | You're changing what you sell or who you sell to |

## What a refresh typically covers

- **Typography:** larger, more readable body text, 16 to 18 pixels on mobile, with a clearer heading hierarchy and modern web fonts limited to one or two families.
- **Colour and contrast:** updating the palette to match your brand and bringing text up to at least 4.5:1 contrast, as WCAG 2.2 AA requires.
- **Mobile fixes:** bigger tap targets, better spacing, a cleaner mobile menu and click-to-call in the header.
- **Photography:** swapping stock images for real photos of your work and team, compressed and served as WebP or AVIF.
- **Calls to action:** one clear button per page, consistent in style and wording.
- **Copy updates:** refreshed home page and service page text, current prices and opening hours.
- **Speed:** removing unused plugins and scripts, resizing images and enabling caching to move towards Google's Core Web Vitals thresholds.

## How it works

- **Health check.** We review the site on desktop and mobile, run Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights, check the platform and plugin versions and look at Search Console if you give us access.
- **Recommendation.** You get a short written plan: what we'd change, in priority order, and an estimate of hours at £45 an hour + VAT.
- **Backup and staging.** We take a full backup and, where your hosting allows, make changes on a staging copy first.
- **Changes and review.** We work through the list and you review before anything goes live.
- **Go live.** We push changes, clear caches and check forms, tracking and key pages.

## Sites we didn't build

Most refresh work is on sites built by someone else, often where the original developer has disappeared. As long as you can give us admin access to the CMS and hosting, we can usually help. Common platforms include WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace and Wix. If logins have been lost, we'll help you recover them through your domain registrar or hosting company. You keep ownership of everything throughout.

Before touching anything, we note the versions of your CMS, theme and plugins, check when the last backup ran and confirm the site works on a supported version of PHP. Old sites sometimes hide problems, such as a theme edited directly so updates would wipe changes, and it's better to find those at the start than halfway through.

## Keeping it fresh afterwards

Sites date when nobody looks after them. After a refresh you can manage updates yourself, book occasional changes at £45 an hour + VAT, or take a website care plan from £25 a month + VAT through dijitul support, which covers software updates, backups and monitoring. A quick review once a year, checking photos, prices and copy, keeps a site from drifting back to looking tired.

## What you get

- Health check of design, speed, mobile layout, security and SEO
- Written recommendation: refresh or redesign, with hours estimated
- Updated typography, colour palette and button styles
- Mobile layout and spacing fixes
- Image replacement and compression to WebP or AVIF
- Copy and call-to-action updates on key pages
- Theme, plugin and CMS updates with a backup first

## FAQs

### How much does a website refresh cost?

Refresh work is charged at £45 an hour + VAT. After a health check we give you a written estimate of hours before starting, so there are no surprises. Small visual updates may take a few hours; a fuller refresh of typography, mobile layout, images and copy takes longer.

### Will a refresh affect my Google rankings?

A refresh keeps your URLs and page structure, so the SEO risk is very low. Improvements to speed, mobile usability and content often help. We check Search Console before and after, and we never change URLs without setting up 301 redirects.

### Can you refresh a website built by another company?

Usually, yes, provided you can give us admin access to the website and hosting. We regularly work on WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace and Wix sites built by others. If the code is in poor shape, we'll tell you before you spend money.

### What is the difference between a website refresh and a redesign?

A refresh updates the look, content and performance of your existing site on the same platform and structure. A redesign plans and builds a new site from scratch. Refreshes cost less and are quicker; redesigns, from £250 + VAT, fix deeper problems with structure or platform.

### How long does a refresh take?

Small refreshes are often done within a week or two of approving the plan. Larger ones covering several templates and new photography take longer, mostly depending on how quickly content and feedback come back. We agree a timescale with the estimate.

## Prices and contact

Prices (from, + VAT): Starter £250 (Up to 5 pages, Custom design, not a template, Mobile-first build, Contact form and click-to-call, Google Business Profile set up, Basic SEO foundations, Analytics and Search Console); Business £500 (Up to 15 pages, A page per service, written to rank, Copywriting included, Full schema markup, Local SEO groundwork, Speed optimised to pass Core Web Vitals, Conversion tracking configured, Training session and recorded walkthrough); Ecommerce £750 (Shopify or WooCommerce, Product and category structure built to rank, Payments and delivery rules configured, Click-and-collect and local delivery, Accounts or EPOS integration, Google Merchant Centre feed, Abandoned cart recovery, Staff training on order management); changes £45 an hour. All prices are "from" and exclude VAT. Every project gets a fixed quote before work starts. Domain registration, stock photography, premium plugins or apps and hosting are listed in the quote, never added later. You own the website and the domain. Aftercare: Hosting from £1 a day + VAT (https://dijihost.co.uk/); Website care plans from £25 a month + VAT (https://dijitulsupport.co.uk/). Contact: https://dijitulwebdesign.co.uk/contact/ · 01623 650333 · info@dijitul.uk