Web app development
Custom software for the one process nobody else runs your way, and that you are currently holding together with spreadsheets.
Read more →Replacing an outdated website or a stalled internal tool
The worst time to replace a site is after it has already fallen over. The second worst is without a plan for your existing URLs.
The situation at companies with an outdated site or a stalled tool
There comes a point where the site or the tool that once worked fine no longer serves anybody. The builder is unreachable, the CMS gets no more updates, nobody remembers how the link to the accounting package works, and every change costs a week and an invoice. Sometimes it is worse: an internal tool is holding the company up and nobody dares touch it any more.
The fear of doing something about it is justified, but for the wrong reason. People worry the new system will be worse. The real risk is that a migration throws away the visibility you already have: hundreds of URLs disappearing without redirects, and a site that loses half its visitors after launch. That is not a theoretical risk, it is the default outcome when nobody takes care of it.
What is different for replacement and migration
- Inventory first, build second. Which URLs exist, which of them get traffic, and which produce enquiries. That is a list, and without it every migration is guesswork.
- A redirect plan for every old URL, including the pages you thought nobody used. That is the difference between a migration that costs nothing and one that halves your visibility.
- Existing data comes across and gets cleaned on the way. With an old tool the data file is almost always worth more than the software around it.
- The old environment keeps running until the new one is proven. No big bang where work stops because something did not come across.
- Access to everything is put in your name: domain, hosting, repository, accounts. If you have been locked out before, that is the part you never want to repeat.
What that looks like at replacement and migration
A company has a site from 2016 with eighty pages, fourteen of which have been bringing in traffic for years. In an ordinary rebuild those fourteen URLs disappear and the traffic with them. We start with the list, decide which pages stay, which merge and where the rest redirect to. After launch the traffic is still there, and the new pages add to it instead of replacing it.
What we build for this
Machine building
Your customer is not a visitor but an engineer looking for a supplier who can handle his drawing. He reads specifications, not slogans.
Read more →Professional services
You sell something the client cannot see and can only judge afterwards. The one thing that closes that gap is showing how you think about their problem.
Read more →Wholesalers
A wholesaler does not sell to visitors; it sells to accounts that already have agreed prices. That is a different kind of webshop from the storefronts Shopify sells.
Read more →Questions about replacement and migration
Will I lose my Google rankings if I switch?
Only if nobody handles the redirects. With a complete redirect plan rankings are generally retained and any dip recovers within weeks. Without that plan, loss is close to certain.
Our old builder no longer responds. Can you still get in?
Usually. The domain and hosting are often still registered to your company and can be recovered, and the site itself can always be read. We find out what you do have access to before proposing anything.
Can our internal tool keep running during the switch?
Yes, and that is the starting point. We build alongside it, move the data across and only switch over when the new system can do the same. Your people keep working in the meantime.
Tell us what is wrong with what you have.
Send a short brief. You get a fixed scope, a fixed price and a delivery date back — not an open-ended engagement.