If your website is looking dated, underperforming, or simply no longer reflects your business, a redesign is one of the best investments you can make. But before you start getting quotes, it helps to know what you're actually paying for — and what's reasonable to spend in Portsmouth in 2026.
What Does a Website Redesign Actually Involve?
A redesign isn't just a visual refresh. A proper redesign involves strategy, UX review, new design, rebuild, content migration, SEO preservation, and testing. Skipping any of these stages is where businesses lose money — you can end up with a beautiful site that performs worse than the old one because SEO wasn't handled correctly during the migration.
Website Redesign Costs in Portsmouth: 2026 Breakdown
DIY Redesign (£0–£300)
Rebuilding yourself on Wix, Squarespace, or a new WordPress theme. Fine for very small businesses with limited budgets, but you'll sacrifice custom design, SEO, and performance. Most businesses outgrow these within 12 months.
Freelance Designer (£500–£2,000)
A solo freelancer in Portsmouth or Hampshire can deliver a clean redesign in this range. Quality varies significantly — always ask to see before and after examples, and check that they understand SEO migration, not just design.
Boutique Studio like Jazz Creative (£1,500–£5,000)
This is the sweet spot for most Portsmouth SMEs. A specialist studio handles strategy, design, development, content migration, and SEO in one integrated process. You get a senior team working on your project, not a junior assigned after the pitch.
What you get at each level:
- £1,500–£2,500: Full visual redesign, mobile-first, SEO-preserved migration, up to 10 pages
- £2,500–£4,000: Full redesign plus eCommerce, custom functionality, brand refresh
- £4,000–£5,000+: Complex sites, large catalogues, API integrations, custom CMS
Large Agency (£5,000–£30,000+)
Enterprise agencies with large teams and significant overhead. Appropriate for large organisations — significant overkill for most Portsmouth businesses.
The Hidden Cost Nobody Mentions: SEO Migration
This is where most cheap redesigns destroy businesses. When you rebuild a site, all your existing URLs, page structure, and metadata can change — and if Google's index isn't properly updated, you can lose months or years of SEO work overnight.
A proper redesign includes: 301 redirects from old URLs to new ones, preservation of existing meta titles and descriptions, Google Search Console monitoring post-launch, and crawl testing before go-live. Always ask your designer specifically how they handle this.
Signs It's Time for a Redesign
- Your site looks dated compared to competitors
- It doesn't work properly on mobile
- It loads slowly (over 3 seconds)
- Your bounce rate is above 70%
- It's built on an unsupported platform
- You're embarrassed to give out your URL
- It hasn't been updated in 3+ years
How to Get the Most From Your Redesign Budget
Before briefing any designer, do the following: audit your current Google Analytics to see which pages drive the most value (these need special attention), list the specific problems you want solved (not just "make it look better"), and decide upfront whether you want to manage content yourself post-launch or prefer ongoing support.
Ready to Discuss Your Redesign?
Jazz Creative specialises in strategic website redesigns for Portsmouth and Hampshire businesses. We start with a full audit of your existing site before touching a pixel. Get in touch for a free scoping call — no obligation, just clarity on what's possible and what it'll cost.