# do websites need to be entirely redone after 5 years?



## noquacks (Jun 5, 2010)

People,

My webmaster gets paid $28/month, to host our site- I hardly ever ask her do "fix" anything. Our site was built 5 yrs ago I guess, with older technology (a lot of HTML, tedious maintenence, etc), and shes telling me now that even if I hire an SEO person theior work may not help much cuz the site is "old". 

She said it needs to be entirely done, as its so old, it doesnt even help to lessen the work as all has to start from scratch. Geez. First impulse would be from me "why dddo I pay the $28/month for? 

So, is this typical old sites that old? She said it would cost $1600 (and $2000+ is going rate). 

Suggestions/opinions valued.

noquacks


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

Wow.... that sure sounds like a way to get more $$$ from you to me!
....and a rather large load of manure.... what is the web site for? PM me a link if it's not a site you can show here, I'm curious. Thanks!

DM


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## shazapple (Jun 30, 2011)

Why is it a load of manure? Unfortunately there is the idea that the internet is free, but it takes training and knowledge to build, host, and maintain websites. You would probably faint at the amount of money spent to host and maintain diychatroom.com

5 year is very old in website terms. The $28/month would cover your hosting fees (where to store the website) and the domain registration (the rights to your web address) as well as their time (maintenance, changes, etc). For comparison I have a website for my family and it costs around $12/month, but i do all of my own maintenance and upgrades. What you pay is not that much.

It is going to take them a couple days worth of work to build the website, go over it with you, and make any changes. Based on the time I spend building my website, I don't think the estimate she gave you is that bad.


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

???? I have THREE *free* websites.  
For the majority of people wanting to put out a personal/small business site, free is best. However, if you're a business and are willing to pay thousands for the services, it may well be in your best interest to do so. If you make enough $$$ from your site to justify it, go for it.

DM


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## noquacks (Jun 5, 2010)

Manure....LOL!

Tanks, guys, for the quick and personal advice. Im starting to get edukated. Now, Musican, I would like to send you the link, but have to "OK" it with the boss (you know, so far, Im anonymous). It is a pretty big site, with loads of data- catalog with 5000+ items. 

I have a feeling the gal is right, but Im not 100% satisfied yet..........thats why Im here.

Thanks


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

Why would you need to clear it to PM me a link? Isn't that what websites are FOR? You kinda WANT people going to look, right? I know I do! But all I ever try to sell is a magic box or trick here and there too.
But if it's a problem, no biggie. 

DM


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## 47_47 (Sep 11, 2007)

Sites need to be constantly changed / upgraded.
noquacks, sent you a pm with a link to my site.


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## rossfingal (Mar 20, 2011)

"noquacks"

A friend of mine is a "web-master" -
"HTML" - probably HTML4.
Things have changed somewhat.
Now, it's "CSS", "Dynamic HTML", "PHP" - and, other things.
"HTML5" is here - could be time for an "upgrade".
28$/mon. is not "large" money.
There's people who frequent this forum, who build web-sites -
maybe, one of them will add some info.

rossfingal


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## GottaFixIt (Dec 3, 2010)

My business just recently switched web service providers. We were spending about $760 / month for 2 sites. We combined them and cut it back to about $500.
We generally revamp our site from scratch every 2 years at about $2000-$3500.
Added content and upgrades may add anywhere from $100-$200 / month.

We spend $1500 / month on our PPC campaign.
We spend about another $1000 / month on other avenues to post our inventory.
It's all well worth it as we cut our TV, Radio, Phone Book and Print-ads by about $40,000 / year _and_ increased business.

$28 / month is hardly an investment.
$1600 is pretty cheap for a well designed, content rich site.

I'd be interested in seeing your site and what you're getting for $28 / month. Feel free to PM the link.


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## hyunelan2 (Aug 14, 2007)

$1,600 is dirt-cheap for a ground-up redesign. We paid over $3K for our last refresh, and are getting ready to issue RFPs for a ground-up redesign. We are anticipating near $10K for that. (City website).


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## noquacks (Jun 5, 2010)

whew, soo many replies/offers to help!! Youre right, no biggee to PM a link.... Im gonna do that now to the fellow members that invited me to do so, 

gimme a few minutes- and thanks in advance, people!

(lets see, who's first here.......)


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## noquacks (Jun 5, 2010)

OK, a few PM's sent. Curious to read your feedback.


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## DangerMouse (Jul 17, 2008)

PM received. Now that you've heard from others who know the difference between their posteriors and a spherical opening on a horizontal plane devoid of all mineral substances, (unlike me), I hope your question has been answered.

DM


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## noquacks (Jun 5, 2010)

PM returned. Thanks for your help, DM. 

Oh, I should make clear people, it is a commercial business site.


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## poppameth (Oct 2, 2008)

We pay $160 a year for hosting and anti-spam service on our site. I do the rest of the site design built on a Wordpress install. That's all you need for many businesses. It also stays up to date with current technology more easily than traditional sites. However, if you need a more advanced and customized sort of site then you are going to be going through redesigns like this periodically. That isn't to say you couldn't build a site using Wordpress or a similar CMS system and then customize parts of it like your catalog. This could make it easier and less expensive to periodically upgrade parts of it.


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## noquacks (Jun 5, 2010)

Maybe I should check out this Wordpress.........


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## dougp23 (Sep 20, 2011)

I think $28 a month is such a tiny investment, I'm not sure that's worth worrying about.
She is probably right though if you want to do SEO and other stuff, then it is time to upgrade. A 5000 item site using only HTML? Wow, yes that could be a nightmare!
Wordpress is a Content Management System, like Joomla or Drupal and hundreds of others. Nice in that they are easy to maintain, and you can have multiple people make changes to the website. We use Joomla, and if someone can build a document in Word, then they can make pages for the website.
Good luck either way you go!


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## noquacks (Jun 5, 2010)

dougp23 said:


> I think $28 a month is such a tiny investment, I'm not sure that's worth worrying about.
> She is probably right though if you want to do SEO and other stuff, then it is time to upgrade. A 5000 item site using only HTML? Wow, yes that could be a nightmare!
> Wordpress is a Content Management System, like Joomla or Drupal and hundreds of others. Nice in that they are easy to maintain, and you can have multiple people make changes to the website. We use Joomla, and if someone can build a document in Word, then they can make pages for the website.
> Good luck either way you go!


Doug,

Thanks. I didnt know. Joolma , Hoopla, so much out there, apparently. I think its days are numbered. The good hing, I learned, is Google like to rank older. established sites well, all else being equal, although right now, we may not be "equal".


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## Ironlight (Apr 13, 2011)

It all really comes down to what your business needs are and whether it makes sense from a technical perspective to change your site to support those business needs. Just because a site is five years old does not mean that it is "too" old or neesd a rebuild if it is meeting your needs. 

That said, there may be reasons to rebuild your site. If you want to invest in SEO then there are considerations as far as metatags and content structure go and it may be easier and more cost effective to rebuild your site rather than try and retrofit it. Or there maybe compatibility issues that you need address, such as for mobile apps and modern browsers.

I built a website for a wholesale company back in '96 and I was shocked to see that it was still up, largely unchanged. Their needs have not changed so probably have just not bothered to overhaul it.


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## kate0558 (Dec 22, 2011)

as a web designer, yes websites can definitely need a redo after 5 years. (especially with all the new technologies that have come out recently). You are paying your webmaster for the maintenance of the site like adding new info, etc. A complete redesign/ rebuild is an entirely different story. Thats an entire project in its own. 5 years ago the web was an entirely different place. Even without seeing the site i'd say its safe to say a complete rebuild is needed. (Although it is possible that it could get by with just some touch ups.) But that all depends on how big the site is and what its used for.


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## cprice12 (Jan 3, 2011)

I do web design for a living.
Site costs vary greatly depending on how large your site is, how much traffic it gets, what kind of hosting you want/need, the amount of custom graphic design work, custom scripting, ecommerce solutions, etc.

I've done site's for $3700+, and I've done sites for $500. It all depends on the site. Each one is different. 

$1600 could be a bargain...or it could be a ripoff. Would you mind PMing me the URL?

5 years between redesigns is a long time. If you want to stay current, you should at least do minor tweeks and upgrades every couple years.


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## Weird_T_Figure (Feb 2, 2012)

noquacks said:


> People,
> 
> My webmaster gets paid $28/month, to host our site- I hardly ever ask her do "fix" anything. Our site was built 5 yrs ago I guess, with older technology (a lot of HTML, tedious maintenence, etc), and shes telling me now that even if I hire an SEO person theior work may not help much cuz the site is "old".
> 
> ...


Welp... they should be audited for security reasons. They should be patched on a regular basis (PHP, Apache, SQL, what have you). The logs should be reviewed, etc.


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