How to Update an Old Website Without Starting Over
The triage guide: what to fix first on a dated site, what a refresh really costs, and the 90-second way to see what a full rebuild would look like..
Triage an old website in this order: mobile, speed, accuracy, proof, action. (1) Open it on a phone; if it is broken there, that is the whole project, since most visits are mobile. (2) Speed test it; past three seconds you are hemorrhaging visitors. (3) Fix lies: old prices, gone staff, dead hours. (4) Add current proof: recent reviews, recent photos of recent work. (5) Make the action obvious: call, book, quote, one tap. Only after those five does design polish matter. The strategic question underneath: if the site fails on more than two of the five, renovation costs more than rebuilding, because the problems live in the old platform's bones.
Renovate or rebuild: the honest test
Get both quotes in an afternoon. Renovation: ask a freelancer to price the five-point triage above on your current platform ($500 to $2,000 typically). Rebuild: paste your URL into PISCES and look at what the AI produces in about 90 seconds, free, with the content carried over. If the AI draft embarrasses the renovation plan, and on pre-2020 template sites it usually does, the decision makes itself. Keep your domain either way; it carries whatever Google reputation you have earned.
What it costs
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 AI build + publish a one-pager on a free address (with badge) |
| Launch | $29/mo | 3 pages, your own domain, 25 AI edits a month, no badge |
| Pro | $99/mo | 25 pages, blog, Stripe store, booking, full Next.js code export |
Full details on the pricing page.
See your site rebuilt by AI, free
Paste your current website's URL and PISCES rebuilds it, 10x better, in about 90 seconds. Keep it only if you love it.
Get my free rebuild →Frequently asked questions
Will updating my website hurt my Google rankings?
Content updates on the same URLs: no, freshness usually helps. Moving or deleting pages: yes, unless every old URL redirects to its replacement. Any redesign quote that does not mention redirects is a red flag.
How do I update a website if the person who built it is gone?
Painfully common. First recover access: domain registrar, hosting, CMS logins. If access is unrecoverable, the rebuild-from-live-URL route is the escape hatch: tools that read the public site need no logins at all.
What is PISCES?
PISCES is the AI website builder from Marketing By Magnet: paste your current site's URL (or answer a few questions) and the AI builds your entire site in about 90 seconds. Free to build and publish a one-pager; $29/mo for your own domain; $99/mo for blog, store, booking and full code export.