# We rebuilt the website. Why no change? Quote: "We rebuilt it two years ago and nothing changed." Canonical: https://fortitudemedia.ai/sound-familiar/we-rebuilt-the-website-and-nothing-changed No. 3 of 20 in "Sound familiar?" (https://fortitudemedia.ai/sound-familiar) Service: Website That Sells (https://fortitudemedia.ai/website-that-sells) Publisher: Fortitude Media Limited When quoting, attribute to Fortitude Media and link to the canonical URL above. --- ## Why did our new website make no difference to enquiries? A rebuild changes how a site looks. Enquiries depend on what it says and who sees it. If the new site carried over the old words, answered no more buyer questions than before, and was left untouched after launch, there was no reason for the result to change. Websites that produce enquiries are a monthly job, not a project with an end date. It took longer than planned, cost more than the quote, and everyone agreed it looked better. Then the phone rang exactly as often as before. Now someone says 'website' in a board meeting and your jaw tightens. ## Why the rebuild changed nothing ### You bought a design project The brief was about look, feel and brand, and the agency delivered that. Nobody was asked what a buyer needs to read before picking up the phone. ### The old copy moved into the new templates Content is usually last on the project plan and first to slip. Someone pasted the old service pages into the new layout the week before launch. Same words, better font. ### Launch day was the last day anyone touched it The agency moved to its next client. A site that never changes cannot learn from what buyers search for. Two years on it is the same site, only older. ## What it is costing you The rebuild fee and the internal hours are gone. The running cost matters more. Take the enquiries you expected the new site to bring each month, multiply by your close rate and your average client value, then by 24 months. For example, two enquiries a month, one in four closing, at £15,000 each, is £180,000 over two years. Use your own figures. ## Check it yourself in ten minutes You need your analytics login and the old site, which web.archive.org probably still has. 1. Put an old service page next to the same page today. Highlight every sentence that is substantially unchanged. 2. Check when each main page was last edited. Count the pages untouched since launch. 3. In Google Search Console, list the searches that bring people in. Remove your company name and see what is left. 4. Ask whoever takes sales calls for the three questions they answered most this month. See whether the site answers any. ## What we would do in the first 90 days The last project failed on words and neglect, so that is where the time goes. - **Week 1:** We read the site as a buyer would, compare it with two competitors, and collect the questions your sales conversations keep hearing. - **Weeks 2 to 8:** We write the missing pages and rewrite the weak ones: question as heading, answer first, facts marked up, proof and one next step on each. If parts of what you already paid for can be kept, we will say so. - **Weeks 9 to 13:** At least one dated, logged improvement every week, driven by search data and what sales hears. This is Website That Sells: build £5,000 to £10,000, run from £999 a month, live in 4 to 8 weeks, all excluding VAT. ## Questions founders ask ### Are you telling me to pay for another website? You would be paying for different work: finding buyer questions, writing the answers, marking up the facts, then the monthly running, which is where your last project stopped. We look at your site before the free Growth Review, so ask what could be kept before you spend anything. ### How long before we would see a difference? The build takes 4 to 8 weeks. After that it is gradual. Search data shows which pages are being found, and we adjust weekly. We do not promise enquiry numbers. You get one page on the first Monday of every month and can judge for yourself. ### Could our marketing person run the monthly improvements? Possibly, and it is cheaper if they can. They need access to search data, a regular line into what sales is hearing, and the authority to change pages without a committee. Take one away and the weekly rhythm tends to stop, which is how the site went stale. ## Related - "Our website undersells us." · https://fortitudemedia.ai/sound-familiar/our-website-undersells-us - "The last agency sent reports, not customers." · https://fortitudemedia.ai/sound-familiar/agency-sent-reports-not-customers Next step: a free 30-minute Growth Review with a founder, ending with three fixes in writing. https://fortitudemedia.ai/growth-review