When a site needs an upgrade, not a rebuild
Signs that the site lags behind the business: a "2015" design, up to 60% of visitors come from smartphones while the mobile version is inconvenient; pages take over 3 seconds to load; webmaster tools show errors; leads do not arrive or bypass the CRM; updating texts and prices is painful. Yet the site has assets: domain age, accumulated rankings, link profile, indexed content. Rebuilding from scratch zeroes part of these assets and costs more. An upgrade takes the best of both worlds: it refreshes the look and technology while keeping the URL structure, content and SEO weight. In our projects, a well-done upgrade lifts conversion by 30–80% while keeping organic traffic.
Redesign that keeps rankings
Redesign is the riskiest kind of upgrade: a careless migration breaks SEO. We work by a safety protocol: we record current rankings and traffic; we keep page URLs (or set up 301 redirects to new ones); we move content preserving headings and meta tags; we check markup, sitemap, robots.txt; after launch we keep the site under enhanced monitoring for 2–4 weeks. The design is refreshed with modern patterns: typography, grid, adaptivity, micro-animations — in your brand style. Prototypes and layouts are approved before markup. The result: the site looks 10 years younger, and Yandex rankings do not even notice.
Speed-up and Core Web Vitals
Speed is money: with loading over 3 seconds more than half of mobile visitors leave, and Yandex and Google push such pages down. We do technical optimization: image compression and WebP conversion, lazy loading, browser and server caching, merging and minifying CSS/JS, moving to fast NVMe hosting, connecting a CDN. We clean the code of junk: outdated plugins, unused scripts, extra fonts. We reach green Core Web Vitals: LCP under 2.5 s, INP under 200 ms, CLS under 0.1. Before/after measurements are shown honestly: PageSpeed Insights and Webmaster. A typical speed upgrade result — 2–4 times faster loading.
New functionality and integrations
The business grows — the site must catch up. We add functionality on top of the existing platform: new cost-estimating forms, calculators, online booking, catalogs and filters, reviews, a blog, user accounts, online payments, multilingualism. We connect integrations: leads into CRM and Telegram, orders into 1C, telephony, chats, analytics. We improve the CMS: simplify the admin, add needed fields and templates, update modules. If the current platform fundamentally cannot carry the tasks — we say so honestly and propose a migration to a suitable one (also done carefully, keeping SEO). We work in iterations: first the highest-return features, then the rest by plan.
Markup fixes, errors and tech debt
Besides the "big" upgrade we take point fixes: correct markup on a specific device, fix a form bug, cure a plugin conflict, recover the site after a hack or a failed update. We put tech debt in order: update outdated versions, clean duplicates, tidy the structure. Before work — diagnostics: what is broken, why, what it costs to fix. The estimate is given before work starts and fixed in the scope. We work on a test copy: you see the result before publication. All changes come with a backup and rollback option. Minor repairs on regular support fit into plan hours — many clients prefer that combo.
Timeline, cost and work order
Point fixes — from 1 working day; redesign of key pages — 2–3 weeks; a full upgrade with new functionality — 4–8 weeks. Cost: separate improvements — from 25 000 RUB, redesign — from 80 000 RUB, a comprehensive upgrade — from 120 000 RUB; the estimate is fixed in the contract after diagnostics. The order: free diagnostics (state, speed, SEO, tech) → a proposal with "budget/optimal/maximum" options → prototypes and design → development on a test copy → testing → production migration keeping SEO → 2–4 weeks of post-launch monitoring. Rankings and traffic are shown in the report: you see that the upgrade lost nothing and added conversion.