The guide
Refresh your website if the structure is sound and the problems are content, images, speed or wording. Start again if you cannot edit it without calling someone, it cannot show daily life properly, it is slow because of how it was built, or it does not work on a phone. Most homes need less rebuilding than they assume, and paying for a rebuild when a refresh would do is one of the more common wastes in care marketing.
Updated August 2026
Most homes need less rebuilding than they assume. In brief:
The test
Answer honestly.
Can nobody in the home change a page without calling a developer?
Does it fall apart, or become fiddly, on a phone?
Is it slow, and slow because of how it was made rather than because of one large image?
Is there no sensible place to put a daily life page, real photographs or film?
Are you locked into a platform you cannot leave without rebuilding anyway?
The refresh
New photography, rewritten pages, a clearer enquiry route, speed work, and current fees and vacancy information, on the structure you already have.
This is more powerful than it sounds, because the usual failure is not architecture. It is that the site does not answer the question families are asking. Care England and Log my Care surveyed 1,000 UK families who had recently arranged care and found 40 per cent said the hardest part was identifying a provider they could trust, and that reputation outranked cost, staff experience and location as the deciding factor.
None of that is fixed by a new layout. It is fixed by real photographs, plain words about fees, and an honest account of daily life.
Starting again
When the ceiling is structural, or the home has changed.
The home has changed
A new manager, a refurbishment, a new type of care, a rebrand.
At that point the old site is describing a home that no longer exists, and patching it is a longer job than replacing it.
Search rankings
Not if it is done properly. Done this way, rankings usually wobble for a few weeks and recover.
Keep the address your home is already known by, so what the old site earned carries over.
Map every old page address to its new equivalent with permanent redirects.
Keep the content that was already earning visibility rather than throwing it out because it looks dated.
Rebuilding without redirects is what loses rankings, and it happens more often than it should. Ask the question before you commission anything.
Side by side
| Refresh | Start again | |
|---|---|---|
| Fixes | Content, images, wording, speed, enquiry route | All of that plus structure, platform, editability |
| Typical duration | A few weeks | Longer, commonly six to ten weeks |
| Disruption | Low, site stays live | Higher, needs redirect planning |
| Ownership | Unchanged | Chance to fix lock-in and own the result |
| Right when | Structure sound, message weak | Structure or platform is the ceiling |
The cost question
A refresh is a smaller one-off cost than a full build, and both should be one-off rather than a subscription. What moves either number is scope: how many pages, whether photography or film is included, how much writing is done for you.
We keep figures out of guides because the honest answer depends on what you need, and the care home websites page sets out our three builds, starting with a refresh, and what each includes. The pricing models themselves are covered in how care home websites are priced.
Before you decide
Open the site on your own phone, on mobile data, and try to enquire as a family would. Count the seconds it takes to load. See whether you can find fees. See whether you can tell what a Tuesday is like in the home. That five minutes tells you more than any audit.
If the real question is why the site is quiet, we cover that in why your website is not bringing in enquiries. If you would like a second opinion, including the version where we tell you the site is fine and the problem is elsewhere, get in touch.
Common questions
Refresh it if the structure is sound and the problems are content, images, speed or wording. Start again if you cannot edit it without calling someone, it cannot show daily life properly, it is slow because of how it was made, or it does not work on a phone. Most homes need less rebuilding than they assume.
Age is the wrong test. A six year old site that is fast, current and honest is fine. A two year old site that nobody can edit and that shows stock photographs is not. Judge it on whether it answers a family's questions on a phone, not on when it was built.
Not if it is done properly. Keep the same domain, map every old page address to its new equivalent with permanent redirects, and keep the content that was earning visibility. Rankings usually wobble briefly and then recover. Rebuilding without redirects is what loses rankings.
Up to a point. You can change words and images. You usually cannot change the underlying structure, speed or how the pages are built, which is often where the actual problem sits. If the ceiling is the platform, a refresh will not clear it.
Usually new photography, rewritten pages that answer real family questions, a clearer enquiry route, speed work and updated fees and vacancy information, on the structure you already have. It is faster and less disruptive than a rebuild and often produces most of the benefit.
Keep reading
What a finished site should hold, and what families look for first.
How are care home websites priced?The common pricing models, and what to ask about each.
Why is your website not bringing in enquiries?The usual reasons a good home gets a quiet website, and what to fix.
