Three situations we see most often

The site is on an old WordPress and breaks. An old theme, plugins nobody updates, a PHP version the host is about to switch off. Each update risks taking the site down, so nobody touches it, and it gets slower and more fragile every year.

Nobody can get into the site. The developer who built it left, the hosting account is in their name, the password went with them. The site still works, but nothing on it can be changed.

The site works, but it looks and reads like ten years ago. The business has changed, the phone layout is broken, the pages do not answer what customers ask today. A redesign is overdue, and the owner is afraid of losing the search traffic the old site still brings.

How we rescue a site

  1. A full copy first. Files, database, DNS records and the list of accounts, before anything is touched on the live site.
  2. Diagnosis. What is broken, what is outdated, what is a security risk, and which pages bring visitors and enquiries according to Search Console and analytics.
  3. Two options with a scope each. Repair and update the site you have, or rebuild it on a current stack. You choose with the estimate in hand.
  4. Work on a staging copy. The live site keeps running while we work.
  5. The move. Every old address that receives traffic or links gets a redirect to its new page. Forms, phone links and analytics are tested as a customer would use them.
  6. Checks after launch. Search Console coverage, redirects, page speed on a phone and the lead path, in the first days and again after a few weeks.

What the move keeps

  • Addresses with search history. Pages that rank keep their URL or redirect to the closest new page.
  • Content that works. Pages that bring enquiries are rewritten only where the facts changed.
  • Links from other sites. Old addresses that other sites link to keep resolving.
  • Your accounts. Domain, hosting, analytics and Search Console end up in your name, with access listed in a handover note.

Cases

  • Crystal Tax: a site built in 2015–2016 stopped bringing enquiries in 2026. The diagnosis found a redirect loop that turned 45% of requests into 301 responses and an .htaccess rule that broke addresses; old aliases were mapped to their translations and the lead form was rebuilt so no request is lost. Read the case.
  • Mr. Gary, Montreal: a new bilingual site prepared on a staging address with redirects from every old address already configured, so the switch is a domain change without lost pages. Read the case.

Start with the quiz

The quiz below already knows you need a rescue. Five short questions, then a field for the address of your site. We reply with what we found and a written estimate.

Related: website cost estimate, hacked website repair, WordPress security, corporate website development.

Written by Maksym Stepanenko, founder of Marketing MIX. Last reviewed: 2026-11-03.