Why big websites don’t always need a full rebuild…

Most of our clients don’t wake up one day and think “let’s build a new website for fun.”
They understand rebuilding from scratch might take a substantial investment of budget, time, and energy from their team, so it’s no surprise they’re not always excited to dive in.

The clients who move forward usually do so for a few recurring themes…

Decision drivers

1. Clarity of Customer Journey:
   As product offerings change or expand, customer journeys become cluttered, leaving customers confused, landing in the wrong place, or abandoning the journey altogether.
   
2. Brand Relevance:
   Over time, brands evolve, but your digital touchpoints don’t always keep pace. An outdated look and feel can make a company seem stuck in the past, especially when competitors are raising the bar with modern, polished experiences.
   
3. Mergers & Acquisitions:
   When companies merge or acquire, websites often become a patchwork of brands, products, and messages. A new site is the chance to bring everything together, aligning identities, streamlining content, and presenting one unified front to the market.
   
   Technical debt is worth mentioning, but at okgreat we feel that for larger websites,
   it’s rarely the main driver.

Derisking the process with clear advice

In the case of Orise.com, after the acquisition by the ATS Group and an expanded product offering, the key decision drivers became clear: clarity of the customer journey, unifying the brand, and managing growth. The original request was not for a full rebuild, but to partially redesign the website and gradually rework it over time.

At okgreat, we always start by immersing ourselves fully to understand how the site is built and what foundations are already in place, a process that helps us derisk both the client and ourselves.

Guiding teams toward smarter rebuilds

For Orise, the challenges surfaced after an initial analysis. The suggested phased redesign revealed gaps, from navigation issues to overlapping brand experiences. At the same time, we discovered strong foundations in the block-based setup on WordPress VIP.

Saving time through smart reuse

We kept the existing HTML structure intact but redesigned the blocks/sections to align with the new brand and, on request (based on the client’s previous experience managing the website), created additional experience blocks. This custom approach saved time, reduced complexity, and allowed us to invest in customer journey excellence and deliver an increased customer experience.

Is this right for your website?

Curious if your big website could benefit from this approach?
Not every project needs to start from scratch. Sometimes the smartest move is building on what’s already there, hence saving time, reducing complexity, and focusing on what really matters: brand, clarity, and customer experience.