Your website needs a redesign when it fails the people trying to use it. That means it is hard to use on an Android phone, slow, marked “Not secure”, hard to contact you from, unable to take payment, missing from Google, or impossible for you to update. Each sign below takes minutes to check with free tools.
“It looks old” is not a good enough reason to spend money, and “it looks fine to me” is not a good enough reason to keep a site. Owners check their sites on office laptops; most Ghanaians browse on phones. This guide gives you seven checks that need no technical knowledge. For each one you get what to look for, how to check it in about five minutes, and what fixing it involves. Some problems need a repair, not a redesign. We say which.
Sign 1: It is hard to read and tap on an Android phone in Accra
Why it matters. In October 2026, StatCounter measured 68% of web traffic in Ghana on mobile phones, and about 70% of mobile traffic on Android (StatCounter, platform; StatCounter, mobile OS). Google also uses the mobile version of your pages to index and rank them (Google Search Central). If the phone version is poor, that is the version Google judges.
What to look for: text you have to pinch to read, buttons too small or too close to tap, menus that do not open, pages that scroll sideways, and pale grey text on white.
How to check (5 minutes): open your site on an ordinary Android phone, not the newest one in the office, using mobile data. Try to find your phone number, your prices and your location with one thumb. Then run the page through PageSpeed Insights and read the Accessibility section. The accessibility standard WCAG 2.2 asks for a text contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 and tap targets of at least 24 by 24 CSS pixels in most cases (W3C WCAG 2.2).
What fixing involves: if the site was built before phones mattered, this usually means a new responsive design, not a patch.
Sign 2: It is slow, and PageSpeed Insights shows red
Why it matters. Google’s Core Web Vitals measure how real visitors experience your page. For a good experience, Google says the main content should load within 2.5 seconds (Largest Contentful Paint), the page should respond to taps in under 200 milliseconds (Interaction to Next Paint), and the layout should not jump about, with a Cumulative Layout Shift score below 0.1 (Google Search Central, Core Web Vitals).
What to look for: a white screen while the page loads, a huge photo at the top, sliders, and buttons that move just as you try to tap them.
How to check (5 minutes): paste your home page into PageSpeed Insights and look at the Mobile tab. If your site has enough visitors, the top section shows real-user Core Web Vitals marked pass or fail. If it says there is not enough data, use the lab scores below it as a guide. In Google Search Console, the Core Web Vitals report groups slow pages for you.
What fixing involves: often this is a repair: compress images, remove sliders and unused plugins, and move to better hosting. If the theme itself is bloated, or the site is built on a page builder that loads heavy scripts on every page, a rebuild on a lighter setup is usually cheaper than endless tuning.
Sign 3: The browser says “Not secure”, or the software is out of date
Why it matters. Google lists secure (HTTPS) delivery as part of good page experience, and Search Console has an HTTPS report to show which pages fail (Google Search Central, page experience). Behind the scenes, many older Ghanaian business sites run on WordPress with PHP versions that no longer get security fixes. As of November 2026, PHP 8.1 and earlier are past end of life, and PHP 8.2 receives security fixes only until 31 December 2026 (php.net supported versions).
What to look for: “Not secure” next to your address in Chrome, a padlock warning, a contact form that is not on HTTPS, or a site no one has updated in years.
How to check (5 minutes): type your address starting with http:// and see whether it moves to https:// by itself. In Search Console, open the HTTPS report. Ask your host, or look in your hosting control panel, for the PHP version, and check when WordPress and its plugins were last updated.
What fixing involves: an SSL certificate and a redirect is a small job. An old WordPress site on unsupported PHP with abandoned plugins is a bigger one. Sometimes it can be upgraded carefully, but often a clean rebuild is safer than updating something that might break.
Sign 4: Customers cannot reach you in one tap
Why it matters. A Ghanaian customer ready to buy usually wants to call or WhatsApp you, not fill in a long form and wait.
What to look for: a phone number that is an image or plain text you cannot tap, no WhatsApp link, a contact form that sends to an email address no one checks, an old number or address, or opening hours that are not stated.
How to check (5 minutes): on your phone, tap the number on your site. Does it dial? Tap the WhatsApp button. Does it open a chat with your business, ideally with a message already written? WhatsApp’s own click to chat feature does this. Then send yourself a test enquiry through the form and see if, and where, it arrives.
What fixing involves: tap-to-call and WhatsApp links are quick fixes. If contact details are scattered across a site you cannot edit, rebuild around how customers actually reach you.
Sign 5: People want to pay, and the site cannot take MoMo
Why it matters. If you sell products, tickets, bookings or deposits, many customers in Ghana will expect to pay by mobile money, MTN MoMo, Telecel Cash or AT Money, with card as the alternative for diaspora and corporate buyers. A site that says “call to pay” or lists a bank account turns ready buyers into a manual job for your staff.
What to look for: no online payment, a checkout that only takes cards, a payment page that sends people to a different-looking site with no explanation, or orders that your team reconciles by hand from screenshots.
How to check (5 minutes): try to pay for something on your own site from your phone. Count the steps. Ask your team how many orders last month needed a follow-up call to confirm payment.
What fixing involves: connecting a licensed payment gateway, plus a checkout and an admin view that shows paid, pending and failed payments. PED has integrated Hubtel and PaySwitch for mobile money, PayPal for card payments, and Stripe for foreign companies taking foreign payments. Bookings and rentals work the same way. Thirdspace, a gear and crew rental marketplace we built in Accra, handles rental dates and enquiries on one record. Our guide to e-commerce with mobile money explains the options.
Sign 6: Google cannot find it, or shows the wrong details
Why it matters. If your pages are not indexed, they cannot appear in Google at all. If your Google Business Profile shows an old number or a dead link, customers will reach a competitor first.
What to look for: your business not showing when you search its own name with your town (for example “your business name Kumasi”), pages missing from Google, or a Google Business Profile with old hours, number or website.
How to check (5 minutes): search site:yourdomain.com in Google to see roughly which pages are indexed. In Search Console, open the Pages report under Indexing to see which pages are not indexed and why. Search your business name on Google Maps and check every detail on your profile.
What fixing involves: a missing sitemap, pages blocked from search, or no proper page titles can be fixed without a redesign. But if the site has one page that tries to say everything, or titles like “Home”, a rebuild with a clear page for each service and each location gives Google, and customers, something to match.
Sign 7: You cannot update it yourself
Why it matters. A website with old prices, staff who left years ago or a “news” section last updated in 2021 tells visitors the business may have stopped. If every small change needs a developer you can no longer reach, it will stay that way.
What to look for: you do not have the login, you do not know who holds the domain and hosting, or editing one sentence means paying someone and waiting days.
How to check (5 minutes): try to log in and change one line of text on your home page. Then confirm, in writing, whose name the domain and hosting account are registered in.
What fixing involves: moving to a site built on a content management system you can edit, with the domain and hosting registered in your business’s name. This is one of the most common reasons to redesign, because it fixes the reason the site went stale, not only the symptoms.
Repair or redesign: how to decide
Count your signs.
- One or two, and they are quick fixes (SSL, a WhatsApp link, a sitemap): repair. Do not redesign.
- Three or more, or signs 1, 3 and 7 together: the foundation is the problem. Patching an old theme on unsupported software, which you cannot edit and which fails on phones, usually costs more over a year than rebuilding it properly.
For what a redesign costs in Ghana, and what quotes should include, see our guide to website design cost in Ghana.
What a redesign from PED Solution Studios includes
A PED business website starts at GH₵4,499 and includes design and build of about 1 to 10 pages, WhatsApp chat integration, SEO setup, social media links, a free domain and hosting for the first year, and content you can edit yourself. Most sites are ready in 7 to 10 working days. After launch you can add an optional care plan at GH₵300 a month.
If the redesign turns out to be a web application, a marketplace or a store with its own stock rules, that is scoped per project. BYOB and Equipment Hub are examples of that kind of build.
Frequently asked questions
How often should a business website be redesigned?
There is no fixed number of years. Redesign when the signs above appear, especially phone usability, speed, security and your ability to update it.
Can I check my website’s speed for free?
Yes. Google’s PageSpeed Insights is free and shows mobile Core Web Vitals. Search Console is free too, and reports speed, HTTPS and indexing problems for your whole site.
Will a redesign improve my Google ranking?
It can help when it fixes real problems such as slow mobile pages, missing HTTPS or pages Google cannot index. A redesign alone does not guarantee a higher ranking, and a careless one can lose traffic if old page addresses are not redirected.
Should I redesign or just fix my current website?
If you see one or two signs with quick fixes, repair. If you see three or more, or the site fails on phones, runs on unsupported software and you cannot edit it, a redesign is usually better value.
How much does a website redesign cost in Ghana?
It depends on pages, features and payments. PED’s business websites start at GH₵4,499, including WhatsApp chat, SEO, social media links and a free domain and hosting for the first year. For market ranges, see our website design cost guide.
Check your site with us
Run the seven checks, note which signs you found, and book a call. We will tell you plainly whether you need a repair, a redesign or nothing at all.