If your business website was built more than three years ago — or built on a popular CMS platform that’s costing you hundreds of dollars a month — there’s a strong chance it’s working against your growth goals.
Not because it looks bad, necessarily. But because the way most business websites are built today creates invisible problems that compound over time.
The hidden cost of the wrong platform
The most common platform issues I see businesses struggling with:
- Subscription lock-in: Paying $200–$800/month for a platform that includes dozens of features you’ll never use
- Slow load times: Page builders and plugin-heavy CMSs routinely produce sites that fail Core Web Vitals — the performance metrics Google uses as a ranking signal
- Difficult editing: Content teams who can’t make simple updates without breaking things, or calling a developer
- No SEO control: Platforms that auto-generate meta tags, canonical URLs, and structured data — often incorrectly
Each of these issues chips away at your organic search performance. Slowly, invisibly, and expensively.
What a transformation actually involves
A website transformation isn’t a redesign. It’s a change in the underlying architecture — moving from a bloated, subscription-based platform to a modern, open-source stack that gives you:
Speed, by default
Modern web frameworks like Astro generate static HTML — pages that load almost instantly because there’s no server-side rendering delay, no database query, no plugin chain running on every request. The result is consistently excellent Core Web Vitals scores, which Google rewards with higher rankings.
Full SEO control
Every page gets its own unique title tag, meta description, canonical URL, Open Graph tags, and structured data — all properly configured, not generated by an algorithm. Your site architecture is intentional, not inherited from a template.
Content you can actually manage
A well-built modern site includes an editing interface your team can use confidently — making page updates, publishing blog posts, and adjusting copy without needing a developer for every change.
Technology you own
No monthly licence fee. No platform deciding to change their pricing model. No features suddenly moving behind a higher-tier plan. Open-source technology that belongs to you.
The SEO case for moving now
Search engines have become significantly more sophisticated about page experience signals. A slow, poorly structured site isn’t just an inconvenience for users — it’s a direct ranking disadvantage.
Businesses that invest in proper website infrastructure tend to see compounding benefits:
- Faster indexing: Clean, fast sites get crawled and indexed more efficiently
- Better rankings: Strong Core Web Vitals and clean code are ranking factors
- Lower bounce rates: Fast pages keep visitors engaged, which feeds positive behavioural signals back to search engines
- More content opportunities: An easy-to-update site means your team actually publishes content — the lifeblood of organic search growth
Is a transformation right for your business?
Ask yourself:
- Are you paying monthly subscription fees that exceed what you’d pay for quality hosting?
- Do you hesitate to make site changes because it’s too complicated or too risky?
- Has your site speed been flagged in Google Search Console or PageSpeed Insights?
- Are your competitors ranking above you on searches where you should be winning?
If you answered yes to any of these, it’s worth having a conversation about what a move could look like — and what it would realistically cost.
A well-built website is one of the most durable investments a business can make in organic growth. It underpins everything else: your SEO, your content, your brand credibility. Getting it right changes the trajectory.
Get in touch to talk through your current setup and whether a transformation makes sense for your business.