Website redesign in Uganda that protects what works

The short answer

Redesign your website when the site itself is what costs you enquiries: it is slow or broken on a phone, it no longer shows what you sell or charge, nobody can update it, or visitors arrive and do not call, WhatsApp or pay. Keep the domain, the pages that already bring visitors and your email, then move the new site over with a permanent redirect from every old address that changes to its new one, so Google and your customers can follow. If the real problem is that few people find you, a redesign will not fix that on its own.

Growth Informer Software Services, Kampala, builds business websites on a fixed quote agreed before work starts, paid 50/25/25, and you own the code. A redesign is quoted the same way after we look at your current site. Send us the address on WhatsApp and you will hear plainly whether it needs a redesign or only a fix, and asking commits you to nothing.

Do you need a website redesign? The honest test

Before you message a designer to say "redesign my website", check your own site. Open it on your phone, on mobile data, the way a customer would, and work through these.

Five signs you need to redesign your website

• Your website is not working on a phone. You pinch and zoom to read, the menu will not open, the buttons are too small to tap, or the page takes many seconds to appear on mobile data. Many of your customers will meet your site exactly like this, and a layout built only for a desktop screen is rarely fixed well with patches.
• A stranger cannot tell what you do. Show the home page to someone for five seconds. If they cannot say what you sell, where you work and how to reach you, the layout and the words need rebuilding.
• Reaching you takes effort. A visitor should be able to call or open WhatsApp in one tap. Send yourself a test enquiry through your own contact form today: if it does not arrive within minutes, every customer who used that form has been lost the same way. An old phone number or an inbox nobody checks does the same damage quietly.
• You cannot update it. If every change needs the person who built it, and they have gone quiet or you do not hold the logins, you do not control your own site.
• It is old and looks it. Prices from years ago, dead pages, photos of a shop you have since moved from, a design that would make a new client doubt you.

Two or more of these usually means a redesign. One on its own can often be fixed in place.

When you do not need a redesign

• The site works but few people visit. That is a visibility problem. A new design will not bring visitors by itself. Claiming your Google Business Profile and fixing how Google reads your pages, which is search work, come first.
• Only the content is stale. To update an old website, refresh the text, prices and photos. That is a repair, not a rebuild.
• The browser says "Not secure". That is usually a missing security certificate, which hosts commonly provide free.
• The pages are slow because the photos are huge. Resizing images and tidying the hosting can fix this in days.
• You just want something newer. A fresh look with no business reason behind it rarely pays back.

What to keep when you redesign: domain, content and rankings

A redesign should change how the site looks and works, not throw away what has taken years to build. Keep these on purpose.

• The domain. Keep your web address and the email addresses that sit on it. Check whose name the domain is registered in. If it is your old developer's, move it into your own account before anything else, while they are still answering your calls. How to register a .ug domain shows how to hold one in your own name.
• The pages that bring visitors. Open Google Search Console, which is free, and list the pages that get clicks. Keep their web addresses and their main wording where you can. If an address has to change, plan a redirect for it.
• Content that sells. Real photos of your premises, products and team, your prices, genuine reviews from your own customers and the answers you give on the phone every week. Reuse them. Rewrite only what is wrong or weak.
• Links from other sites. Directories, partners, suppliers and your Google Business Profile all point at an address. A redirect sends those visitors, and Google, to the new page. Without one they land on an error.
• Your logins and tracking. Search Console, analytics, and the inbox or WhatsApp number your enquiries go to.

Let go of pages nobody visits and that say nothing, stock photos, old prices, sliders that hide the message, and any design that pushes the WhatsApp button out of sight.

Keep what Google and your customers already know. Change what stops them acting.

How to migrate your website without losing Google positions or email

Moving a website is mostly bookkeeping: knowing what sits at every address, and what your domain does besides showing a site. Most of the damage comes from avoidable mistakes, not from the redesign itself.

Before you change anything

• Back up everything. Save the files and the database from the old hosting somewhere that is not that server.
• List every address. Use the sitemap and Google Search Console to list every page and note which ones get clicks. Those are the ones to protect first.
• Find out where your email lives. Many Ugandan hosting plans include mailboxes on your own domain in the same account as the website. If the domain is pointed at a new host, or the old hosting is cancelled, your email can stop. Copy the domain's mail records (MX, SPF and DKIM) exactly. If the mailboxes themselves sit on the old hosting, the mail has to be moved too, not only the records, so move the mailboxes first or keep that hosting paid until they are moved and tested. Business email setup in Uganda covers where to keep mail so a future site move cannot touch it.
• Build the new site privately. Keep it behind a password or a setting that tells search engines to ignore it, so the unfinished site never competes with the live one.

On the day of the switch

• Map old addresses to new ones. Where an address stays the same, there is nothing to do. Where it changes, set a permanent (301) redirect to the closest matching new page, not to the home page for everything.
• Remove the test-site block. Google's site-move guidance reminds owners to remove any noindex tag or robots.txt block that was only there for the build. Left on after launch, it keeps the new site out of Google however good it is.
• Submit the new sitemap. Do it in Google Search Console, then check the Pages report over the next days for errors.
• Send test emails both ways. To and from your business address, before you tell anyone the new site is live.

After the move

Google's site-move guidance says a small to medium-sized site can take a few weeks for most pages to move, that visibility in Search may fluctuate temporarily during the move, and that redirects should generally stay in place for at least a year. So keep every redirect for at least a year, watch Search Console in the first weeks for pages that drop out or show errors, and keep the old hosting account for a few weeks as a safety net. Nobody can honestly promise that every position stays exactly where it was. What a careful move does is remove the avoidable causes of loss: broken addresses, blocked pages, thinner content and dead email.

The checklist before you switch the new site on

Do not switch until every line is a yes. Send it to whoever is building your site, including us.

• The domain is registered in your name and you hold the registrar login.
• A full backup of the old files and database is saved off the old server.
• Every old address is listed and either kept or mapped to a new page.
• The redirects are tested on the pages that get the most clicks, and they will stay in place for at least a year.
• The test-site block on search engines is gone, and the live site is not blocked.
• You have opened the new site on a real Android phone over mobile data, not only on a laptop.
• The contact form lands in an inbox someone reads, the WhatsApp button opens a chat with the right number and phone numbers tap to call.
• Email records are unchanged or deliberately updated, and test mail has gone both ways.
• The security certificate works on the live address, with no warning on any page.
• If the site takes payments, a small real test payment has gone through with MTN MoMo and with Airtel Money.
• Search Console and analytics are connected, the new sitemap is ready to submit and your Google Business Profile points to the right web address.
• You hold the final code and every login.

Set this up first: what pays at each stage

A redesign is step four on this list, not step one. If you already have a site, steps one to three are probably done, which is good news because they are cheap or free. If they are not, do them before you pay for design. Spend only on the step that pays at your stage.

Step 1: the basics

• Business name with URSB. The official fees total UGX 90,000: UGX 35,000 to reserve the name and UGX 55,000 to register it, on the URSB fee page, checked October 2026. Owners report paying agents and registration services anywhere from about UGX 600,000 to several million shillings to register a business, so know the official fee before you accept a quote.
• A TIN. Free from URA. An individual with a National ID number can get one online through URA's instant TIN service in about five minutes, so paying an agent for it is unnecessary.
• A trading licence. In Kampala it comes from KCCA, assessed by trade and by the grade of the business area (Grade I to IV). KCCA's trading licence FAQ treats it as a calendar-year fee, due before you start trading and by 1 January each year after. A retail shop pays between UGX 31,500 and UGX 210,000 a year on the KCCA rates table, checked October 2026. Other trades pay differently, and outside Kampala your city, municipal or town council, or the district, issues it.

Not needed yet: an agent. The steps are online and the fees are published, so pay someone only if you would rather hand over the time.

Step 2: the free habits

Keep business money apart from personal money, write down every day's sales and spending, set up WhatsApp Business, which is free, and answer every enquiry the same day. Before the redesign, decide which one number the WhatsApp button will open and who answers it. A redesigned site that sends leads to a phone nobody answers is wasted money.

Step 3: a Google Business Profile

It is free to claim yourself, and many freelancers and agencies charge a setup fee for it, so pay only if you do not want to do it. For a business that customers find by area, it puts you on Google Maps and in local results, and after a redesign its website link must point to the new address. Follow our Google Business Profile setup guide. Not needed yet: any paid listing service before the free profile is complete.

Step 4: a website, with a care plan

This is where a redesign sits. A business website pays when the site is the bottleneck: customers cannot reach you, cannot trust it or cannot use it on a phone. Add a monthly care plan, , so updates, backups and fixes keep happening and the site does not go stale again. Not needed yet: a full multi-page site if you promote one offer, because a landing page can carry that.

Step 5: a system, only when no ready-made tool fits

A website shows what you sell. A system runs the work behind it: bookings, stock, quotes, staff and accounts. Try a ready-made tool first. Our own Growth Informer Business is a live cloud POS, inventory and business platform. A custom system is quoted per project and only pays when your workflow is something ready-made tools cannot do. Not needed yet: a custom system for a site that only has to show information.

Website redesign cost in Uganda: what you really pay

Three costs sit behind a redesign: the design and build, the yearly running costs, and your own time supplying photos, prices and approvals. A redesign is quoted like a new build, inside the same bands below. The exact figure is fixed in writing after we look at your current site and agree which pages and features move across.

Payment is 50% to start once the quote and scope are agreed, 25% when you review the working version and 25% at completion. You own the code and the data.

What moves a redesign up or down the band

• How many addresses change. A site that keeps its page addresses needs few redirects. A site rebuilt on a new structure needs every old address mapped, redirected and tested.
• Reuse or rewrite. Reusing your current text and photos costs less than new writing and new photos of your premises.
• Features. Online booking or a product catalogue add work inside the band. MTN MoMo and Airtel Money checkout on the site moves a redesign into the online shop row.
• Email. Mail that stays where it is adds no work. Mailboxes that have to come off the old hosting add a planned move.
• Lost access. If nobody holds the domain, hosting or old site logins, recovering them comes first and adds time.

Running costs that are not part of the build

A .co.ug or .ug domain typically costs about UGX 100,000 to 150,000 a year at Kampala registrars. Shared hosting for a small business site with email typically costs about UGX 150,000 to 500,000 a year, and some local entry plans are listed for less. The security certificate is usually free. These are other providers' prices, not ours, checked October 2026. If your current domain and hosting are sound, you keep them and pay nothing new for them.

Be careful with the cheapest redesign. A template with your logo dropped in can discard pages Google already knows and leave your email pointing nowhere. Before you pay any deposit, ask the provider three things: how they will handle redirects, how they will protect your email, and whose name the domain will be in at the end.

Working with us in Kampala

We meet you in person at your office or shop across greater Kampala: Central Kampala (Nakasero, Kololo, Kampala Road and the Industrial Area), the suburbs (Ntinda, Bukoto, Naguru, Bugolobi, Muyenga, Kansanga and Makindye), Wakiso (Kira, Najjera, Namugongo, Nansana and Kajjansi), Mukono and Entebbe. Bring the logins for your domain, hosting and email. We open your current site together on your phone, list the pages that bring visitors, agree what moves and what goes, and leave you with the scope in writing before any quote.

Our portfolio holds 37 live website and app builds, so you can open the work on your own phone before you pay and judge the speed and the WhatsApp button for yourself. They include Silverback Coffee House, a food ordering site for a Kampala coffee house with WhatsApp ordering and delivery zones, and Hausblick Realty, a property platform for Kampala, Wakiso and Mukono. If your site is losing enquiries, each week you wait is another week of customers who tried to reach you and gave up. Send the address now and get the verdict, redesign or fix, with a fixed quote.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a website redesign cost in Uganda?

A business website redesign with Growth Informer is quoted inside our business website band, , fixed in writing before work starts and paid 50/25/25. Where it lands depends on how many addresses change, whether content is reused and which features move across, and we confirm it after looking at your current site. Domain and hosting are yearly costs paid to those providers, and you keep yours if they are sound.

Will I lose my Google rankings if I redesign my website?

Nobody can honestly promise that every position stays put, but most losses are avoidable. Keep the web addresses that bring visitors, set a permanent 301 redirect from any that change to the closest new page and keep it for at least a year, remove the setting that blocks search engines on the test site, then submit the new sitemap in Google Search Console and watch it. Google says a small to medium site can take a few weeks for most pages to move.

Will my business email stop working when the website moves?

Not if the move is planned. Email is routed by the domain's mail records, and many Ugandan hosting plans keep your mailboxes in the same account as the website. Copy the MX, SPF and DKIM records before you change anything, keep the old mailboxes running until the new set-up is tested, and send test mail both ways on the day.

My website is not working on a phone. Do I need a full redesign?

Not always. If the problem is oversized photos, a broken plugin or a menu script that fails on small screens, it can often be fixed in place in days. If the layout was built only for a desktop screen, patching rarely works well and a redesign is usually cleaner. Open the site on a mid-range Android phone over mobile data to tell which it is.

Can I keep my domain and content, and do I own the new site?

Yes, as long as the domain is registered in your name or can be moved into your account. If your old developer holds it, move it to your own account first. You keep your web address, your email addresses and the content that works, and we move them across. You own the source code and the data, and you hold every login at handover.