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What Should an Electrician Prepare Before a Website Rebuild?
By Blackbird Marketing
Before an electrician starts a website rebuild, they should record the existing site’s important content, page addresses, enquiry routes, assets and account access. The aim is to improve the website without accidentally removing useful service information, search visibility or ways for customers to make contact.
In short: create a page-by-page inventory, save the current service details and URLs, protect access and tracking, then agree what will be kept, rewritten, redirected or removed before the new design is built.
Create a page and service inventory before design starts
List every current page before anything is deleted or renamed. Include service pages, the homepage, contact and about pages, location pages, advice articles, downloadable documents and landing pages used in adverts or printed materials.
A simple spreadsheet is enough. For each page, record:
The current URL and page title
What the page is meant to help a visitor do
Whether the information is accurate, outdated, duplicated or incomplete
Whether the page receives visits, enquiries or external links
Whether it should be kept, rewritten, combined, redirected or retired
Do not judge a page only by whether it appears in the main menu. Older pages may still be found through search engines, saved bookmarks, business listings, social profiles or links on other websites.
Save the facts, not just the visible page design
An old service page may need better structure and clearer writing while still containing useful facts about the work, property types, customer questions, certificates or reports involved, and any limits on the service. Preserve those facts separately before asking someone to rewrite the page.
For each service the business still wants to promote, prepare a source document covering:
The exact service name used by the business
What the service includes and what is outside its scope
The types of customer, property or enquiry it is intended for
Information a customer may need to provide
Questions customers regularly ask before making contact
Any safety, access or inspection factors that affect the enquiry
This prevents a designer or copywriter from filling gaps with assumptions. Technical claims should come from the electrician and be checked before they are published.
Protect URLs, search data and useful history
Every current page needs a decision about its address. Record whether the URL will stay the same, change, be combined with another page or be removed.
If a relevant URL changes, agree the replacement and the redirect before launch. Sending every old address to the homepage is rarely a useful substitute for directing visitors to the closest relevant page. Equally, weak or duplicated pages do not have to be kept simply because they already exist.
Review performance before removing pages
Where the business has access to analytics and search data, save the important information before the old site is replaced. Check which pages receive visits, appear in search, generate contact actions or are used as destinations in paid campaigns.
Use this information alongside business judgement. A page with little traffic may still answer an important question, support a particular enquiry or have links from another website. A low visit count is a reason to investigate, not an automatic reason to delete.
Also record how enquiries are measured. This may include form submissions, telephone clicks, email clicks or information about where an enquiry came from. Ask how those measurements will be recreated on the new site so performance before and after the rebuild can be compared sensibly.
Prepare content, images and account access
Gather the original files that the new site may need, including logos, photographs, diagrams, certificates, documents and written permissions. A small image downloaded from the current site may not be suitable for a new layout.
Check that every photograph can be used publicly. Images of installations or properties may reveal an address, personal information or details that the customer has not agreed to publish.
Prepare a separate access record for the domain, hosting, website platform, email, analytics, search tools, business listings and advertising accounts. Do not put passwords in an ordinary content spreadsheet; transfer them securely and confirm that the business can regain access to its own accounts.
Identify who owns the domain and where it is registered
Confirm who controls the hosting and current website platform
List the accounts that must remain connected after launch
Check whether any former supplier still controls an essential account
Agree who approves the content, design and final launch
Ownership becomes particularly important when the rebuild involves a new supplier. Resolve access issues before the old website or supplier arrangement is changed.
Plan the new navigation around customer decisions
The new navigation should help a visitor identify the right service without having to understand the electrician’s internal terminology. Before visual design begins, group the planned pages around the questions customers need answered.
Decide whether the main structure should be led by services, customer types, property types or locations. The right choice depends on the actual work offered and the way customers describe their enquiries. Do not add location pages merely because a town appears in a search suggestion or is nearby.
Important pages do not all need to sit in the top menu. They can be reached through clear service sections, relevant internal links and prominent calls to action. The objective is to remove confusion, not to hide useful information behind vague labels.
For a related discussion of this navigation decision, see How Should an Electrician Choose Between Service-Led and Location-Led Website Navigation?
Write a brief for each planned page
Give every page a clear purpose before it is written. The brief should identify its audience, main question, essential facts, supporting pages and next action.
What job or problem does the page address?
What information must appear near the top?
What should a suitable visitor do next?
What should a visitor do if the enquiry is outside the stated scope?
Which other page should they use if they need a different service?
This keeps the rebuild focused on useful information rather than producing attractive pages with no clear purpose.
Check contact routes before the old site is replaced
List every current way a customer can make contact, including forms, telephone numbers, email links, booking buttons and third-party enquiry tools. A rebuild can preserve the written content while still losing enquiries if one of these routes stops working.
For each form, decide what information is genuinely needed at first contact. A broad job description, property information, location and contact details may be useful, but unnecessary technical questions can make a suitable enquiry harder to submit.
Confirm where submissions go and who checks them. Before launch, test the complete route on a phone and a larger screen, including confirmation messages, email notifications and any automated replies.
Keep important contact options easy to find. A cleaner design should not mean removing a telephone number or contact button that customers rely on.
Agree the rebuild checks before launch
Ask for a written pre-launch checklist that makes responsibility clear. The exact checks depend on the platform and project scope, but the following areas should be covered:
Open the main service pages and confirm that the content is complete and accurate.
Check telephone numbers, email links, forms and confirmation messages.
Test planned redirects from old URLs to their relevant replacements.
Check menus, buttons and internal links on both mobile and desktop screens.
Review page titles, descriptions and visible headings.
Confirm that images, logos and downloadable documents load correctly.
Check that enquiry tracking and connected advertising destinations still work.
Review the live site after launch for missing pages, errors and incorrect details.
Ask whether the old site will remain available during final approval and what happens if a serious problem is found after launch. The answer depends on the hosting and build arrangement, so it should be agreed rather than assumed.
Turn the preparation into a clear website brief
The final brief should state what the new website must achieve, which service information cannot be lost, which URLs require redirects and how enquiries will be measured. Visual preferences matter, but they should support these decisions rather than replace them.
Blackbird Marketing’s published website design service describes a review, planning, build and launch/improve approach. If the business is considering outside help, it can use the inventory, service documents and access record to ask whether that service fits the existing website and its requirements.
Before agreeing the work, ask who supplies missing technical information, who approves the wording, how redirects will be handled and what post-launch checks are included. These questions expose gaps while they are still easy to resolve.
Ready to plan the rebuild properly? Use the saved page list and service details to discuss what should be protected, improved or replaced. Discuss the website design service with Blackbird Marketing.
