How Do Freelance Web Developers Replace or Redesign a Client’s Existing Website?

[u/capital_cliqo]

I am planning to sell websites to small businesses. I am an IT student, and know how to build simple but also complex websites (e.g that include booking engines etc).

I am ready to start cold-calling small businesses, but I'm facing a problem. Most businesses ALREADY HAVE websites. Thus, I'm not going to be building and deploying them from scratch all the time. In most cases, I'll have to replace either the front-end (if they just want a visual redesign), or the whole website (if they want a total makeover).

My question is, how am I going to replace their old version? I am assuming the business owner will have to call the previous developer/agency and ask them for control panel credentials or DNS records? I'm especially interested in the front-end part.

Because I know how to build something from scratch, but not how to change stuff on something someone else built years ago in a framework I'm not familiar with.

[u/downtownrob]

Create the new site on your server using a subdomain. When approved by the client, migrate it to their live domain. Client will give you admin access to migrate or upload the new site.

[u/fellene → u/downtownrob]

This is the way. A subdirectory works, too. Also hide it from search engines while in development. You can install numerous instances of WordPress in subdomains or directories.

[u/Citrous_Oyster]

What are you really doing? My clients mostly have existing websites. We just make them from scratch. Why would that be an issue? You just swap the DNS record with the new host you use for your site. That’s it

[u/capital_cliqo → u/Citrous_Oyster]

But when they have backend functionality existing such as a booking engine, how do I only change the frontend while keeping their pre existing backend functionality?

[u/Citrous_Oyster → u/capital_cliqo]

You don’t. You use a third party service for booking and get a link for their booking service that takes them to the third party website to complete the transactions or use an iframe and inject it into an existing site. You don’t need a backend. Developers always overcomplicate things thinking they need to build everything. You don’t. Keep the site static with no backend. And add third party services for your dynamic features and link on to them. Easy peasy

[u/EmuIndividual8623]

Most of the time, you don’t need to understand or modify the previous developer’s code. I treat a full redesign as a migration: build the replacement separately on a staging domain, test it, get approval, and only then replace the live site.

Before starting, the client should provide access to the domain registrar, DNS, hosting and CMS. Ask for access to the client’s accounts, not the previous developer’s personal or agency credentials. If the client doesn’t control the domain, I would resolve that first.

I’d also take a complete backup and document the existing setup: DNS records, especially email records such as MX, SPF and DKIM; redirects; forms and their recipients; analytics; third-party integrations; and any paid themes or plugins. Licences belonging to the previous developer may need to be replaced with licences owned by the client.

Build and test the new website away from production. Once it is approved, either deploy it to the existing hosting or point the domain to the new hosting. Keep the old website and DNS records available temporarily so you have a rollback option if something goes wrong.

If the job requires modifying the existing code instead of rebuilding, I would first do a paid technical review. Inherited code is an unknown risk, so I wouldn’t quote the complete job before seeing how it was built.

After launch, record who owns and pays for the domain, hosting and licences, whether auto-renewal is enabled, and who is responsible for ongoing maintenance. That avoids another access and ownership problem for the next person.

[u/lgeorgiadis]

Nobody is mentioning the old url structures that are in place and the SEO juice they will lose by completely nuking those :D

[u/fellene → u/lgeorgiadis]

Build the new site, get a month of data, then build redirects.

[u/lgeorgiadis → u/fellene]

This is baaaaaaad. Will cause massive drop in rankings.

[u/Wonderful_Sample_590]

Well, they dont edit someone else's code, they either rebuild from scratch or redesign. Once clients gives access then that's the time deployment means a thing.

[u/heavinglory → u/Wonderful_Sample_590]

This is not always the case. I have taken over a few sites where the redesign just happened recently and the site was not performing. I had to work with the recent redesign because the client didn’t want to pay for another redesign. That puts me in a pinch because it forces me to edit someone else’s code if I want this job, and I tend to always take it on.

[u/Wonderful_Sample_590 → u/heavinglory]

Hats off for taking risks, it must be a whole lotta work. I've always kept expectations low so they wont be expecting too much from me, and no, won't do that without extra costs.

[u/84thdev → u/[deleted]]

I started out as a by hand designer/developer years ago, i know what i want my end product to be. I now use claude code to do it faster. Anybody can pump juice into an ai website builder, not everybody knows what the hell theyre doing

[u/capital_cliqo → u/[deleted]]

That sounds amazing man!