The wrong criterion: « I don't like it any more »
It's the most common reason and the least reliable. You see your site every day; your clients see it once, for thirty seconds, before they call. Your boredom is not their experience.
The six signs below can be checked. Three are enough to justify a rebuild.
One — it's slow on a phone
Open your site on your own phone, on mobile data, off wifi. If it takes more than three seconds to show something readable, part of your visitors have already left. Google measures the same thing and factors it in.
Two — you can't change anything yourself
If changing a phone number means emailing someone and waiting three days, the problem isn't cosmetic, it's structural. A site you can't keep current ages fast.
Three — it doesn't appear when people search your trade
Type your trade followed by your municipality, in a private window. If you're neither in the results nor on the map, your site isn't working for you.
Careful though: this sign alone doesn't always justify a rebuild. Sometimes the Google profile is missing, or the pages simply don't exist. That can be fixed without rebuilding anything.
Four — the phone rings no more than before
The only number that counts isn't visitors, it's enquiries. If you have traffic but no calls, the problem is in the path. A site rebuilt without fixing that will be exactly as silent, in nicer clothes.
Five — it isn't usable by everyone
Since 28 June 2025, the European accessibility directive (2019/882) applies to a broad share of digital services sold to consumers in the Union.
Beyond the obligation, a site that works with a keyboard and reads correctly in a screen reader is better structured — so better understood by Google. The two go together.
Six — the technology is no longer maintained
Abandoned plugins, an obsolete PHP version, a theme bought eight years ago. These are open doors, and the bill arrives on the day you're hacked. It's the only sign that is genuinely urgent.