The verdict in three sentences
A Dubai architecture firm should redesign when its site no longer reflects the work it now wins, loads slowly on mobile because of oversized renders, or cannot be edited without the original developer. Budget AED 25,000 to 80,000 with a local agency or USD 4,900 to 8,900 with a remote studio, and plan 3 to 4 weeks of build once content is ready, plus a week of audit before. The biggest risk is not the design: it is losing the search traffic your project pages earned, which a complete 301 redirect map and a Search Console check prevent.
Is it time to redesign?
Firms in Business Bay, DIFC, Al Quoz or Dubai Design District often built their site when they were doing fit-out and villas, and now pitch towers, hospitality and master plans. Common signals:
- The portfolio shows work from five years ago, and the best recent projects sit in PDF decks.
- Project pages take more than 4 seconds to load on a phone because renders are uploaded at full resolution.
- Arabic is missing or is a partial machine translation, while government-linked and Saudi clients increasingly expect it.
- Nobody in the studio can add a project without calling a developer.
- Enquiry forms send to a personal inbox, with no record of consent.
What does a redesign cost in Dubai in 2026?
Local ranges are a 2026 ballpark from typical Dubai agency quotes and public rate pages, converted at the fixed rate of 3.6725 AED per USD.
| Option | Typical scope | 2026 ballpark | Build time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelance developer | template redesign, English only | AED 8,000 to 20,000 (about USD 2,200 to 5,400) | 4 to 8 weeks |
| Local agency, English | custom design, 20 to 40 project pages | AED 25,000 to 80,000 (about USD 6,800 to 21,800) | 8 to 14 weeks |
| Local agency, English and Arabic | same plus RTL layout | AED 45,000 to 120,000 (about USD 12,300 to 32,700) | 10 to 16 weeks |
| Kolonell Starter | compact portfolio, up to 8 pages | USD 2,900 | 3 to 4 weeks |
| Kolonell Growth | full portfolio, CMS, filters by typology | USD 4,900 | 3 to 4 weeks |
| Kolonell Premium | the multilingual tier, languages and RTL scope set in the quote | USD 8,900 | 3 to 4 weeks |
| Arabic translation, independent translator (third-party) | per word | USD 0.10 to 0.18 | 1 to 2 weeks for 9,000 words |
Kolonell includes a project manager reachable in your time zone, native English copywriting and 3 months of support. Integrations with project databases, client portals or CRM, and ongoing search work, are on quote. Details are on the international offer page.
What is a realistic timeline?
The fastest redesigns are the ones where the audit happens before design, not after launch.
| Phase | What happens | Kolonell | Local agency (typical) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0. Audit | URL inventory, top pages from Search Console, render and photo rights check | 3 to 5 days | 1 to 2 weeks |
| 1. Content | project texts selected, Arabic sent to translator | by the firm, 1 to 3 weeks | same |
| 2. Design | home, project template, studio page, mobile first | week 1 | 3 to 4 weeks |
| 3. Build and migration | CMS, projects migrated, image pipeline | weeks 2 to 3 | 4 to 6 weeks |
| 4. QA and pre-launch | redirects tested, Arabic RTL checked, content compliance review | week 4 | 2 weeks |
| 5. Monitoring | crawl errors, rankings, enquiries vs baseline | 4 weeks after launch, within included support | varies |
Which risks matter most, and how do you contain them?
| Risk | What goes wrong | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Search traffic loss | old project URLs return 404, rankings drop for weeks | full URL inventory, one-to-one 301 map, submit new sitemap, watch Search Console for 4 weeks |
| Content migration gaps | captions, credits and dates lost | migrate structured fields: location, typology, year, client (if public), team |
| Render and photo licensing | images re-published beyond the licence | confirm web rights with visualisers and photographers, and client consent for private villas |
| Performance | 3 to 5 MB renders kill mobile speed | AVIF or WebP, responsive sizes, lazy loading, target LCP under 2.5 seconds |
| Arabic RTL | mirrored layout breaks galleries and forms | RTL scope fixed in the quote, native Arabic review (third-party) |
| Downtime at switch | DNS change during working hours | switch on a Friday evening or weekend, keep the old site staged for rollback |
| Compliance of marketing content | unclear licensed scope, unverifiable claims | review service descriptions and credits before go-live |
Local frame, stated generally. Engineering consultancies in Dubai are registered with Dubai Municipality, so describe your licensed services accurately and avoid claiming disciplines you do not practise locally. Enquiry and careers forms fall under the UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 on personal data protection; firms established in DIFC follow the DIFC Data Protection Law instead. A privacy notice, consent wording on forms and a defined retention period for CVs are the baseline. This is not legal advice.
When is a Dubai agency the better choice?
A local agency is the stronger option when Arabic is a primary language and you want Arabic copy written natively in-house, when the redesign comes with a full rebrand and printed materials, or when you need weekly in-person sessions with partners who will not review work on video. Remote works well when the content is mostly project-led, English is the lead language, Arabic can be handled by a translator with a native reviewer (third-party costs), and the firm wants a fixed price and a 3 to 4 week build.
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Mini case study
Illustrative example: Rami, design director at a fictional 20-person studio in Al Quoz, plans a redesign with English and Arabic.
- Current site: 140 indexed URLs, about 1,800 organic visits a month, 45% of them landing on 30 project pages.
- Without redirects, he risks 1,800 x 0.45 = 810 visits a month. At an enquiry rate of 0.5%, that is about 4 lost enquiries a month.
- Budget: Premium USD 8,900 (the multilingual tier, languages and RTL scope set in the quote) plus 9,000 words of Arabic by an independent translator at USD 0.12, so USD 1,080 (third-party). Total USD 9,980.
The 140-line redirect map takes a day inside the audit phase, which is cheap insurance against four lost enquiries a month.
FAQ
How long does a redesign take end to end?
With Kolonell, about 5 to 6 weeks: one week of audit, 1 to 3 weeks for content on your side, then 3 to 4 weeks of build. Local agencies often plan 10 to 16 weeks with Arabic.
Will we lose rankings?
A short dip of 2 to 4 weeks is common even with good redirects. A complete 301 map and a fresh sitemap usually limit it; skipping redirects can cost a large share of project-page traffic.
Do we need Arabic?
Not always. Firms working with government-linked or Saudi clients often benefit from it; Arabic adds RTL layout and third-party translation at USD 0.10 to 0.18 per word.
Can we reuse all our old renders?
Only within the licence you hold. Check web rights with each visualiser and photographer, and client consent for private residences, before migrating 100% of the archive.
What stays on quote?
Client portals, project databases, CRM connections and search work after launch. Request a free quote with your URL count and languages.
Let's scope your project. Send your current URL count, languages and target launch month, and we will return a fixed redesign scope with the redirect plan included. See the international offer or request a free quote: detailed reply within 48 hours.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
