Website redesign for an architecture firm in Salt Lake City: budget, timeline and risks (2026)

The verdict in three sentences

In Salt Lake City, an architecture firm's redesign increasingly turns on the multilingual journey: school districts, public clients and mountain second-home buyers do not all search in English. A local agency typically quotes USD 12,000 to 70,000, with each extra language often adding 20 to 40%, while Kolonell offers Growth at $4,900 and Premium at $8,900, the multilingual tier, languages set in the quote. The main technical risk is a broken hreflang setup that makes your own pages compete with each other.

Why do languages trigger the redesign?

The region is growing fast, and firms here often mix civic, school and commercial work with mountain homes. Seismic design considerations, explained in general terms on the site, are one of the topics clients from outside Utah ask about. An old site becomes a problem when:

• the Spanish version, useful for public meetings and school families, is just an automatic translation widget;
• second-home buyers from other countries find no process page and no general explanation of planning steps, without it turning into advice;
• public project pages have no capability statement and no downloadable credentials PDF;
• the whole team is called architects, although the title is regulated by the state licensing board and shown only for license holders, with NCARB and AIA cited only where real;
• accessibility was never tested, while ADA Title III claims against websites are frequent in the US and the usual target is WCAG 2.1 or 2.2 AA.

What budget, by number of languages?

These ranges are based on typical agency quotes and public rate pages. Kolonell includes a project manager reachable in your time zone, native English or French copywriting and 3 months of support. Details are on the international offer page.

What is a realistic timeline, phase by phase?

Once translations are approved, Kolonell production fits in 3 to 4 weeks.

For second-home clients who live abroad or in another state, one page does a lot of work: a plain-language process page (brief, site visit, design phases, permits handled with the city or county, construction administration), described in general terms and never as advice. Add the firm's time zone and two callback slots per week on the contact page, and keep the same page in each language so hreflang pairs stay clean. Budget about 1,200 to 1,500 words for it before translation.

Which risks, in which order?

• Inconsistent hreflang. Every page must point to its equivalents (en-US, es-US) with an x-default value, and each version keeps its own canonical URL. No automatic redirect based on IP address.
• Traffic loss. School and civic service pages that already rank need an inventory, a page-by-page 301 and 6 weeks of Search Console checks.
• Poor portfolio migration. Photo credits, permission from every client, no address for private houses.
• Heavy images. WebP or AVIF, lazy loading, responsive sizes.
• Integrations. BIM viewers, extranets, client portals, tender document rooms and CRM stay linked or embedded, priced on quote.
• Unverified content. Awards, sustainability ratings and press appear only if real and supplied by the firm. Review before go-live, CAN-SPAM for email.
• Email. TTL lowered 48 hours before the DNS switch, MX records kept.

The form collects the minimum: name, contact details, project type, location area, rough budget. Plans go through a separate secure channel, on quote.

Questions to ask the provider: who delivers the hreflang file? Are translations checked by a native speaker? How many languages does the quote set?

When is a local agency better? If you must run public meetings with school districts, produce monthly Spanish community content on site, or connect the site to a public procurement platform. Budgets then often exceed $40,000.

Mini case study

Illustrative example: Lantern Ridge Studio, a 28-person firm in Salt Lake City working on schools and public buildings, with a small mountain-home practice. The firm wants English and Spanish. The site has 30 pages of about 600 words, or 18,000 words to translate. At $0.15 per word (independent translator, third-party cost, market assumption), translation costs $2,700. With Premium at $8,900, the upfront total is $11,600. A local agency quoting $30,000 for English plus 30% for Spanish would reach $39,000, often with translation on top.

FAQ

Do we need one domain per language?

No, subfolders such as /es/ work in most cases and keep the domain's authority. Kolonell sets up the hreflang plan in 2 days.

Is machine translation enough?

For pages aimed at public meetings or foreign buyers, no: budget $0.12 to 0.20 per word with an independent translator, a third-party cost.

How long should rankings be monitored?

At least 6 weeks after go-live, checking 404 errors and pages per language in Search Console.

Can we publish our sustainability ratings?

Yes, if they are real and documented by the firm. This is not legal advice: the final review of those claims is yours.

Which tier for an English-only site?

Growth at $4,900 covers a filterable portfolio, a careers page and a credentials sheet; Starter at $2,900 suits fewer than 10 published projects.

Let's scope your project. Tell us your languages, the number of project pages and your target go-live date. See the international offer or request a free quote: detailed reply within 48 hours.