The verdict in three sentences
In Gaborone, a dental practice website redesign costs roughly USD 740 to 14,800 in 2026 depending on the provider, and Kolonell's fixed grid offers $2,900 (Starter), $4,900 (Growth) and $8,900 (Premium). The most underestimated workstream is content migration: patient guides, FAQs and thin treatment pages that must be kept, rewritten, merged or dropped with a 301 redirect. Once that decision is made page by page, the redesign ships in 3 to 4 weeks.
Redesign or just rewrite: how do you decide?
In Gaborone, a family practice's patients include civil servants, corporate and mining-sector employees, diplomatic families and many parents looking for a dentist for their children. Their first question is rarely technical: they want to know what a first visit looks like, whether their medical aid is generally accepted and what to do in an emergency at the weekend. If your site answers these questions on 80-word pages, with three different versions of the opening hours, rewriting alone will not do: the structure has to change.
What should happen to each existing piece of content?
The content audit is the first deliverable of the redesign. Every URL gets a decision:
| Content type | Typical example | Decision | Technical action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking patient guide | Your child's first visit | keep and update | same URL, copy reviewed by the dentist |
| Thin treatment page | Fissure sealants in 60 words | rewrite | same URL, 400 to 700 words |
| Overlapping pages | three near-identical hygiene pages | merge | one target page, two 301s |
| Outdated news | a past campaign promotion | drop | 301 to the closest page |
| Scattered FAQ | questions spread over 6 pages | consolidate | one FAQ per theme |
| Indicative fee guide | fees page | keep | same URL, updated by the practice |
| Intrusive form | medical history field | remove the field | name, contact, reason for visit in a few words |
Clinical content is approved by the dentist: the site informs, it does not replace a consultation. Specialist titles (orthodontist, for example) appear only if the dentist is registered as such with the Botswana Health Professions Council.
What budget and timeline in Gaborone?
2026 ballpark figures, based on public local agency rate pages and typical agency quotes, at an indicative rate of about 13.5 BWP to 1 USD:
| Provider | 2026 range (BWP) | Approx. (USD) | Content migration | Usual timeline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local freelancer | BWP 10,000 to 30,000 | USD 740 to 2,200 | copy and paste | 4 to 8 weeks |
| Gaborone studio | BWP 30,000 to 80,000 | USD 2,200 to 5,900 | copywriting often extra | 6 to 10 weeks |
| Established regional agency | BWP 80,000 to 200,000 | USD 5,900 to 14,800 | audit and copy priced | 8 to 14 weeks |
| Kolonell Starter | fixed grid | $2,900 | native copywriting included | 3 to 4 weeks |
| Kolonell Growth | fixed grid | $4,900 | native copywriting included | 3 to 4 weeks |
| Kolonell Premium (the multilingual tier, languages set in the quote) | fixed grid | $8,900 | native copywriting included | 3 to 4 weeks |
The grid includes a project manager reachable in your time zone, native English or French copywriting, delivery in 3 to 4 weeks and 3 months of support. A Setswana version falls under the Premium tier, with an independent translator if needed (third-party cost). Maintenance after 3 months, search work and custom development: on quote. See the international offer.
Typical schedule: week 1, content audit and redirect map; week 2, rewriting thin pages and mock-ups; week 3, build and migration; week 4, practice review and go-live, avoiding busy weeks such as the start of the school term, when children's appointments pile up.
Which risks should you watch?
The first risk is deleting a page that brought visits: check each URL's queries in Google Search Console before any deletion, then monitor 404 errors for 6 weeks. The second is content drift: a rewrite that promises an outcome or calls the practice the best falls outside what is expected of a health profession. The third concerns data: Botswana's Data Protection Act, overseen by the Information and Data Protection Commission, calls for collecting the minimum; no X-rays and no medical aid numbers in an open form. This is not legal advice. Finally, hours and the emergency number must match on the site and the Google Business Profile on switch-over day.
On quote: online booking, patient portal, recall reminders and integration with practice management software (Dentally, Exact or Open Dental type tools), embedded or linked rather than rebuilt. Questions to ask: who writes and who approves? How many pages are rewritten within the price? Is the redirect map delivered as a file?
When is a local agency preferable?
Need a professional website?
Kolonell builds websites that attract clients, optimized for the Sénégalese market. Free quote in 2 minutes.
If you want family photo shoots at the practice, native Setswana copywriting run on site or a partner that also manages your social media day to day, a Gaborone agency is better placed. If the need is a scoped redesign with rewriting included, the fixed grid compares well.
Mini case study
Illustrative example: Dr Kagiso Molefe runs Mophane Family Dental, a family and paediatric practice in Gaborone. His site has 46 pages.
- Audit: 14 pages kept, 9 rewritten, 11 merged into 4 new pages, 12 dropped. New site: 14 + 9 + 4 = 27 pages, and 11 + 12 = 23 redirects.
- Local studio quote: BWP 65,000, about USD 4,800, plus BWP 15,000 of copywriting, about USD 1,100: total USD 5,900.
- Kolonell Growth: $4,900 with native English copywriting included, a gap of about USD 1,000. Online booking is added on quote in both cases.
FAQ
How many pages should we drop in a redesign?
There is no quota: in the illustrative example above, 12 of 46 pages go, all redirected. A page that still gets visits is rewritten rather than deleted.
Is rewriting patient guides included?
Yes, native English or French copywriting is part of the grid from $2,900. The dentist approves every clinical text before go-live.
Do we need a Setswana version?
It depends on your patients; it falls under the Premium tier at $8,900, languages set in the quote, with an independent translator as a third-party cost if needed.
How long does it take?
3 to 4 weeks once the audit is approved, against 6 to 14 weeks with an agency. Practice approval of the copy remains the longest step.
What happens to our old URLs?
Each gets a 301 redirect to its target page, 23 in our example, plus 6 weeks of monitoring in Search Console.
Let's scope your project. Content audit, rewriting and redesign of your dental website from $2,900, delivered in 3 to 4 weeks. 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.
