The verdict in three sentences
For a St Helier wealth manager or trust company, the riskiest hour of a redesign is the DNS cutover, because a careless switch can take down the website and the firm's email at the same time. In 2026 a redesign typically costs £6,000 to £40,000 with a Jersey or London agency, against £3,900 (Growth) to £6,900 (Premium) on Kolonell's fixed grid, delivered in 3 to 4 weeks once content is ready. Write a cutover runbook, check every email record before the switch and get compliance sign-off on every page, and launch day becomes routine.
When is a redesign due for a Jersey private client firm?
Firms on the Esplanade, around Castle Street or out in St Saviour work with international private clients, trust structures and, for many, retirement and pension planning. Clients check the website from London, Hong Kong or Johannesburg before a first meeting, so the site has to be fast, clear about regulatory status and easy to read on a phone. A redesign is usually due when the JFSC regulatory status statement or complaints procedure is hard to find, when the contact form asks for pension values or account numbers, when insight notes cannot be published without the developer, or when the site still runs on an unsupported theme with security updates pending.
What does the redesign cost in St Helier?
The ranges are a 2026 ballpark based on typical agency quotes and public agency rate pages in Jersey and London, for a site of 20 to 40 pages with an insights archive.
| Option | 2026 ballpark | Usual timeline | What is often missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelance developer, Jersey or UK | £2,500 to £6,500 | 6 to 10 weeks | Written cutover plan, email checks |
| Island studio | £6,000 to £15,000 | 8 to 12 weeks | Accessibility testing |
| Financial services agency, Jersey or London | £15,000 to £40,000 | 12 to 20 weeks | Fixed price, strategy phases bundled |
| Kolonell Starter | £2,300 | 3 to 4 weeks | Compact site |
| Kolonell Growth | £3,900 | 3 to 4 weeks | Integrations on quote |
| Kolonell Premium | £6,900 | 3 to 4 weeks | The multilingual tier, languages set in the quote |
Every Kolonell tier includes a project manager reachable in Jersey business hours, native English or French copywriting, delivery in 3 to 4 weeks and 3 months of support. A client portal, pension or custodian platform links beyond a simple login button, CRM integration and ongoing search work stay on quote. The tiers are detailed on the international website offer.
What does a safe cutover runbook look like?
| When | Action | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 14 days before | Export current DNS zone, list every record (A, CNAME, MX, TXT) | DNS changes often lose records nobody remembered |
| 7 days before | Freeze content, compliance sign-off log complete | No unapproved copy reaches the live site |
| 48 hours before | Lower TTL on web records to 300 seconds | Faster switch and faster rollback |
| 24 hours before | 301 redirect map tested on staging | Old URLs and PDFs land on the right page |
| Go-live, evening | Point web records to the new host only; leave MX untouched | Website moves, email keeps flowing |
| Go-live + 1 hour | Test forms, redirects, SSL certificate, regulatory pages | Catch issues before clients do |
| Go-live + 1 day | Submit sitemap, inspect key pages in Search Console | Speed up indexing of new URLs |
| Go-live + 30 days | Keep old site archived for rollback, then retire it | Safety net during monitoring |
The golden rule for a Jersey firm whose email runs through Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace: the website launch changes the web records, and nothing touches the mail records unless that change is planned separately.
How do you protect email deliverability during the switch?
Website forms send email on your behalf. If the new host is not authorised in your DNS, enquiries land in spam or vanish.
| Record | What to check | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| MX | Unchanged, still pointing to your mail provider | Lost when DNS hosting moves |
| SPF (TXT) | One record listing every sender: mailbox provider, form service, newsletter tool | Two SPF records, or more than 10 DNS lookups |
| DKIM | Keys published for each sending service | Form service sends unsigned mail |
| DMARC | Policy in place, reports read for 2 weeks after launch | Jumping straight to reject and blocking form mail |
| Form sender address | A dedicated address on your domain | Using a client's address as sender |
| Test | Send test enquiries to 3 different mailboxes | Testing only the internal mailbox |
Which other risks belong in the plan?
- Search visibility. Inventory URLs from Search Console and a crawl; redirect each one with a 301.
- Regulatory pages. Legal notices, regulatory status, complaints procedure, fee information, privacy and cookie notices stay one click from every page.
- Insights archive. Keep dates, authors and risk warnings on migrated notes.
- Forms and data. Name, contact details and a short message only; never account numbers, pension values or asset details. The Data Protection (Jersey) Law 2018 applies, with the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner as regulator; state a retention period.
- Marketing content. Keep it factual under the JFSC's rules: no promised returns, no unexplained performance figures, testimonials only if compliance confirms they are permitted. This is not legal advice.
Questions to ask any provider: who owns the DNS change and the rollback; whether MX records are touched; how SPF and DKIM are set for the form service; how many compliance rounds are included; who owns the domain and the content.
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When a Jersey agency is the better choice: if your IT provider and web agency already work together on the island, if you want in-person workshops on the Esplanade, or if a client portal is built at the same time, a local agency may coordinate the cutover with less friction.
Mini case study
Illustrative example. Tom Le Brocq is a director of a hypothetical St Helier private client firm focused on retirement and pension planning. His 30-page site sends form enquiries through a third-party form service, mailboxes run on Microsoft 365, and a newsletter tool also sends from the domain.
- Local agency quote: £18,000, 14 weeks.
- Kolonell Growth £3,900 + 6 hours from his existing IT provider for DNS and email checks at £95 per hour, £570 (third-party) = £4,470.
- Difference: £18,000 minus £4,470 = £13,530.
The runbook adds the form service to the single SPF record (three senders in total), publishes its DKIM key, leaves MX untouched and switches the web records at 7 pm on a Thursday.
FAQ
Will our email go down during the website launch?
Not if the MX records are left untouched and only web records change. The runbook lowers TTL to 300 seconds 48 hours ahead and tests mail in 3 mailboxes after the switch.
How long does the redesign take?
3 to 4 weeks with Kolonell once content is ready. Allow 1 to 2 weeks before for the URL and DNS inventory, and a few days for compliance sign-off.
What if something breaks on launch night?
The old site stays available for 30 days. With a 300-second TTL, pointing the web records back takes effect within minutes for most visitors.
Can the site host our client portal?
No, the portal stays with your provider or is scoped on quote. The £3,900 or £6,900 site links to it and stores no client financial data.
Why do enquiries sometimes land in spam after a redesign?
Usually because the new form service is missing from SPF or has no DKIM key. Checking 4 records (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC) before launch prevents most cases.
Let's scope your project. Send us your page count, current DNS and email set-up and target launch date, and we will confirm a fixed price from £3,900 with a written cutover plan. 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.
