Last updated: July 3, 2026
TL;DR:
- The web of 2001 is unrecognizable today. When 3 Media Web launched, Facebook and Twitter did not exist and most people still used dial-up to get online.
- We have rebuilt our own website eight times in 24+ years. Each version answered a shift in technology, business strategy, or audience expectation, not a passing design trend.
- A website is never finished. The agencies and brands that last treat their site as a living asset that evolves at the pace of the business.
- A redesign does not have to cost you SEO. A planned, SEO-safe migration protects the rankings and traffic you already earned instead of gambling them on a relaunch.
- Change is the only constant. We survived the 2008 financial crisis and a global pandemic by adapting fast and keeping our core values fixed.
- The lesson for marketing teams: plan for continuous evolution, not a one-and-done launch, and partner with a team that builds for the long game.
As 3 Media Web moves through its third decade in business, I keep catching myself asking the same question: where has the time gone? Then I look back at everything that has changed since 2001, and the answer becomes obvious. We grew up alongside the modern web, and the story of our own website is really the story of how digital evolved.
Do you remember what the internet looked like in 2001? According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Facebook would not be founded until 2004, Twitter did not exist yet, and most of the world still used dial-up to surf the web. AOL and Yahoo! reigned as the most visited sites on the net. That was the world our first website launched into, and almost none of it survives today. This post walks through our visual history and pulls out what more than two decades of redesigns taught us about building websites that last. For the deeper craft behind that work, our custom web design team treats every rebuild as a chance to move a business forward, not just refresh a look.
What is a website redesign?
A website redesign is a substantial rebuild of your site’s structure, design, content, and often its underlying technology, not just a coat of fresh paint on the same pages. A true redesign rethinks how the site is organized, how it performs, and how it converts, so it aligns with where your business is now. That is different from a lighter refresh, which we cover next.
Website redesign vs. website refresh: which do you need?
Choose a refresh when the foundation is sound and you mainly need updated visuals, copy, or a few new sections; choose a full redesign when the site’s structure, platform, or strategy no longer fits the business. A refresh is faster and lower risk. A redesign costs more up front but resets the site for the next several years when you have outgrown the old one. If visitors cannot find what they need or the CMS fights your team on every edit, you are past a refresh.
What can two decades of website redesigns teach a B2B marketing team?
The biggest lesson is simple: a website is never finished. Over 24+ years we rebuilt 3MediaWeb.com eight times, and every version answered a real shift in technology, business strategy, or what visitors expected, not a passing design fad. The brands and agencies that endure treat their site as a living asset that evolves at the pace of the business, because the alternative is a site that quietly ages out of relevance while the market moves on.
That principle is also why we survived events that closed other companies. When the financial system collapsed in 2008, we closed our office and scaled back just to keep going. As Encyclopaedia Britannica notes, the 2008 financial crisis precipitated the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, and a lot of small agencies did not make it through. We did, because we adapted quickly and kept our core values fixed while everything around them changed. Years later, a global pandemic pushed us out of our Hudson office and into home offices, and the work somehow got even better.
Why does 3 Media Web keep rebuilding its own website?
We rebuild because the web does not stand still, and a digital agency that lets its own site stagnate has no business advising anyone else. Each version of 3MediaWeb.com maps to a specific moment: a new service line, a platform migration, a logo refresh, or a leap in what browsers and visitors could do. What follows is our visual history, era by era, and the change that drove each rebuild.
2001-2003: dial-up, Flash, and a brand-new logo
Our first website launched into a dial-up world, and it looked the part. Here is the very first version of 3 Media Web, complete with the logo we started with.
By 2002 we had a shiny new logo and the fancy Flash animations that defined cutting-edge web design at the time. It really makes you grateful for the strides web design has taken since.
2004: a third site and our first web design service
Version two served us so well that in 2004 we launched a dedicated web design service and, with it, version three of the site and our second logo. As the business grew and our services strengthened, the website grew with it.
2012-2016: WordPress and a sharper identity
By 2012 it was high time we put our own skills to use on our own site, and version four launched between client projects. In 2013 we converted the site to WordPress, which led us to specialize in the WordPress CMS exclusively, and in 2014 our logo reached its fourth iteration. Version four was short-lived: 2015 brought version five and a clean departure from our earlier designs.
2018 to today: digital marketing, a bigger team, and version eight
Never a company to fall for stale design trends, we launched version six in 2018 with details on our new Digital Marketing service and a fifth logo. In 2020 our team of 20 web experts launched version seven, and for our third decade we redesigned the logo again and rebuilt the site as version eight.
How do you redesign a website without losing your SEO?
You protect SEO through a redesign by planning the migration deliberately: map and preserve URLs, redirect anything that changes, keep the content that earns traffic, and stage the launch instead of flipping a switch and hoping. The fear that a rebuild will erase hard-won rankings is real, and it is the single most common worry we hear from marketing leaders. It is also one of the clearest lessons of our own two decades: a redesign only pays off if it protects the search equity you already earned. Across our own rebuilds and our client work, the pattern holds. Map and preserve the URLs that carry traffic, redirect anything that moves, keep the content that ranks, and stage the launch rather than flipping a switch. Done that way, a redesign moves the business forward without spending down what you built.
What stayed the same through every redesign?
Through eight websites, five logos, two recessions, and a pandemic, our core values never moved. The technology, the look, and even the office changed constantly; the way we work did not. We stuck to three simple rules from day one:
- Work hard. Show up and do the difficult, unglamorous work that actually moves a project forward.
- Do a good job. Treat quality as the baseline, not the bonus.
- Treat clients and team with respect. Relationships outlast any single project or platform.
Those three commandments are why that small, scrappy company behind 3 Media Web v1.0 grew into a leading digital agency. They are also the reason our clients came through for us when times were hardest. That blend of steady values and constant reinvention is exactly what our Build practice brings to every client website.
How 3 Media Web Can Help
Your website should evolve at the pace of your business, not freeze on launch day and slowly fall behind. At 3 Media Web, more than 24 years of rebuilding our own site taught us how to plan websites that keep performing as your goals, your audience, and the technology change, guided by our Human and AI approach so expert judgment leads and tools support it. That includes:
- Custom web design built for marketing performance, not bloated templates.
- Flexible WordPress development that scales as your business grows.
- A long-game partnership that treats your site as a living asset, the way we treat our own.
We have been celebrating milestones like our company anniversaries for over two decades, and we are just getting started. Contact 3 Media Web to build a website ready for your next twenty years.
