Before hiring someone to redesign a business website, define what the site must help a visitor do and what the business must do after that action. A redesign is not only a visual project. It touches content, search visibility, forms, CRM handoffs, analytics, account control, accessibility, approvals, maintenance, and the team’s ability to follow up.
The best proposal cannot rescue an undefined objective. Build the brief first, then ask providers to respond to the same requirements.
Start with the business goal
Ask leadership:
- Why are we considering a redesign now?
- Which business objective should the site support?
- What is demonstrably wrong with the current site?
- What already works and should be preserved?
- Which audiences and buying situations matter most?
- What should a qualified visitor understand, trust, and do?
- What operational capacity limits promotion?
- How will we evaluate the project after launch?
“Modernize the site” is a preference, not a complete objective. Useful goals might involve clearer service selection, better content management, reliable inquiry routing, or a more coherent path from research to contact. These still require measures and constraints.
Define audiences and conversion actions
List the primary audience, its questions, evidence needs, and intended next action. Actions may include calling, booking, submitting a form, purchasing, visiting a location, applying, downloading, or contacting a sales representative.
For each action, ask:
- Is it appropriate at this stage of the journey?
- What information must the visitor provide?
- Who receives the response?
- What service level or follow-up expectation exists?
- What happens when the person is not ready?
- What happens when the request is not a fit?
The website should not generate a promise the business cannot fulfill.
Questions about the proposal
- What discovery is included before design begins?
- Which pages, templates, components, and integrations are included?
- Who owns information architecture, writing, editing, design, development, and data entry?
- How many feedback and revision cycles are included?
- What does “SEO included” specifically mean?
- What performance, browser, device, and accessibility work is in scope?
- What testing occurs before launch?
- Which third-party tools and recurring costs are required?
- What is excluded?
- How are changes approved and priced?
- What constitutes acceptance?
Ask for plain language. A long feature list is not a substitute for named responsibilities and deliverables.
Content: preserve value before replacing it
Inventory current pages, assets, downloads, metadata, links, and measurable use before deciding what to remove. Identify content that:
- Answers important customer questions.
- Supports sales or service conversations.
- Receives qualified search or referral traffic.
- Has trusted inbound links.
- Provides evidence or required information.
- Must remain available for customers or operations.
Decide whether each item will be retained, improved, consolidated, redirected, archived, or removed. A redesign should not erase useful content merely because it does not fit a new visual template.
Migration and search continuity
Ask the provider to explain:
- How current URLs will be inventoried.
- Which URLs will remain and which will change.
- How redirects will be mapped and tested.
- How titles, descriptions, canonical references, structured data, and social images will be handled.
- How internal links, downloads, and external integrations will be checked.
- How the existing site will remain recoverable during launch.
- How post-launch crawl and error monitoring will work.
No responsible provider can guarantee rankings. The objective is to preserve useful signals, avoid preventable breakage, and monitor what changes.
Mobile usability and accessibility
Ask to see how core tasks work on small screens, with keyboard navigation, and under realistic content conditions—not only in polished desktop mockups.
Discuss headings, labels, focus behavior, color contrast, text alternatives, form errors, motion, zoom, touch targets, and content structure. Accessibility is an ongoing product and content responsibility. Do not treat a plugin, scan, or one-time statement as a blanket legal compliance guarantee. Qualified accessibility and legal review may be appropriate for your organization.
Ownership, accounts, and access
Before signing, identify:
- Domain registrar and DNS control.
- Hosting or platform subscription owner.
- Website owner and administrative roles.
- Analytics and search account administrators.
- Source files and design files included in delivery.
- Third-party themes, fonts, photos, code, and licenses.
- Export, backup, recovery, and handover provisions.
Administrator access and legal ownership are not the same. Read the website, domain, hosting, and analytics control guide and have material contract questions reviewed by qualified counsel.
The business-systems questions most redesigns miss
Forms and lead routing
- Where is each submission stored?
- Which person or queue receives it?
- Is there a backup owner?
- What happens outside business hours?
- How is a failed notification detected?
CRM handoff
- Does the record enter the correct system and stage?
- Which fields map between systems?
- How are duplicates handled?
- What consent or preference data needs to move?
- Who corrects errors?
Follow-up ownership
- Who makes the first response?
- What information do they need?
- When does the record escalate?
- How is disposition recorded?
- Who reviews missed or unworked inquiries?
Outcomes
- Which website events are useful leading indicators?
- Which CRM or sales outcomes can be connected responsibly?
- What attribution limits must be acknowledged?
- Which decision will each report support?
A successful form submission is not a successful business outcome if the handoff ends there.
Launch acceptance checklist
Before accepting launch:
- Approved pages and content are present.
- Core actions work on representative mobile and desktop devices.
- Forms reach the correct destinations and systems.
- Phone, email, map, booking, and checkout links work as applicable.
- Redirects and internal links are tested.
- Analytics and agreed events are verified.
- Search and social metadata are present.
- Account administrators and billing are documented.
- Backup or rollback arrangements are confirmed.
- Performance and accessibility issues are recorded with owners.
- Privacy, terms, consent, and regulated content have received appropriate review.
- Staff know how to publish, respond, and request support.
Acceptance does not mean the site will never need improvement. It means the agreed launch criteria are met and remaining work is visible.
Costs and maintenance
Request a total-cost view that separates discovery, content, design, development, migration, integrations, testing, hosting, software, licenses, support, and future changes. Ask which costs are one-time, recurring, usage-based, or paid directly to third parties.
Define who maintains:
- Platform, dependencies, and security updates.
- Content and staff access.
- Forms and integrations.
- Analytics and reporting.
- Backups and recovery.
- Accessibility improvements.
- Search and broken-link monitoring.
A project-brief checklist
Give every candidate the same brief:
- Business objective and reason for change.
- Primary audiences and desired actions.
- Current-site evidence and known problems.
- Required pages, content, features, and integrations.
- Content to preserve and migration requirements.
- Brand, technical, privacy, and accessibility constraints.
- Form, CRM, routing, and follow-up requirements.
- Ownership, access, licensing, and handover expectations.
- Internal owners, approval process, and availability.
- Budget categories and desired launch window.
- Acceptance criteria and post-launch support.
- Measures and interpretation limits.
Then compare how each provider thinks, not just how each portfolio looks.
For implementation support, review web design and development. If the website is part of a wider systems problem, see digital transformation and CRM and funnel architecture. When you are ready to discuss the brief, contact me.