A website redesign often starts with a feeling: the site looks dated, it's hard to update, or it doesn't bring in the inquiries it should. Those are valid reasons. But if the project starts with only that feeling, decisions get made in the middle of design, when they're expensive to change.
This guide covers what to gather and decide before you brief an agency or your internal team. You don't need all of it. Even half of this list will make a redesign faster, more accurate, and easier to evaluate.
1. Write down why you're redesigning
Be specific. "Modernize the website" is a starting point, not a goal. Try to finish this sentence: "The redesign is successful if, six months after launch…"
Useful answers tend to sound like:
- Prospects can find and understand our three core services without needing a call.
- Inquiries include enough detail for us to quote without a discovery call.
- The marketing team can publish a new service page without a developer.
- The site supports our expansion into a new market or language.
Each of these leads to different priorities. The first is about content and navigation. The second is about form design. The third is about the CMS. The fourth may require multilingual or right-to-left layouts. If you can rank them, the design team can make trade-offs with confidence.
2. Collect what you know about your visitors
You probably know more than you think. Before the project starts, gather:
- Sales and support questions. Ask the people who talk to customers what prospects ask before buying. These questions are the outline of your most important pages.
- Reasons you lose deals. If prospects choose a competitor because they misunderstood your offer, the website can address that directly.
- Analytics, if you have them. Note your most visited pages, main traffic sources, and the pages where people leave. Treat the numbers as signals, not verdicts. A high-traffic page may be popular simply because it's linked from the menu.
- Search Console data. It shows which searches already bring people to your site. Pages that earn this traffic should be protected during the redesign.
If you have none of this, that's fine. Say so in your brief. A good team will plan a short discovery phase rather than guess.
3. Audit your existing content
Create a simple spreadsheet listing every page on your current site with its URL, its purpose, and one of four decisions:
| Decision | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Keep | Content is accurate and useful; may need light editing |
| Rewrite | Topic is needed, but the content isn't good enough |
| Merge | Several pages cover the same thing and should become one |
| Remove | Outdated or unnecessary; redirect the URL elsewhere |
This exercise usually shows two things. First, many sites have more pages than anyone realized, including old campaign pages and duplicates. Second, the most important pages, usually services, are often thinner than they should be.
Also note who will write new content and when. Content is the most common cause of redesign delays. Designs get approved, development finishes, and the site waits for copy. Decide early whether your team will write, whether you need a copywriter, or whether content is included in the agency's scope.
4. Protect your search visibility
A redesign that changes URLs without planning can lose search traffic that took years to build. Before the project:
- Export a full list of current URLs. A crawler or your CMS can generate this.
- Identify pages with search traffic or inbound links, using Search Console or an SEO tool.
- Plan to map every old URL that changes to the most relevant new URL with a permanent (301) redirect.
- Keep the content that earns rankings, even if you restructure it.
Ask whoever builds the site how redirects, metadata, and structured data will be handled. If the answer is vague, that's a risk worth discussing before you sign.
5. Decide how the site will be managed
Think about the next three years, not just launch day:
- Who edits the site, and how often? A marketing team publishing weekly needs a different setup from a business that updates twice a year.
- What do they need to change? Text and images on existing pages is simple. Building new page layouts without a developer is a different requirement, and it may cost more to design well.
- Who handles hosting, updates, and security? Every platform needs maintenance. Clarify who is responsible and what it costs.
- Who owns the accounts? Domain, hosting, analytics, and CMS accounts should belong to your business, with access granted to suppliers.
6. Gather brand assets and constraints
Collect your logo files (ideally vector), brand guidelines if they exist, fonts and their licenses, and any photography you own. Note anything that's non-negotiable: legal disclaimers, accessibility requirements, regulatory wording, or languages you must support.
If your brand itself feels outdated, consider whether to refresh it before or alongside the website. Redesigning a website around an identity you plan to replace six months later is costly.
7. Know what connects to the website
List every system the website touches or should touch:
- Forms that send to email, a CRM, or a booking system
- Analytics and advertising tags
- Live chat, scheduling tools, or customer portals
- Ecommerce, payment, or inventory systems
Integrations often take longer than expected, especially if credentials, documentation, or a contact at the other vendor are hard to find. Gathering this early prevents delays at the end.
8. Set a realistic budget range and timeline
You don't need an exact number, but a range helps a team recommend a scope that fits. It's better to hear "for this budget, we'd prioritize these five templates and phase the rest" than to receive a proposal you can't use.
On timing, work back from any real deadline, such as a product launch or event, and leave room for content, review, and testing. Internal approvals often take longer than design or development.
What you don't need to have figured out
You don't need to know which CMS to use, how the pages should look, or what technology to choose. Those are questions for the people you hire, and they should explain their recommendations in plain language.
A short checklist
- Goals written and ranked
- Customer questions collected from sales and support
- Analytics and Search Console access available
- Content audit spreadsheet started
- Owner for new content identified
- List of current URLs exported
- Editing needs and site owners defined
- Brand assets gathered
- Integrations listed
- Budget range and key dates agreed internally
Limitations
This guide reflects common patterns in website projects for small and midsize businesses. Large organizations with multiple brands, complex compliance needs, or heavy application functionality will need a more formal discovery process. It is general guidance, not a substitute for advice on your specific situation.
If you'd like help working through this list, our web design and development service starts with exactly this kind of discovery. Our SEO service covers redirect planning and migration support.