Website Redesign Planning Checklist for Small Businesses
A website redesign is easier, cheaper and safer when the thinking is done before the design starts. This checklist covers what to decide, what to gather and what to ask, from the first conversation through to the weeks after launch.
It won't design the site for you, and working through it doesn't guarantee more visitors or enquiries. What it does is make sure nothing important is forgotten, and that you can compare proposals on the same terms.
You don't need technical knowledge. Where a technical term is unavoidable, it's explained.
How to use this checklist
There are 34 items in eight groups. For each one, note Yes, No or Not sure, add a line of notes, and mark it High, Medium or Low priority. Each item also says who usually handles it: you, a professional, or both together.
Work through the first six groups before you ask anyone for a proposal. Keep the last two for launch. You can download a printable version at the end of this page.
Redesign, rebuild, improvement or migration?
These four words get used as if they mean the same thing. They don't, and the difference affects cost, time and risk.
Improvement
The site stays as it is, and specific problems are fixed: unclear pages, slow images, a broken form, missing contact details. This is often the right first step.
Redesign
The look, layout and structure change, usually along with much of the content. The platform underneath may stay the same.
Rebuild
The site is built again from scratch, on the same platform or a new one. The design may change a lot or very little.
Migration
The site moves from one platform or host to another, for example from a website builder to WordPress. Content, web addresses and features all have to be carried across.
Many projects are a mix. If you're not sure which you need, the website redesign page explains how to tell targeted fixes, a refresh and a full redesign apart.
Your current website
Start with what you have. A redesign that throws away the parts that work is a step backwards.
1. What works now. List the pages, features and wording that bring in enquiries or sales today. These are the things to protect.
2. What doesn't. Write down specific problems and the page each one is on. "The site looks dated" is hard to act on. "The services page doesn't say what we charge for" is not.
3. Who can edit it. Can you change text and images yourself, or does every change go through someone else? Decide whether that needs to change.
4. Where it lives and who holds the logins. Find out who controls your domain name, your hosting and your website's admin area. Missing logins are a common cause of delay.
5. You've checked whether fixes would do. Run the Website SEO Health Check on your current site. If most answers are Yes, improvements may be enough.
Business goals
A designer can only build towards a goal you've stated.
6. The site's main job. Enquiries, bookings, online sales or something else. Pick one main job; the rest are secondary.
7. Your priority services or products. Name the three or four that matter most. They get the best positions and the most work.
8. Who it's for and where you work. Describe your typical customer and the area you serve, in a sentence or two.
9. What a good enquiry looks like. Decide what you want visitors to do, such as call, fill in a form or order, and where that message should arrive.
Content and evidence
Content is what most often delays a website project. Sorting it early keeps the timeline realistic.
10. A list of your current pages. Mark each one keep, improve, merge or remove. This list becomes the plan for the new site. Agree in writing who moves the content across.
11. Who writes the new text. Agree who writes what, and by when. Copywriting isn't always included in a website price, so ask.
12. Photos and video. Gather what you have and list what's missing. Real photographs of your work, premises and people are worth more than stock images.
13. Proof you can stand behind. Collect real examples of work, reviews you have permission to use, and any accreditations or memberships you actually hold.
14. Facts that are current. Check prices, opening hours, contact details, team members and service areas before they're copied into a new site.
SEO and URLs
This is where redesigns most often go wrong. Every page on your site has a web address, or URL. If an address changes and the old one isn't pointed to the new one with a redirect, visitors and search engines reach an error page, and that page's search visibility can be lost. The same care applies to content, forms and tracking: anything that isn't carried across deliberately can disappear without anyone noticing.
15. A list of your current web addresses. Include which pages get the most visits and enquiries, if you have Google Search Console or analytics set up.
16. A redirect plan, with a named owner. Old addresses need mapping to new ones, and the redirects need setting up at launch. Agree in writing who handles this.
17. Titles, descriptions and headings on key pages. These should be carried over or deliberately improved, not left to defaults. Agree in writing who handles this.
18. Access to your accounts. Confirm who owns your Google Search Console, Google Analytics and Google Business Profile, and that you can grant access.
If search matters to your business beyond the redesign itself, the SEO services page explains what ongoing work involves.
Platform and functionality
The platform is the system the site is built on, such as WordPress or Shopify. It decides what you can edit, what the site can do and what it costs to run.
19. Stay, rebuild or move. Decide whether the current platform is the problem, or just the current build. Ask for the reason behind any recommendation to switch.
20. Must-have features. List what the site has to do: contact forms, bookings, an online shop, payments, more than one language.
21. Connections to other systems. Note anything the site talks to: email delivery for forms, a booking or stock system, a payment provider, a newsletter tool.
22. Who looks after it afterwards. Decide who will host the site, apply updates and keep backups once it's live.
WordPress suits many small-business sites, and WooCommerce adds an online shop to it. The WordPress web design page explains what you can usually edit yourself.
Design and usability
23. Brand materials. Gather your logo files, colours and fonts. Say which are fixed and which are open to change.
24. Phones first. Decide which pages matter most on a phone, and ask to review those on a phone before launch.
25. Speed and images. Ask how page speed will be handled, including image sizes. Slow pages lose visitors.
26. Accessibility basics. Text should be large enough to read, with clear contrast. Images need written descriptions, and forms need clear labels.
Budget, scope and comparing proposals
Two proposals with different prices are rarely offering the same thing. Compare what's in them before you compare the totals.
What a proposal should state
• How many pages and page types are included.
• Who writes, edits and moves the content.
• Who plans and sets up redirects.
• Which search checks are done before and after launch.
• Which forms, tracking and connections are set up and tested.
• What you'll be able to edit yourself, and whether training is included.
• What happens after launch: hosting, updates, backups and support.
• What is not included, and what extra work would cost.
Questions to ask before you approve
• Who will actually do the work, and who do I speak to?
• Can I see sites you've built, and what was your part in each?
• Which platform are you recommending, and why?
• Will I own the site, the domain and the accounts?
• What do you need from me, and by when?
• What could make the project take longer or cost more?
• How will you check nothing is lost when the old site is replaced?
• What happens if something breaks after launch?
You can see examples of website and SEO work by 53Marketing, including the BFAST redesign.
Budget and timeline
A redesign is priced on the work involved: the existing site, the changes needed, the content, the platform and the features. As a general reference, a standard WordPress website from 53Marketing starts from £2,500 for around 8 pages. The website design page sets out current prices.
Around six weeks is a reasonable guide for a standard WordPress website. Expect longer where there are more pages, an online shop, a change of platform, many redirects, new photography or copy, complex forms, technical problems in the existing site, or delays with content and approvals.
Launch preparation
27. Scope agreed in writing. Everything under "What a proposal should state" is confirmed before work starts.
28. Forms tested. Send a test through every form on the new site. Check it reaches the right inbox and that the visitor sees a confirmation.
29. Tracking checked. If you use analytics or conversion tracking, it needs to be in place on the new site and recording. Agree in writing who handles this.
30. A backup and a launch plan. Keep a backup of the old site. Agree a launch time when someone is available to fix problems.
After launch
A launch isn't the end of the project. The first few weeks are when problems show.
31. Old addresses reach the right pages. Test your most important old web addresses. Each should land on the matching new page, not the homepage or an error.
32. Search Console is watched. The new sitemap, a list of your pages for search engines, should be submitted and errors checked over the following weeks. Agree in writing who handles this.
33. Enquiries still arrive. Test forms and phone links again, and compare the number of enquiries with a normal week before launch.
34. Handover is complete. You have your logins, you know how to make basic edits, and you know who to contact. Set a date to review the site.
When to get help
Much of this checklist is yours to do: goals, priorities, content, facts and access. No one else can decide those for you.
The parts that carry risk usually need someone who does this regularly: redirects, moving platform, forms, tracking and launch checks. Planning a redesign and want someone to help you work out what needs changing? Contact 53Marketing to discuss the project, its priorities and the practical route from the current site to the next one. You work directly with the person planning and implementing the project.
Download the checklist
It lists all 34 items with space for your answers, notes and priorities. No email address needed.
Download the Website Redesign Planning Checklist (PDF)Written by Jamie Somers, founder of 53Marketing, a website and SEO studio in Derry/Londonderry working with businesses across Northern Ireland and Ireland.