Website redesign project plan: 8 steps from goals to launch

Most redesigns that run late don’t run late because of code. They run late because nobody agreed what the site was for, the content arrived after the design, or a new person joined the project in month three and wanted to start again.

This plan is the order we work in when we redesign a site, written so you can use it with any team. Each step ends with something you can hold in your hand: a list, a spreadsheet, a page.

Step 1: Write down what the new site must do

Start with the reasons for the redesign, in plain sentences. “It looks dated” is a fair reason, but it isn’t a goal. Turn each reason into something you can check after launch.

• Who the site is for. Name your two or three main types of visitor: buyers, job seekers, existing clients, investors.
• What you want them to do. Call, send an enquiry, book a demo, buy, download a brochure, apply for a job.
• How you’ll know it worked. More enquiries from the form, fewer “where do I find…” emails, a faster site on phones, better positions in Google for the searches that matter to you.
• What must not break. Pages that already bring in visitors, tools your team or clients use every day, and connections to your CRM or booking system.

Keep this to one page. It becomes the test for every decision later: does this help the site do its job?

Step 2: Audit the site you have

Before you change anything, find out what the current site does well. A redesign that throws away the pages people actually use is a step backwards, however good it looks.

• List every page. A crawler or your CMS can export the full list of addresses. You’ll need it again in step 7.
• Check Search Console. The Performance report shows which pages and searches bring visitors from Google. Export the last 16 months.
• Check Analytics. Which pages do people land on, and which ones lead to an enquiry?
• Mark each page: keep, merge, rewrite or remove.

Our guide to auditing your own website goes through this in more detail.

Step 3: Name the people, and the one who decides

List everyone who will want a say: leadership, sales, marketing, the people who answer the phone, IT, and anyone who has to approve legal or brand wording. Ask each of them early what they need from the site. It is much cheaper to hear an objection in week one than the week before launch.

Then name one person who makes the final call when opinions differ. Without that person, design reviews turn into votes, and votes produce sites nobody loves.

We wrote a whole guide on managing stakeholders in a website redesign, because this step decides so much of what follows.

Step 4: Plan the pages and the words

Next, draw the site map: the pages the new site will have and how they connect. Base it on the audit and the goals, not on the old menu.

Then plan the content for each page:

• What the page must say, in a few bullet points.
• Who writes it, and who approves it.
• When it’s due. Content is the most common reason a redesign stalls, so give it real dates.
• What proof it needs: photos, case studies, reviews, numbers you can stand behind.

You don’t need finished copy before design starts, but you do need to know what each page has to say. Our post on writing your text before you approach a designer explains how much to prepare.

Step 5: Design a few key pages first

Don’t design 40 pages at once. Design the home page, one service or product page, and one ordinary inner page. Once those three are agreed, the rest of the site follows the same patterns.

• Design for phones as well as desktops. Look at both versions of every layout before you approve it.
• Use real words where you can. Placeholder text hides problems, like a heading that is far too long for the space.
• Check accessibility at the design stage. Color contrast, readable type sizes and clear focus states are easy to fix in a design file and expensive to fix in code. The standard to aim for is WCAG 2.2 at level AA.
• Agree on the reusable pieces: the blocks your team will use to build new pages later.

Step 6: Build it so your team can run it

The build turns the designs into a working site in your content management system. Two things matter as much as the code itself.

Your team should be able to edit it. Ask to see the editing screens before launch, not after. If changing a phone number needs a developer, something has gone wrong. Our guide to content management systems explains what to look for.

The content goes in early. Load the real content as soon as templates are ready, so you review real pages, not empty designs.

Step 7: Protect your search traffic

This is the step most often skipped, and the one that does the most damage when it is. If page addresses change and the old ones aren’t redirected, every link and every Google ranking that pointed at them is lost.

Use the page list from step 2 to map every old address to its new one, set up permanent redirects, and test them before launch. We cover the full process in our website migration checklist.

Step 8: Launch, then watch it for a month

Launch early in the week, never on a Friday afternoon, and keep the old site available for reference. Then check:

• On launch day: forms send to the right inboxes, redirects work, analytics records visits, and the site can be indexed by Google.
• In the first week: Search Console’s Page indexing report for errors, and any broken links your team or customers report.
• After 30 days: compare enquiries, top pages and search clicks with the numbers you wrote down in step 1.

Some movement in Google rankings in the first few weeks is normal. A steady fall is not, and usually points to missing redirects.

How long a website redesign takes

It depends far more on decisions and content than on the size of the site. The things that stretch a timeline are:

• The number of people who need to approve each stage;
• Content that has to be written from scratch, or approved by legal;
• Custom features such as logins, calculators or connections to other systems;
• Moving large amounts of content, such as hundreds of blog posts or product pages.

A small site with ready content moves quickly. A large site with many approvers takes longer, however fast the build. Ask your web team for a dated plan before work starts, and check it against the eight steps above.

A website redesign checklist you can copy

1. Goals, visitors and measures written on one page.
2. Full list of current pages, with Search Console and Analytics data.
3. Every page marked keep, merge, rewrite or remove.
4. Stakeholders listed, and one decision-maker named.
5. Site map of the new site agreed.
6. Content plan with a writer, an approver and a due date for each page.
7. Key pages designed for phone and desktop, and checked for accessibility.
8. Reusable page blocks agreed.
9. Real content loaded and reviewed on the new site.
10. Your team trained on editing the site.
11. Every old address mapped and redirected, and the redirects tested.
12. Forms, analytics and indexing checked on launch day.
13. Results compared with your goals after 30 days.

Questions we hear

Should we redesign the site or rebuild it?

If the site works but looks dated, a redesign. If it is slow, hard to edit or breaking underneath, a rebuild. Our guide Redesign or redevelop? helps you decide.

Will a redesign hurt our Google rankings?

It can, if old addresses disappear without redirects or pages that rank are cut. Planned properly, a redesign keeps what ranks today and gives it a better page to land on.

Who should run the project on our side?

One person with the time to answer questions within a day or two, and the authority to make the final call or reach the person who can.

What should we prepare before we talk to a web team?

Your one-page goals, a rough list of the pages you need, examples of sites you like, and a sense of budget and deadline. Our list of everything we need to get started covers the rest.

Planning a redesign?

We’ve designed and rebuilt websites for businesses and nonprofits since 2014, from Chicago and for clients across the US. See how we approach website design and redesign, or configure your website and get a quote.