Planning a Website Redesign: What to Prepare Before You Start

Most website redesigns start with a feeling: the site looks dated, it is hard to update, or it no longer reflects the business. That feeling is a good reason to begin, but it is not a plan. Projects run most smoothly when a little thinking happens before the first design meeting.

You do not need a formal brief, just clear answers to a few questions. Here is what we ask clients to prepare.

Start with business goals#

A website is a tool, so begin with what you need it to do, in two or three plain goals. For example:

• Bring in more enquiries for a specific service.
• Reduce the number of routine questions your team answers by phone or email.
• Support a move into a new market or a higher price point.

Goals like these shape every later decision, from what goes on the home page to which features are worth building. When two good ideas compete, the goals settle the argument.

Know who the site is for#

Next, list the main groups of people who visit, and what each of them is trying to do. Most businesses have more than one audience. A school site, for instance, might serve prospective parents, current families, staff and job applicants, each with very different needs.

For each audience, note:

1. What they want to find or do.
2. What they need to know before they trust you.
3. What would make them leave.

Your own team, especially anyone who talks to customers every day, usually knows more than they realise.

Take stock of your content#

Content is where redesigns most often stall. Designs get approved, and then nobody has the words or images to fill them. Starting early avoids that.

Make an inventory#

List every page on the current site in a simple spreadsheet, with its address, purpose and the person who owns it. Add anything that lives outside the site but should be on it, such as brochures, price lists or FAQs.

Decide what to keep, cut or rewrite#

Go through the list and mark each item:

• Keep pages that are accurate and still useful.
• Cut pages that are outdated, duplicated or rarely relevant.
• Rewrite pages whose subject matters but whose wording no longer fits.

Be honest about who will write new copy and when, and plan for help if needed.

Be clear about what is not working#

Write down specific frustrations with the current site, for visitors and for your team: pages that are slow on phones, a contact form that sends messages to the wrong inbox, or an editing system so awkward that nobody updates the news page.

"The site feels old" is a starting point. "Our services are buried three clicks deep" is something we can solve.

List functionality and integrations#

Note everything the site needs to do beyond showing pages, and anything it needs to connect to. This might include booking, payments, a newsletter sign-up, a customer login, a job board, or links to your CRM or accounting software.

Flag anything that must carry over exactly as it works today. Integrations are often where timelines and budgets shift, so it pays to know about them early.

Collect references, and say why#

Gather a handful of websites you admire, from any industry, with a short note on each explaining what you like: the calm layout, the way the menu works, the photography, the tone of the writing.

Equally useful are sites you dislike, with a sentence on why. The reasons tell us far more than the links themselves.

Set priorities before you need them#

Every project has more ideas than time, so sort them early. We use a simple three-level list:

• Must have: the site cannot launch without it.
• Should have: important, but the site still works without it at launch.
• Could have: valuable if time and budget allow, or a good candidate for a later phase.

A short, agreed list of priorities is worth more than a long wish list nobody has ranked.

What happens next#

With these notes in hand, the first stage of a project becomes a focused conversation rather than a discovery exercise. We use your goals, audiences and content to shape the site structure, agree priorities, and then move into design and build. After launch, sites keep improving with ongoing support, so the "could have" list rarely goes to waste.

You do not need every answer before getting in touch; rough notes on a few of these points are enough to start. If you are starting to plan a redesign, we would be glad to hear about it.