The Complete Website Redesign Checklist: Everything to Plan Before You Start

If you’re planning a website redesign project this year, it’s likely one of the biggest line items in your marketing budget. Today, the average website redesign can run anywhere from $5,000 to $80,000, depending on the scope and complexity.

It’s a high-stakes endeavor. When the website redesign process goes sideways, it’s expensive. And it goes sideways more often than anyone wants to admit.

Here’s what surprises people, though: when redesigns don’t go well, it’s usually because the organization wasn’t ready. Their goals were fuzzy, stakeholders weren’t aligned, and the content wasn’t audited. Six months in, the project is over budget and off-schedule.

We’ve planned hundreds of website redesigns at Big Sea, many for nonprofits, museums, and other mission-driven organizations. The pattern is consistent: the projects that go smoothly are the ones where organizations prep extensively before bringing anyone else in.

That’s what this checklist is for. The 10 sections below cover everything to nail down before you even talk to your first agency about a revamp.

Want a printable version to bring to your next planning meeting? Grab the companion PDF.

1. Decide Whether You Actually Need a Website Redesign (Or Just a Refresh)

Before you start budgeting for a full website redesign, get clear on whether that’s actually what you need. A website refresh and a redesign are two very different projects.

A refresh updates the visual layer of your existing website. New colors, new fonts, new photography, maybe some CSS polish, and call-to-action (CTA) tweaks. The underlying structure, CMS, and code stay put. Refreshes typically take weeks, not months, and cost a fraction of a redesign.

A redesign rebuilds the website from the ground up. New information architecture, new templates, new integrations, new content, maybe even a new CMS. Redesigns are months-long projects that span website design, development, content, SEO, and operations.

A redesign is usually the right call if:

• Your website isn’t mobile responsive, or mobile performance is consistently poor
• Your CMS is so clunky that your team avoids updating the website
• You’re losing rankings, conversions, or donors, and the data points to deeper structural problems
• You need integrations that your current website can’t support
• Your information architecture no longer matches what you do (“We used to build predictive logistics software. Now, we wholesale hand-knitted sweaters for rescue penguins.”)

A refresh is probably enough if:

• The bones of the website work, and the content is still accurate
• Your CMS does the job, and your team can actually use it
• The branding is dated, but the navigation, taxonomy, and templates still hold up
• You’re trying to support a single campaign or initiative, not relaunch the whole brand
• Analytics show the website is performing reasonably well overall, with specific weak spots you can target

And then there’s the honest answer that doesn’t get said enough: sometimes you don’t need either a refresh or a redesign. If you don’t have clarity about what you want the website to do, who it’s for, or what success looks like, a redesign won’t fix that. We’ve talked clients out of redesigns more than once. The work that needs to happen before a redesign is sometimes the whole project.

2. Define What You Want Your New Website to Achieve

Most teams start a redesign because the website “looks outdated” or “doesn’t feel right anymore.” Those are real feelings, but they’re symptoms, not problems. If you bring a feeling to an agency without identifying the problem underneath it, you’ll get a prettier version of a website that still doesn’t do what you need.

The work here is translating frustration into outcomes. Get specific about what’s failing, what success looks like, and what depends on this project landing well.

Before kickoff, work through these questions with your team:

• What does your current website fail to do? Be specific. “It looks outdated” is a symptom. “Donors can’t find the recurring giving page” is a problem. Name the actual failures.
• What are your must-have outcomes? Pick three to five concrete results you need this website to deliver. (Such as more qualified donation inquiries, clearer program pages that reduce staff phone calls and improve the user journey, higher conversion on contact forms, etc.)
• What organizational priorities depend on this build? Is it a fundraising campaign? A program launch? A rebrand? Whatever it is, name it now. The redesign timeline and scope will need to flex around it, and your agency needs to know what’s at stake in the work.
• Is there a firm launch deadline, and what’s actually driving it? Clarity on the why behind the deadline lets you make smart trade-offs when the timeline gets tight.
• What would measurable success look like six months after launch? Focus on numbers. Pick the metrics now so you can actually evaluate the project later.

A good agency partner will push you to streamline and articulate all of this before a single wireframe is drawn. If they don’t ask, that’s a red flag.

3. Get Organizational Alignment Before You Engage Anyone

Misalignment that surfaces mid-project is one of the most expensive mistakes an organization can make in a redesign. Six weeks in, you’re already paying for design comps when your executive director suddenly wants to talk about whether the website should prioritize donors or program participants. Now you’re rebuilding your strategy on top of web design work based on a different set of presumptions.

Here’s the work that has to happen before kickoff, not during it.

Start by naming the people who need to agree on the direction of the new website. For most organizations, that’s some combination of the executive director or CEO, the marketing or communications lead, the development director, and sometimes a board chair or program lead. Write their names down, then determine whether they’re actually aligned with what this website is for and who it’s primarily serving. 

If your board needs to weigh in on the new direction, get that sorted now. Build their involvement into the schedule from the start.

You should also have a process for resolving competing internal visions. There are almost always two or three of them, and “we’ll figure it out as we go” isn’t a process. Decide in advance who has the authority to call the question when stakeholders disagree, and what the escalation path looks like when they do.

This is a part of the process where we work really closely with our clients. Our Wayfinding process starts with extensive stakeholder interviews and a structured discovery phase to avoid mid-build misalignment.

Your agency partner should be doing something similar. If they’re not, ask why.

3. Establish Internal Roles and Responsibilities

Once you’re aligned on direction, get specific about who’s doing what. When five people think they’re the decision-makers and none of them actually are, every approval turns into a meeting, and every meeting becomes a delay.

Before kickoff, get clear on the following:

• Who is your internal project lead? This should be one person with the authority to make day-to-day decisions without escalating every choice. This person is your agency’s main point of contact and your team’s traffic cop.
• Who has final sign-off, and how available are they? Sign-off authority and day-to-day decision-making aren’t the same role. Final sign-off often sits with a CEO or executive director whose calendar is brutal. Know who they are, when they’re available, and which milestones they need to weigh in on. Build their availability into the timeline.
• Who are the approval-gate stakeholders, and at what stages do they need to be involved? Not everyone needs to see every wireframe. Decide now who reviews each part. A clear approval workflow keeps the project moving.
• Does your board need to be informed, consulted, or involved in approval? Get this sorted now, not at final review. If your board needs to bless the new direction, build that into the schedule. If they just need a heads-up, decide who will give it and when.
• Who’s responsible for writing and updating copy? Copy is one of the top reasons redesign timelines slip. If your agency isn’t scoped to write it and your internal team doesn’t have capacity, you have a problem you don’t know about yet.
• Who will gather and provide source materials? Program descriptions, staff bios, statistics, impact data, photos, brand assets, third-party logos: someone needs to own these. It’s almost always more work than you expect.
• What decisions can the internal project lead make without escalation? Define the boundary. Color choices? Headline tweaks? Module reordering? The more your project lead can decide on their own, the faster the project moves.

4. Audit Your Content and Decide What’s Worth Keeping

A redesign is the rare moment when you can take stock of every page on your current website and decide, honestly, what’s earning its place. Most organizations skip this step, then pay for it later, when the new website launches with the same outdated bios, broken links, and the old blog posts from 2017 that no one remembers writing.

Walk through every page on your website before your first agency meeting. The goal is a simple content inventory that tells you what you have, what’s working, and what’s worth migrating.

Ask yourself:

• Which pages are actually performing? Check your analytics for traffic, conversions, and search engine rankings. These are your most valuable landing pages, and they need a migration plan, not a guess.
• Which pages are outdated, redundant, or off-brand? If a page no longer reflects who you are, cut it.
• Which pages need a rewrite versus a light edit? Be honest. A page that needs new framing, new examples, and a new CTA needs a rewrite, not a polish.
• What content is missing entirely? Think about pages your audiences need that don’t exist yet. Often, this is where the redesign earns its biggest wins in content marketing strategy.
• Is your existing content accurate? If you’re planning to migrate pages directly, they need to be true and current before they move. Migrating bad content creates more work, not less.

Build a simple spreadsheet: page name, URL, traffic, keep/rewrite/cut, owner, status. It doesn’t need to be fancy. A good agency partner can run a content audit with you or hand you a framework, but either way, pull in your communications team to ensure alignment.

Remember: A content audit is a strategy exercise. The choices you make here shape your information architecture, your search engine optimization, and the optimization decisions your agency will make in the next phase. Decide what stays and what goes before anyone draws a wireframe, and the rest of the project moves faster.

5. Inventory and Organize Your Visual Assets

Get ahead of the visual assets you need before they start holding things up.

Start with your brand identity. If your brand guide hasn’t been updated since the last redesign, that’s a project that needs to happen before this one—or in parallel with it. The fonts, colors, and design elements your agency builds with should reflect who you are now, not who you were five years ago.

Then take stock of your photography. Real photos of your real people, programs, and impact will always outperform stock. If your best photography is scattered across half a dozen locations, gather it. Organize it into folders by program, target audience, or theme so your design team can actually find what they need.

A few questions to work through:

• Is your photography current? If your work has evolved, your imagery should too.
• Do you have video assets? Are they captioned, current, and usable in modern formats?
• Do you have permission to use everything? 

If your visual library is thin, outdated, or scattered, plan for a photo or video shoot before or during the project. Good photography has a lead time. Booking a photographer, scheduling around your programs, getting releases signed, and doing the actual shoot can take weeks or months.

Get this going early. A website built on great content and weak visuals will always feel like a draft.

6. Identify and Empathize With Your Audience

Your website likely needs to speak to multiple audiences at once. Work through what each group is actually trying to accomplish when they land on your website:

• First-time donors want to understand what you do and verify you’re legitimate before giving.
• Returning volunteers want to find the sign-up page without having to scroll past three years of mission statements.
• Program participants want service hours, eligibility, and a phone number.

The user experience (UX) for each is different, and a good website makes each one feel as if it were built for them.

A few questions worth getting specific about:

• What questions does each audience need answered before they take action?
• What would make someone leave without converting, and how will the new site address that?
• Whose needs have historically been underserved by your current website?
• Are there audiences you’re trying to grow or shift?

Remember: The people who actually know what your audiences want are your frontline staff. Your program directors hear the same five questions every week. Your development officers know exactly what donors ask before they give. Your volunteer coordinator can tell you what people get stuck on when signing up. Pull them into the conversation.

7. Clarify Your Positioning and Messaging Before Design Starts

Design can’t fix unclear messaging. If you can’t explain what your organization does, who it’s for, and why it’s the right choice in two or three sentences, your new website is going to launch with the same fuzzy positioning your old website had—just in a nicer font.

Work through the basics before you start designing:

• Can you explain what your organization does, who it’s for, and why it’s the right choice in two or three sentences?
• Does your current tagline still reflect who you are today? Many organizations evolve faster than their messaging can keep pace. A tagline that was sharp five years ago can sound vague now.
• What makes you the right choice over alternatives? Name what tips the choice in your favor.
• Can a stranger understand what you do in under 10 seconds on your homepage? Test it. Ask someone who’s never heard of you and time them.
• What’s the single most important action you want a first-time visitor to take? Pick the one that matters most for your business goals and design your CTAs around it.

Positioning and messaging work is one of the highest-leverage things an agency can help with before a redesign. A website built on clear positioning makes every downstream decision easier and sharper.

Big Sea’s Vision & Velocity engagements are built for exactly this kind of upfront clarity work, but whoever does it, do it before the wireframes.

8. Assess Your Technical Ecosystem

Make a list of every third-party tool currently connected to or embedded in your website—donation platforms, event registration, ticketing, membership management, ecommerce, email marketing, CRM, analytics, chat, social media embeds, video hosting, forms, and scheduling tools. Then, work through each one:

• Are you under contract, and when does it renew? You don’t want to discover mid-project that you’re locked into a tool you were planning to replace.
• Which platforms are you satisfied with, and which are you hoping to change?
• Does your CRM integrate cleanly with your current website? If not, should it be on the new design?
• Will your new website need to automatically pass form submissions, donation records, event registrations, or other data into your CRM? Map the integrations explicitly.

A few other technical considerations to think about:

• Mobile-friendly site performance: In 2026, it’s non-negotiable. If your current website struggles on mobile or has slow page load times, those need to be fixed in the new build.
• CMS: Are you staying on WordPress, moving to HubSpot, or switching platforms entirely? Are you using a custom website builder? The choice has implications for cost, training, and ongoing maintenance.
• Accessibility and compliance: ADA, WCAG 2.1 AA, GDPR, state-level fundraising disclosure requirements, and any sector-specific compliance (HIPAA for healthcare, FERPA for education) all need to be in scope from the start, not bolted on at the end. These are important for usability, accessibility, and a user-friendly design for all.

A technically experienced agency will ask about your ecosystem early and help you map the integrations your website needs. 

9. Establish Your Analytics and SEO Baseline

A website redesign is a major SEO event, whether you plan for it or not. Before any URL changes, you need a clear picture of what your current website is doing to establish a baseline for measuring the new website’s performance.

Start with the basics:

• Is Google Analytics 4 (GA4) installed and configured correctly? If not, install it now, even if the redesign is months away. You want enough historical data on user behavior to compare against post-launch.
• Which pages drive the most traffic, leads, conversions, or donations? These are your most valuable assets. Protect them in the redesign. Don’t let URL changes orphan the pages that are doing the most work.
• Which pages rank well in search, and for what keywords? Pull the data before any changes to the site structure are made. URL changes during a redesign can destroy rankings overnight if redirects aren’t handled carefully.
• Who are your top three to five search competitors? What are they ranking for that you aren’t? This shapes the redesign goals as much as your own analytics do.
• Do you have conversion events configured in GA4? If you can’t measure conversion rates today, you can’t prove the new website is improving them.
• What’s your bounce rate, average session duration, and engagement rate on your top pages? Note them now.

Every URL on the old website requires a deliberate decision: keep it, redirect it to a new URL, or sunset it entirely. Every redirect needs to be a 301 (permanent), not a 302 (temporary). The redirect map should be built before launch, tested in staging, and verified in the days after the new website goes live. Without this, you can lose months or years of search engine equity in a single deployment.

Remember: A redesign that destroys your hard-earned search rankings is one of the most expensive mistakes you can make. A good agency will conduct an SEO audit as part of discovery and build a redirect strategy before launch. Ask specifically whether this is included in scope.

10. Plan for Post-Launch: Maintenance, Training, and Ongoing Needs

The website launch is the start of the work. Before launch, get clear on the following:

• Who will update the website after launch, and how comfortable are they with website tools? If your update team isn’t trained on the new CMS, the website will quickly go stale.
• What CMS capabilities do they actually need? A CMS that requires a developer to add a blog post is a CMS your team will avoid using.
• How often will content need updating? Events, staff bios, program pages, news posts, impact reports: map their cadence so the website is built to support it.
• Will you need ongoing agency support for technical updates, SEO, content strategy, or campaign work? Many post-launch needs are predictable. Plan for them now.
• What does success look like at 30, 90, and 180 days post-launch? Set the metrics now so you can actually measure website performance against them later.

Many agencies offer ongoing support retainers. Ask what post-launch support looks like before you sign a project contract. The answer is often the difference between a website that keeps improving and a website that slowly degrades.

You’ve Got This

A redesign is a launch pad. Remember: NASA didn’t wait until Artemis II was in orbit to figure out where to send it. They worked those details out at least a couple of days in advance.

If you’ve been preparing for a redesign, we’d love to talk with you. Big Sea’s Vision & Velocity engagements are built around exactly the kind of upfront strategy work this checklist describes. We won’t push you toward a redesign you don’t need, and we won’t quote you a number you can’t trust. We’ll start by listening.

Not ready to talk to an agency yet? That’s fine, too. Take this printable PDF checklist to your next planning meeting to help get your team aligned. 

FAQs About Website Redesign

How Long Does a Website Redesign Take?

Most small-to-mid-sized organization redesigns take 8 to 16 weeks from kickoff to launch. Larger or more complex websites—with heavy content migration, multiple integrations, e-commerce, and custom development—can run 4 to 6 months or longer. Content readiness and approval cycles are the biggest factors that determine where you land in that range.

How Much Does It Cost to Redesign a Website?

Pricing varies widely by scope. A simple redesign typically runs $5,000 to $20,000. A mid-range custom build with strategy, integrations, and content support generally lands between $20,000 and $75,000. Enterprise or highly complex builds can run $75,000 to $150,000 or more. Build in a 10–20% contingency for the things you don’t see coming.

How Often Should You Redesign Your Website?

Most organizations should plan for a full redesign every four to five years, with smaller refreshes and ongoing improvements in between. The healthier model is continuous improvement: regular updates to content, CTAs, and key conversion paths, so your website keeps performing without needing a major overhaul every cycle.

What Should I Do Before Starting a Website Redesign?

Before kickoff, align on goals, identify your decision-makers, audit your existing content, inventory your visual assets, clarify your messaging, map your technical ecosystem, and establish your analytics baseline. The work you do before bringing in an agency determines whether the project succeeds. This checklist walks you through everything.

How Do I Redesign My Website without Losing SEO Rankings?

Build a complete redirect map before launch. Every URL on the old website requires a deliberate decision: keep it, 301-redirect it to a new URL, or sunset it. Identify your top-performing pages and protect them in the new architecture. Test redirects in staging before launch and verify them in the days after. A redesign without a redirect strategy can erase years of search engine equity overnight and ruin your new website’s functionality and online presence.

Should I Hire an Agency or Redesign my Website In-House?

Honestly, it depends. In-house works if you have a senior strategist, a UX designer, a developer, a content lead, and a project manager, all with the bandwidth to focus on this. Most organizations don’t. Freelancers can handle smaller builds affordably but tend to struggle with complex projects. Agencies cost more but bring multidisciplinary teams under one roof. The right answer depends on your scope, your internal capacity, and the amount of risk you’re willing to absorb. If you’re not sure, we’re happy to help you think through it.