List your current pages and decide which need keeping, rewriting, combining or removing. Include landing pages that are not in the main menu. Note which pages customers use, which your team sends in emails and which contain information that must remain available.
List the systems connected to the site: booking tools, payment services, forms, email platforms and customer databases. Record what each one does and who controls the account. Decide whether the redesign includes new copy, photography and content entry, or whether your team will supply them.
Ask the developer to include launch tasks and handover in the quote. Discuss existing page addresses, redirects, form testing and who maintains the site afterwards. These are easier to scope before work starts than after a design has been approved.
At a glance
- Create a page and content inventory
- List everything connected to the site
- Decide who supplies copy and images
- Include migration and launch work in the scope
- Agree handover and ongoing costs
Create a page and content inventory
List the current URLs and what each page is for. Include campaign pages, downloads and useful articles outside the main menu. Mark the content that must remain available and the material that can be combined or removed.
Do not decide solely from appearance. Speak to sales and service teams about pages they send to customers. A quiet page can still perform an important task that a traffic-only review misses.
List everything connected to the site
Record forms, payment tools, booking systems, email platforms and customer databases. Include logins, multilingual content and restricted areas. Explain the actual function rather than only giving a product name.
Confirm who controls the accounts and whether the new supplier can access them. If an existing integration is unreliable, decide whether the project includes repairing or replacing it. Otherwise, the quote may assume it can simply be reused.
Decide who supplies copy and images
A design-and-build price may not include research, copywriting, interviews or photography. Count the pages needing new content and identify who can approve the facts. Set realistic review dates.
Tell the agency if your team has no capacity to prepare material. Ask whether content entry and formatting are included. An attractive design will not make a launch date achievable if the main service information has not been supplied.
Include migration and launch work in the scope
Discuss which URLs will change and how old addresses will map to appropriate replacements. Google’s migration guidance covers URL mapping, redirects, internal links and monitoring. Ask the developer to explain the proposed approach for your site.
Also agree form testing, backup arrangements and the responsibilities around launch. A redesign is not complete when a mock-up is approved. Existing customers and search visitors still need working routes to the information they use.
Agree handover and ongoing costs
Ask how your team will edit pages, what training is included and who handles updates, hosting and technical faults afterwards. Confirm any licence renewals or paid dependencies.
Compare quotes using a shared list of requirements. Record exclusions, assumptions and how additional work is priced. This gives you a more meaningful comparison than counting the number of designed pages or choosing the lowest initial figure.
Common questions
Can we keep our existing website address?
Often, yes. Discuss domain ownership, hosting and any URL changes with the developer before commissioning the work.
Does every redesign need a new platform?
No. First identify what the current platform prevents you from doing. A design or content problem does not automatically require a platform migration.
Sources and further reading
Platform guidance checked on 4 November 2026. Account options and interfaces can change.
