In our Cultivate blog post, “10 Reasons to Redesign Your Website,” we discussed the tell-tale signs that your website is due for a makeover and what actions to take once you have noticed them. If you’re a marketing leader preparing for a website redesign, you already know the stakes are high. Your website isn’t just a digital brochure; it’s the front door to your brand, the engine behind your growth, and one of the most visible expressions of your organization’s value.
And yet, behind the scenes, redesigns can feel surprisingly chaotic. Stakeholders disagree on goals. Content lags. Timelines slip. SEO warnings pop up. Design rounds multiply. And eventually someone says what everyone is thinking:
“This shouldn’t be this hard.”
The good news? It doesn’t have to be.
After helping dozens of organizations plan and execute successful redesigns, we’ve learned that the part most teams focus on last is the planning, which is actually the part that determines whether the project goes smoothly or spirals. A redesign doesn’t begin with wireframes or a homepage concept. It begins with alignment, clarity, and strategy.
This guide breaks that process down step-by-step so you can lead your redesign with confidence, calm, and a plan that actually works.
How to Plan for a Website Redesign – 10 Steps
- Start With the Business
- Understand the Website You Have Before You Rebuild It
- Budget for the Project You Actually Need — Not the One You Hope For
- Build the Internal Team That Will Make or Break Your Redesign
- Engage Key Stakeholders and Secure Their Support for Your Website Redesign
- Create a Detailed Website Redesign Project Timeline
- Treat SEO as a Strategic Pillar
- Consider How Your Brand Will Be Reflected in the Website Redesign
- Choose a Partner Who Can Guide You
- Plan for What Happens After Launch
STEP 1: Start With the Business
It’s tempting to begin a redesign by jumping into design inspiration, layouts, or messaging. But high-performing redesigns start somewhere more fundamental: with business objectives.
Before any creative work begins, ask:
- What business outcomes does the site need to support?
- Where does the current site fall short?
- How should the website improve the customer journey?
- Which KPIs will define redesign success?
If you’re not sure where to start, here are some common, strategic website goals that marketing leaders set during redesign planning:
- Increase qualified leads (form fills, demo requests, newsletter signups)
- Improve content discoverability and engagement
- Strengthen brand positioning and credibility
- Reduce friction in key user pathways (e.g., booking, donations, registration, purchase)
- Improve site performance and Core Web Vitals
- Modernize visual design and align with updated branding
- Enhance accessibility and meet WCAG 2.2 compliance
- Provide a stronger foundation for SEO and organic traffic growth
- Support new offerings, programs, or products
- Improve editor experience and reduce content maintenance time
You don’t need all of these — but identifying the top three to five gives your redesign process direction and prevents misalignment later.
STEP 2: Understand the Website You Have Before You Rebuild It
A redesign isn’t about making things “look better.” It’s about understanding what’s working, what’s not, and why.
That means auditing:
- User behavior and drop-off points
- Content clarity and structure
- SEO strengths worth protecting
- Accessibility gaps
- Performance bottlenecks
- Analytics insights you can’t afford to ignore
Content readiness, in particular, is one of the most overlooked drivers of redesign success or failure. If you want a deeper look at this topic, we break it down here: Content Readiness: Setting the Stage for a Successful Website Redesign
STEP 3: Budget for the Project You Actually Need — Not the One You Hope For
Before you engage a website designer/developer (see Step 9) to discuss the particulars of a website redesign, you should have a clear picture of what you are comfortable investing in the endeavor.
Website redesigns rarely go off track because teams overspend. They go off track because teams underestimate what’s required to do the job well.
A realistic budget includes:
- Discovery + Alignment
- UX + Information Architecture
- Visual Design + Components
- Writing + Content migration
- Development + Integrations
- SEO + Redirects
- Accessibility Improvements
- QA + Launch Support
- Post-launch + Maintenance
Content, especially, takes longer and costs more than teams expect. Set your budget based on the project you’re actually taking on.
When beginning a conversation with a web design and development agency, knowing what you can afford to spend helps your agency partner better craft a project proposal that meets your business objectives without harming your bottom line.
STEP 4: Build the Internal Team That Will Make or Break Your Redesign
Your website redesign project will need an internal team to oversee it, so identify and recruit those players early on.
Set up a solid internal crew that includes:
- A marketing owner
- A technical/IT partner
- Brand + design stakeholders
- Key content contributors
- A final decision-maker
Clarity on roles prevents delays and reduces friction. Once your project team has been identified, set the ground rules for how responsibilities will be allocated, tasks will be assigned, and decisions will be made so you can collectively focus on perfecting your website redesign plans, rather than managing internal politics.
Make sure that everyone has budgeted for the time it will take to be involved in planning meetings, review sessions, web content creation, and migration activities (if handled internally), as well as all of the big and small tasks involved in planning and executing your website redesign.
Pro Tip: Confirm your executive leadership understands the time commitment and that department heads support their direct reports’ participation.
STEP 5: Engage Key Stakeholders and Secure Their Support for Your Website Redesign
A website represents brand, function, credibility, and identity — so naturally, leadership has strong opinions about it. While your CEO and other executive leaders may not be directly involved in your website redesign project, it is wise to seek their input and support before you engage in earnest.
They can offer feedback on their own experiences with your website, and incorporating their thoughts and wishes into your redesign plan strengthens your case before the finance team or board of directors prior to budget approval. Late-breaking leadership feedback is one of the top causes of redesign delays.
Solve this early through a 45–60 minute internal alignment meeting, and use these five questions to guide it:
- What business outcomes should this redesign support?
- What does success look like 90 days after launch?
- Which parts of the current site absolutely cannot break or disappear?
- What does our site communicate today, and what should it communicate?
- Are there any concerns or constraints we should address early?
This one conversation saves weeks of redesign churn by setting expectations upfront.
Pro Tip: Once you have started your website redesign project, schedule regular check-ins with all stakeholders and loop them into project communications and progress reports. Give this special audience nothing to wonder about, and they will find little to worry about, which means you can go about the business of remaking your website without second-guessing.
STEP 6: Create a Detailed Website Redesign Project Timeline
A practical website redesign timeline is usually 4–6 months, depending on scope, content readiness, and the complexity of your existing site. But timelines don’t slip because design or development “took too long” — they slip because the foundations weren’t aligned early enough.
Design slows down when:
- Analytics and user insights weren’t gathered upfront
- SEO priorities are unclear
- Brand guidelines are still evolving
- Content isn’t ready or assigned
- Leadership or team alignment is missing
Design depends on clarity. Without it, revisions multiply and momentum stalls.
When building your timeline, start by identifying any fixed milestones your redesign must support. For example, does your relaunch need to align with a rebrand, product launch, annual campaign, conference, or seasonal cycle? If so, set your required launch date first, then work backward to determine your project start date.
If your timeline depends instead on internal pacing (such as budget approval, staffing, or funding availability), identify the earliest realistic start date and build forward from there.
And finally: be honest about the time your team will need for reviewing UX work, providing feedback on designs, and producing or loading content. Adding a buffer is not a luxury; it’s what keeps your project predictable.
A strong timeline acknowledges these realities upfront so the entire redesign progresses smoothly, stage by stage, without unnecessary rework.
STEP 7: Treat SEO as a Strategic Pillar
Search performance plays a critical role in how audiences find and engage with your content, and a redesign is one of the easiest moments to strengthen (or accidentally disrupt) it.
Any website redesign should be viewed through an SEO lens from the start, ensuring that new navigation, layouts, and content structures support, rather than harm, your existing search visibility. This includes protecting high-value URLs, improving page structure, and ensuring your updated site architecture reflects real user intent.
SEO is also evolving quickly. Recent shifts in Google’s search experience, including the increased use of AI-generated results, mean rankings and traffic patterns may change even if you don’t. If your team doesn’t have deep in-house SEO expertise, consider involving a specialist early in the redesign process to audit risks, validate opportunities, and guide decisions that will impact long-term performance.
At its core, today’s SEO relies heavily on authoritative, original content. If your redesign includes new pages, expanded sections, or refreshed messaging, ensure that content is written with clarity, depth, and topical authority. That foundation not only supports organic visibility, it strengthens every channel that relies on your website as a conversion point.
For a deeper look at how search behavior is changing and what it means for your redesign, you can explore: How to Navigate Recent SEO Changes That Could Be Affecting Your Website
STEP 8: Consider How Your Brand Will Be Reflected in the Website Redesign
Your website is often the most visible expression of your brand, and one of the first places where inconsistencies become obvious. Before you begin design, make sure your brand foundations are clear and stable.
This includes:
- What visual elements are fixed (logo, color palette, typography)
- What can evolve as part of the redesign
- Your messaging hierarchy and how it supports your value proposition
- The tone and emotional expression your digital presence should convey
Complete that work before kicking off your redesign, because trying to update your website while your brand is still shifting leads to unnecessary rework, unclear creative direction, and timeline drain. The more clarity you bring to this stage, the more cohesive and confident your final experience will feel.
STEP 9: Choose a Partner Who Can Guide You
A website redesign touches strategy, content, UX, development, and organizational alignment, which means the partner you choose will influence far more than visuals. You’re not simply looking for a team that can “build a site.” You’re looking for a partner who can help you navigate complexity with clarity and momentum.
When evaluating potential partners, look for strength in:
- User experience and content strategy
- Accessibility and performance
- Design system thinking
- Technical depth and CMS fluency
- Clear, proactive communication
- The ability to ask the right questions, not just provide fast answers
A great partner brings structure, clarity, and strategic insight. They help teams avoid rework, prevent common pitfalls, and make informed decisions at the right moments. The best fit is a team that feels collaborative.
Culture Foundry offers Wayfinding Workshops, which are focused one to two-day strategy sessions that bring together your organization’s key decision-makers to discuss your digital strategy and how to optimize your website to support it. Wayfinding Workshops can be tailored to your organization’s individual needs and goals and can be conducted in person or virtually (or both) to ensure maximum participation.
STEP 10: Plan for What Happens After Launch
A redesigned website isn’t a finished project; it’s the start of its next chapter. Websites are never truly “done,” and part of your redesign planning should include the resources, processes, and budget you’ll need to keep improving your site after launch.
Most content management systems like Drupal or WordPress require ongoing updates and monitoring to stay secure, stable, and high-performing. This post-launch work typically includes:
- CMS + plugin updates to maintain security and functionality
- Accessibility and performance checks to ensure compliance and speed
- Hosting or infrastructure adjustments if your needs change
- Monitoring + issue response, especially for mission-critical sites
- SEO tuning to build on the foundation established during the redesign
- Content updates and new page creation based on audience needs
Make sure ongoing support is accounted for in your website redesign plan and budget. This prevents gaps or delays once the site goes live and ensures continuity.
Culture Foundry offers a range of hosting and maintenance support options, including 24/7 monitoring and guaranteed response times to keep redesigned sites healthy and stable for our clients. We can assess your support needs and recommend a plan that fits your organization’s level of technical resources and the complexity of your site.
A successful launch is only the beginning. With a continuous improvement mindset, your site should never go stale. Small, consistent optimizations informed by data, user feedback, and evolving business priorities keep your website aligned with what your audience needs and how your organization grows. Teams that treat their website as a living product, not a static deliverable, see stronger performance, higher engagement, and far greater long-term ROI.
A strong website redesign gives you a foundation. Continuous improvement ensures that the foundation keeps delivering value.
Your Next Website Begins With Clarity
The process of a website redesign can be a daunting task, given all the things to consider before you hit the design drawing board. But it should also be a time for unbridled exploration and genuine fun for you and your project team.
Lean into the opportunity to think creatively and constructively about the best way to marry the dynamic digital transformation you desire with the practical business outcomes you require and how a refreshed website helps you achieve them both. That ensures the time and effort you invest in your next website redesign satisfies both your aesthetic and strategic goals, and helps you hold on to all of those stakeholders!
Ready to take the next step?
Our crew can help you with your plan, from start to finish. Complete the form below to start a conversation! You’ll be glad you did.
