A practical worksheet for planning your business website redesign

A useful redesign brief explains what customers need to accomplish and what your team needs to maintain. Use this worksheet before requesting a proposal. You can answer each prompt in a shared document; a polished presentation is unnecessary.

1. Choose the customer task

Complete this sentence: “Our most important visitor needs to ___, and the next action should be ___.” Examples include comparing services before requesting a quote, understanding a program before registering, or checking a product before purchasing. Pick the first release’s priority.

2. Inventory what you have

• List existing pages and mark each keep, improve, combine or retire.
• Collect current service descriptions, approved photos and project examples.
• List forms, bookings, payments, email subscriptions and other connections.
• Record known problems using a specific page and the task that fails.

Keep useful existing URLs in the brief. If a page must move, ask how its old address will be handled and how links will be checked.

3. Clarify ownership and responsibilities

Record who controls the domain, hosting, website administration and connected accounts. Share access through an agreed secure method, not in the brief. Identify who writes content, approves the design, reviews factual claims and maintains the site after launch.

4. Define what finished means

Write a small set of customer tasks the team can test: find a service on a phone, send a test inquiry, book a test appointment, or complete a purchase in an appropriate test environment. Include the expected destination of each message or transaction.

Ask the proposal to distinguish included work, optional work, recurring charges and future changes. Agree on review rounds and what happens when content or access arrives late.

5. Plan the first month after launch

Choose who checks that important forms continue to work, handles updates and responds to content corrections. Keep a record of the launch date and the changes made. Compare search and inquiry data over useful periods without assuming that every change in traffic comes from the redesign.

Bring your completed worksheet to a provider conversation. Review the provider’s project examples and service descriptions, then use your brief to discuss the next step.

View the Sanctus Solutions business profile for services, project examples and contact options.