The expensive part of a website redesign is rarely the design. It is the round of questions that could have been answered before anyone started, and the pages that get built twice because the decision behind them was never made.
Here is what to have ready. None of it requires a designer, and most of it can be done in an afternoon of actual thinking.
Before anything else: the honest reason
Write down why the redesign is happening now. The real reason, not the polite one.
Common honest reasons: the business changed and the site describes the old one; enquiries are low-quality and the site attracts the wrong people; the owner cannot update anything; a competitor looks more credible; the site was built by a relative in 2016 and nobody can maintain it.
That sentence shapes every later decision. A site being rebuilt because the offer has changed needs different pages than a site being rebuilt because it looks dated, even when both end up with a new homepage.
The decisions only you can make
- Primary goal. One thing the site should make more likely: enquiries, bookings, applications, calls, walk-ins, trust with a specific buyer. Everything else is secondary.
- Audience priority. When several groups matter, name which one the homepage speaks to first.
- What stays. Existing pages, URLs, content, or brand elements that must survive. Often there is a page that ranks, a form people already know, or a look clients associate with the business.
- What can go. Pages nobody visits and nobody can explain. Say it now rather than migrating them out of politeness.
- Ownership. Who will update the site after launch, and how often they realistically will.
The content inventory
Not a wish list — a list of what exists today. For each current page: its URL, its purpose in one line, whether it should be kept, rewritten, merged, or removed.
Add the pages you know you need but do not have yet. In practice these are the same four, over and over: a plain homepage promise, one page per real service, proof from existing work or credentials, and a contact path that answers “what happens after I write.”
The questions your clients already ask
Collect the questions people ask before buying, and the ones they ask during onboarding. Enquiry emails, messages, call notes, the front desk, your own inbox.
This list is the highest-value document in a redesign. It becomes your FAQ content, your service-page structure, and the sections that make the business feel understood rather than described.
Assets: what actually needs gathering
- Logos in their real files, not screenshots of them.
- Photography you have rights to use, including portraits and any work images.
- Written content: service descriptions, packages, prices if you publish them, bios, policies.
- Testimonials or reviews you are permitted to reproduce, with the wording and the permission.
- Anything technical: hosting access, domain registrar login, DNS control, existing form or booking tool, analytics if it exists.
Access problems are the most common launch delay in a redesign, and they are entirely administrative. Ask for the logins on day one.
If there is an existing site, gather these too
- Analytics, if installed, for the last twelve months: top pages, where visitors come from, what they do.
- A list of pages that bring enquiries — often a small number, and often not the ones people assume.
- Anything currently working that must keep working: a booking widget, a form, a directory listing, an integration.
If no analytics exist, that is fine and very common for small business sites. It simply means decisions get made from judgement and client questions instead of numbers, which is honest but should be said out loud rather than disguised.
The scope conversation, done early
A redesign goes badly when scope is decided by whoever asks loudest mid-project. Before work starts, get in writing:
- Which pages exist after launch.
- What is included for each — structure, copy, images, forms.
- Who supplies content and assets, and by when.
- How many review rounds happen and what feedback looks like in each.
- What is explicitly not included.
- Timeline, price, and what happens if either moves.
A written scope is not a sign of distrust. It is the cheapest part of the project and the thing that protects the rest of it.
What to prepare that nobody tells you
One named decision-maker. Two owners with different taste produces a site that argues with itself.
A real deadline with a reason. “Before the September intake” is workable. “Soon” is not.
Permission to leave things out. Sites grow to the size of the courage available. A five-page site that explains one offer clearly outperforms a fourteen-page site that repeats itself.
Two or three reference sites you like, with why. Not “this one is nice” — what specifically: the navigation, how the pricing is stated, the way the first screen reads. Same for one you dislike, and why.
A simple readiness check
You are ready to start a redesign when you can answer, in writing:
- Why now.
- What the site must make more likely.
- Who it is for first.
- Which pages will exist.
- What questions your clients ask before buying.
- Who owns the logins.
- Who decides.
If four of those seven are blank, the project will still start — it will just start slowly and cost more. That is the honest trade-off, and knowing it in advance is the actual value of preparing.
Starting a project and want the structure settled first? Discuss your website structure, or send the seven answers straight through the contact form.