Insights

What a website redesign actually involves

A step-by-step look at what happens between 'we need a new website' and launch day, and what to ask any web designer before you sign.

By Gary Barnes, Founder 2026-10-10 6 min read

If you have never commissioned a website before, the process can feel like a black box: you pay someone, wait, and a website appears. Knowing what happens inside the box helps you plan your time, judge quotes fairly and spot problems early. This is a plain description of the stages of a redesign, what each needs from you, and what you should expect to own at the end.

Stage 1: Discovery

Discovery answers the question "what is this website for?" A designer should ask about your business, your best customers, the jobs you most want, and what is going wrong with the current site. Expect questions such as:

What do you want visitors to do: call, book, request a quote, visit the shop?
Who are your customers, and what do they usually want to know before they get in touch?
Which pages on the current site are used the most, and which bring you work?
Which competitors or other sites do you like, and why?

Your part: answer honestly, and share anything you have, such as analytics, customer questions and your most common enquiries. The output should be a short written plan, covering goals, the pages needed and the main actions each page should drive.

Stage 2: Content

Content is the stage that most often delays a project, because it needs you. Text, photos, prices, service descriptions, opening hours and your story all have to exist before a design can be finished properly. Placeholder text hides problems: a headline that fits "Lorem ipsum" may break with your real words.

Write for how customers speak, not how a brochure sounds.
Use real photos of your work and team where you can; generic stock photos are noticeable.
Decide which old pages to keep, rewrite, merge or drop.

Some designers will help you write or edit the content. Ask early whether that is included, because it changes the price.

Stage 3: Design

Design covers layout, typography, colour, imagery and how it behaves on phones, tablets and desktops. For a local business it is worth starting with the phone layout, since that is where most visitors are. You should see designs of the key pages, usually the home page and one inner page, and be asked for feedback. Good feedback is specific: say what you are trying to achieve ("customers should find the price faster") rather than only "make it pop". Accessibility belongs here too: sufficient colour contrast, readable text and layouts that work with a keyboard.

Stage 4: Build

Building turns the approved design into a working website. How it is built matters for speed, security and cost over time. Some sites sit on page-builder platforms or content management systems with many plugins; others are hand-coded and delivered as light, pre-made pages. Neither is automatically right, but ask which approach is proposed and why, who will maintain it, and what updates it will need. Hand-coded static sites tend to be faster and have fewer things to patch, while systems with a login suit teams that edit content every day.

Stage 5: Testing

Before launch, the site should be checked on real phones and common browsers, with forms tested end to end so enquiries really arrive, links checked, images and speed measured, and accessibility tested. Ask what testing is included and what you will be shown. You will be asked to look too: read every page carefully and check phone numbers, prices and spelling, because you know your business best.

Stage 6: Launch and redirects

Launch day is the riskiest part, and the most overlooked. If your new site changes page addresses (URLs) and the old ones stop working, anyone who clicks an old link or search result lands on an error page, and search engines may drop pages they knew about. The fix is a redirect: a permanent instruction, known as a 301, that sends visitors from each old address to the right new one.

List your old URLs before the switch.
Map each to its closest new page.
Test the redirects after launch and look for errors.
Re-check your Business Profile, social links and directory listings for old addresses.

Also confirm the site works over HTTPS, the contact forms deliver, and a sitemap is submitted to Google Search Console. Plan the launch for a quiet time, not the middle of your busiest week.

Who owns what?

Ask this before you sign, not after. You should be clear on these points in writing:

Domain name: registered in your name, with you as the owner and administrator, not held by the designer.
Website files and code: yours to keep and move to another provider, or at least a clear licence.
Content and images: yours, with licences for any stock photos or fonts that were bought.
Accounts: hosting, analytics and email logins in your name.

If a designer would hold your site hostage if you stopped paying, that is worth knowing now.

What to ask any web designer

Can I see working examples, and can I try them on my phone?
What exactly is included, and what costs extra?
What do you need from me, and by when?
How long will it take, and what could delay it?
How will you handle my old page addresses?
Who owns the domain, the code and the content?
What happens after launch: support, updates, hosting, and what it costs?
How do you test for speed, security and accessibility?

Red flags

A guaranteed number-one ranking, or promises of a specific result.
Pressure to decide today, or a price that changes depending on how you answer.
No written scope, or a vague quote that cannot be compared.
The designer registers the domain in their own name.
No mention of mobile, speed, security or redirects.
Unwillingness to show work that you can actually open and use.

How Raijin Studios does it

Our process has four steps: audit, plan, design and build, then test and launch. It is described on the process page. You own your domain, code and content. Packages start at $1,500 for a Refresh and $3,500 for a Growth site, with an optional Care plan at $99 a month; see pricing for what each includes. We are a new studio and say so on our work page, where we show working concept sites instead of borrowed client logos. If you want a plain-English opinion on your current site first, ask for the free audit.