A website redesign process runs in seven steps: an audit of the current site, goals and scope, content and structure, design, build, testing and migration, then launch and the weeks after it. Each step has an owner on the agency’s side and one on yours, and most delays come from decisions and content on the client side rather than from design or code.
Last updated: 21 October 2026.
This guide walks through each step of a website redesign, what happens in it, what it produces and who is responsible, then gives a typical timeline, the decisions that fall to you and the mistakes that most often slow a redesign down. It is written for marketing and business leads who are about to start a redesign and want to know what they are signing up for.
At Odduel, a creative and technology agency in Barcelona and São Paulo, our website redesign service takes sites through this process from audit to launch. For Fab Mater, a furniture design studio, we designed and built a new website in its own block theme, in English, with the studio’s details kept hidden until each one was confirmed; the steps below are the ones we follow, and they apply whoever runs your project.
In short: a redesign goes audit, goals and scope, content and structure, design, build, testing and migration, launch and follow-up. Expect a few weeks for a small site and a few months for a large or multilingual one. Name one decision-maker on your side, start content early, keep a map of every old address to its new one, and do not change the scope after design is approved unless you accept a new timeline.
The website redesign process at a glance
The table sets out the seven steps, what each produces and who usually leads it. Agencies name the steps differently, but the work is the same.
| Step | What happens | What it produces | Agency leads | Client provides |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Audit | Review of analytics, search data, content, technology and accessibility | A findings report and a list of what to keep | Strategy, SEO, development | Access to analytics, search tools and the site |
| 2. Goals and scope | Business goals, audiences, pages, features, languages, budget | A scope document and a plan | Strategy, project lead | Goals, priorities, one decision-maker |
| 3. Content and structure | Sitemap, page templates, content plan, address map | A sitemap, wireframes and a content list | UX, content, SEO | Subject knowledge, approvals, existing material |
| 4. Design | Visual direction, key pages, components, states | An approved design system and page designs | Design | Brand assets, feedback in agreed rounds |
| 5. Build | Theme or front end, content management, integrations | A working site on a staging address | Development | Content entered or delivered, integration details |
| 6. Testing and migration | Quality checks, accessibility, speed, redirects, content move | A tested site and a redirect map | Development, QA, SEO | Final checks on content and legal pages |
| 7. Launch and after | Go-live, monitoring, fixes, training | A live site, a training session and a report | Development, SEO | Sign-off and a team ready to edit |
Step 1: Audit the current site
A redesign starts by learning what the current site does well before deciding what to change. Skipping this step is how sites lose the pages that brought in most of their visitors.
- Analytics: which pages people visit, where they come from, where they leave and which pages lead to enquiries or sales.
- Search data: the pages and queries that bring organic traffic, and the links from other sites that point to them.
- Content: what is out of date, duplicated or missing, and what can be reused.
- Technology: the platform, hosting, integrations, speed and security.
- Accessibility: how the site performs against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, the standard most European accessibility rules refer to.
If you are still deciding whether a redesign is needed at all, our article on the signs your website needs a redesign helps you check.
Step 2: Agree the goals and scope
The audit turns into a scope: what the new site must achieve, for whom and with which pages and features. This is the document every later decision is checked against.
- Business goals expressed as outcomes, such as more qualified enquiries, more sales from a market or less time spent updating pages.
- Audiences and what each needs to find or do.
- Pages and templates, features, integrations and languages.
- Constraints: budget, deadlines, platform choices, legal requirements.
- Roles: who decides on your side, who approves content and who will edit the site afterwards.
A clear scope protects both sides. Changes are still possible later, but each one is visible, with its effect on time and cost agreed before work starts.
Step 3: Plan the content and structure
Structure comes before visuals. The team defines the sitemap, the templates each page type uses and the content each page needs, and drafts wireframes that show the order of information without the visual design.
This is also when the address map is started: a list of every current address and the new address it will point to. It is the single most important document for keeping search visibility through a redesign, and our guide to website redesign and SEO explains how to build and check it.
Content is the usual bottleneck. Decide early who writes what, who approves it and by when, and start with the pages that matter most to the goals.
Step 4: Design
Design turns the structure into a visual system: typography, colour, spacing, components and their states, then the key pages built from them. Working as a system rather than page by page keeps the site consistent and makes future pages easier to add.
Feedback works best in agreed rounds, from one decision-maker who has gathered the views of colleagues beforehand. Comments such as “make it pop” are hard to act on; comments tied to goals, such as “the enquiry button is hard to find on a phone”, are easy.
Step 5: Build
The approved design becomes a working site on a staging address that only your team can see. The build covers the theme or front end, the content management system, forms, integrations such as booking, payments or a CRM, and the languages agreed in the scope.
A good build gives your team an editing experience that matches how they work, with page templates and blocks they can use without a developer. Ask to see the editing side during the build, not only on launch day.
Step 6: Test and migrate
Before launch, the site is checked on real phones and browsers, against accessibility criteria, for speed and for every form and integration. Content is moved or entered, and the redirect map is completed and tested so that every old address leads to the right new page.
Our website QA checklist lists the checks we run before a site goes live. For the move itself, Google’s guidance on site moves with address changes sets out how search engines expect redirects to work.
Step 7: Launch and the weeks after
Launch is a planned event, not a button press. It is usually scheduled early in the week, with the team available to fix issues the same day.
- On the day: switch the domain, check redirects, forms, analytics and consent, submit the sitemap and watch for errors.
- In the first weeks: monitor search visibility, crawl errors, page speed and enquiries, and fix what the monitoring shows.
- Handover: training for the people who will edit the site, documentation and a clear arrangement for maintenance and updates.
How long does a website redesign take?
The timeline depends on the number of pages and templates, the amount of new content, the number of languages, the integrations and how quickly decisions are made. As a general guide, a small site with a handful of templates can take a few weeks, a typical company site a few months, and a large, multilingual or heavily integrated site longer.
The steps overlap. Content work runs alongside design, and development can start on components while the last pages are designed. What rarely overlaps safely is approval: building pages before their design is approved usually means building them twice.
Which decisions fall to you?
The agency leads the process, but some decisions only the client can make. Making them on time is the biggest single factor in keeping to the timeline.
- Who decides. One person with the authority to approve, who collects colleagues’ views first.
- What the site is for. The goals and the audiences, ranked.
- What content says. Facts, offers, prices and claims only you can confirm.
- What can be removed. Old pages, sections and features that no longer earn their place.
- Who runs the site afterwards. The people who will edit it, and the maintenance arrangement.
If you are weighing whether to run the redesign with your own team or with an agency, our comparison of a website redesign with an agency or in-house sets out the trade-offs.
Which common mistakes slow a redesign?
- No audit. Redesigning without knowing which pages bring traffic and enquiries.
- Too many decision-makers. Feedback from several people that contradicts itself.
- Content left to the end. Designs approved with placeholder text, then rebuilt when the real text arrives.
- Scope changes after design approval. New features added late without a new timeline.
- No redirect map. Old addresses that return errors after launch and lose search visibility.
- Launching on a Friday. Problems that appear when nobody is available to fix them.
Questions people ask
What are the steps of a website redesign?
A website redesign usually has seven steps: an audit of the current site, agreeing goals and scope, planning content and structure, design, build, testing and migration, and launch with follow-up. Each step produces something concrete, such as a findings report, a sitemap, approved designs or a redirect map, and each needs input and approval from the client.
How long does a website redesign take?
It depends on the number of pages and templates, how much content is new, the languages, the integrations and how quickly decisions are made. A small site can take a few weeks, a typical company site a few months, and a large or multilingual site longer. Slow content and approvals cause more delays than design or code.
Who should be involved from our side?
You need one decision-maker with authority to approve, a person who knows the subject well enough to supply or check content, someone responsible for legal and compliance pages, and the people who will edit the site afterwards. Involve sales or customer service early, because they know the questions visitors actually ask.
Will a redesign hurt our search rankings?
A redesign can lose search visibility if old addresses break or valuable content disappears. With an audit of the pages that bring traffic, a complete map of old to new addresses with permanent redirects, equivalent content and monitoring after launch, most sites keep their visibility and often improve it, because the new site is faster and clearer.
Should content be written before or after design?
Start content before design and finish it before build. Design works best with real content, because the length and structure of text shape the layout. At least the key pages should have draft content when design begins, and final content should be approved before pages are built, so they are not built twice.
A redesign goes smoothly when the audit comes first, the scope is written down, content starts early and one person decides. See how our website redesign service runs each step, or tell us about your project and we will map the process to your site.
