Website Redesign Tools

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Key Takeaways

• No single tool handles a complete website redesign. The right tool stack is assembled from tools that serve specific phases: discovery, design, content, development, and QA.
• The most important tool decision in a redesign is the CMS platform. Everything else layers on top of or integrates with that choice.
• Free tools often perform comparably to paid alternatives for specific tasks. The tool choice should follow the team's workflow, not convention.
• AI-powered tools have become integral to research, content, and design phases. The best AI tools for website redesign covers the AI-specific layer in detail.

Discovery and Research Tools

Google Analytics and Google Search Console

Both are free and essential. Before any redesign, these tools provide the performance baseline that determines what the new site needs to improve.

Google Analytics shows: which pages receive traffic, where traffic comes from, how long visitors stay, where they exit, and conversion rates by page and traffic source.

Google Search Console shows: which search queries bring visitors to the site, which pages are indexed, Core Web Vitals performance by page group, and any crawl errors or indexation issues.

Neither can be replaced by paid alternatives for their specific functions. Both must be reviewed before redesign scope is defined.

Semrush or Ahrefs

These keyword research and competitive intelligence platforms are the standard for SEO-informed redesign strategy.

Primary uses in a redesign:

• Keyword gap analysis (which terms do competitors rank for that you do not)
• Competitor content audit (what pages and content types drive their organic traffic)
• Backlink profile review (which pages on the current site have external authority that must be preserved)

Either platform is suitable. Semrush has a slight edge for keyword research breadth. Ahrefs has a slight edge for backlink data quality.

Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity

Session recording and heatmap tools show how visitors interact with the current site.

Hotjar is the paid standard. Microsoft Clarity is free and has improved substantially; it is adequate for most SMB projects.

Primary use in a redesign: identifying where visitors drop off, which elements they click, how far they scroll, and where friction exists in the current conversion flow.

Design and Prototyping Tools

Figma

Figma is the industry standard for web design and prototyping. It runs in the browser, supports real-time collaboration, and has a component system that maps well to how websites are actually built.

Primary uses: wireframing, visual design, component library creation, prototype development for user testing.

The Figma plugin ecosystem includes accessibility checking tools, design token exporters, and content population tools that accelerate the design phase.

Miro or FigJam

Whiteboarding tools used in the discovery and strategy phases for information architecture mapping, sitemap creation, and stakeholder alignment workshops.

Both are collaboration-focused and work well for distributed teams. Miro has a larger feature set. FigJam is simpler and tightly integrated with Figma.

Content and Copywriting Tools

Large language models (Claude, ChatGPT)

For generating first-draft copy across all page types. Both are capable for this purpose.

The key workflow: write a positioning brief first, use the LLM to generate copy from the brief, edit the output for brand voice and accuracy.

The edit step is not optional. AI copy that is published without review reflects the LLM's knowledge of how companies in your category communicate, not the specific positioning and voice that differentiates your business.

Grammarly

Grammar and clarity checking for copy review before publication. The paid version adds style and readability improvements. The free version catches the basic errors that AI copy tends to produce.

CMS and Development Tools

WordPress, Webflow, or a headless CMS

CMS selection is the most consequential technical decision in a redesign. The options most commonly used in SMB and mid-market redesigns:

WordPress: Largest ecosystem, most plugins, most development talent available. Requires more maintenance overhead than SaaS platforms. Best for content-heavy sites with complex requirements.

Webflow: Visual development environment that produces clean semantic code. No server maintenance. Strong for marketing sites and mid-complexity builds. Limited for highly custom or high-scale applications.

Headless CMS + frontend framework (Sanity + Next.js, Contentful + Astro, etc.): Maximum flexibility and performance. Higher development cost. Best for teams with technical depth and sites that need custom functionality or very high performance.

The website redesign process covers CMS selection as a phase within the broader project. The platform choice determines what tools, templates, and integrations are available throughout the rest of the project.

GitHub

Version control for the redesign codebase. Not optional for any custom development project. All code should be committed with descriptive messages throughout the project.

Vercel, Netlify, or WP Engine

Hosting and deployment platforms. Vercel and Netlify are the standard for Jamstack and headless deployments. WP Engine is the standard managed hosting for WordPress.

QA and Pre-Launch Tools

Google PageSpeed Insights

Free. Tests Core Web Vitals performance on both mobile and desktop. Run this before launch and resolve any issues scoring below 70 on mobile.

Deque Axe or WAVE

Accessibility testing tools that scan pages for WCAG 2.1 compliance failures.

Axe is available as a browser extension (free) and as an automated testing integration. WAVE is a free web service. Both catch the majority of common accessibility failures before launch.

Screaming Frog

A desktop website crawler that audits the live site for technical SEO issues: broken links, missing metadata, redirect chains, duplicate content, missing alt text.

Run a full crawl before launch to confirm that all planned redirects are in place and that no pages were accidentally removed or inaccessible.

Project Management and Client Collaboration Tools

Notion or Confluence

Documentation tools for project management, creative briefs, content inventories, and stakeholder communication during a redesign.

Notion is more flexible and widely adopted in agency contexts. Confluence integrates tightly with Atlassian tools (Jira) for teams that use that ecosystem.

Linear or Jira

Task and issue tracking for the development and QA phases. Both track bugs, feature requests, and QA findings. Linear is preferred by most product-oriented teams for its speed and simplicity. Jira scales better for large teams with complex workflow requirements.

Webflow Development Services

Webflow Experts On-Demand

Whether you're starting fresh or need a full revamp—we create fast, modern Webflow sites built for growth.

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How to Sequence Tool Adoption

Many redesign projects over-invest in tools and under-invest in the process that tells you what to do with the tools.

A sensible sequencing for a typical SMB redesign:

1. Start with Google Analytics, Search Console, and Hotjar for the discovery phase (all free or low cost)
2. Add Semrush or Ahrefs for keyword and competitive research
3. Use Figma for all design work
4. Select and set up the CMS early in the process, before content production begins
5. Add accessibility and performance testing tools in the QA phase
6. Keep the project management tool consistent throughout

Introducing additional tools mid-project without clear use cases adds coordination overhead without proportional value.

For teams integrating AI into the process, the approach covered in how to use AI to redesign a website explains where specific AI tools fit within this broader tool structure.

LOW/CODE Agency is a leading AI product team for SMBs and startups. Companies planning a redesign project will find we use a current, practical tool stack selected for the specific requirements of the project.

Website projects start at $10,000+. Let's talk about your redesign.