What Does A Website Redesign Include

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Key Takeaways

• A website redesign produces specific, tangible deliverables at each phase of the project.
• Understanding what you should receive helps you evaluate proposals and hold vendors accountable.
• Shorter engagements often cut phases that are not optional. Knowing which ones matters.
• The deliverables list below reflects a full, properly scoped redesign from discovery through post-launch.

Why This Question Matters Before You Sign Anything

Most businesses entering a redesign project have a general sense of what they want: a better-looking, faster, more effective site. They rarely have a clear picture of exactly what they are paying for.

That gap creates problems. Scope disputes, surprise invoices, missing deliverables, and post-launch confusion about who owns what all stem from unclear expectations at the start.

If you are still getting clear on what a website redesign actually is, that is a good starting point before diving into deliverables.

This article breaks down what a complete redesign should include at every phase, and what gets cut when projects are scoped too thinly.

Phase 1: Discovery Deliverables

Discovery is where the project is defined before design begins.

A properly scoped discovery phase produces:

• Stakeholder interview summaries: Documented findings from conversations with key decision-makers about goals, constraints, and success criteria.
• Competitive analysis: A structured review of how competitor sites are positioned, structured, and converting, with specific gaps identified.
• Analytics audit: A review of current site performance data covering traffic sources, top pages, bounce rates, conversion paths, and drop-off points.
• User research findings: Insights from user interviews, surveys, or usability testing on the current site, depending on project scope.
• Project brief: A written summary of goals, audience, key messages, scope, and success metrics. This document governs the rest of the project.

Discovery deliverables are often the first thing cut when budgets are tight. That is also when projects tend to go off the rails mid-build.

Phase 2: Strategy and Planning Deliverables

With discovery complete, the project moves into structured planning.

• Sitemap: A visual map of every page on the new site, showing hierarchy, navigation structure, and how sections connect.
• Content audit: A page-by-page review of existing content with a keep, rewrite, or cut recommendation for each.
• Content strategy document: A plan covering messaging hierarchy, content types, tone guidelines, and which pages need new copy versus migration of existing content.
• SEO transition plan: A mapping of every indexed URL on the current site to its destination on the new site, with redirect specifications.
• Project plan and timeline: A milestone-based schedule with defined review points, content deadlines, and a go-live target.

The SEO transition plan is one of the most overlooked deliverables in this phase. A redesign without one is how businesses lose organic rankings they spent years building.

Phase 3: Design Deliverables

Design is where the site starts to take visual shape.

• Wireframes: Low-fidelity, black-and-white layouts showing page structure, content hierarchy, and user flow before visual design begins.
• Design system: A documented set of visual standards covering typography, color palette, spacing, button styles, form elements, and component patterns.
• High-fidelity mockups: Fully designed page templates for key pages, showing the final visual direction with real content in place.
• Mobile designs: Separate mobile layouts for every template, not just a scaled-down version of desktop.
• Design review documentation: Notes from client review cycles with change requests tracked and resolved.

High-fidelity mockups should use real content, not placeholder text. Designs built with lorem ipsum almost always require significant revision once real copy is dropped in.

Phase 4: Development and Build Deliverables

Development turns approved designs into a working site.

• Functional website build: Every page template and content section built, coded, and linked according to the approved designs.
• CMS configuration: The content management system set up with structured content types, fields, and editor permissions so your team can manage the site after launch.
• Integrations: Third-party tools connected and tested, including analytics platforms, CRM integrations, form handlers, live chat, and any other tools specified in the project brief.
• Performance optimization: Images compressed, scripts optimized, caching configured, and Core Web Vitals benchmarks met before QA begins.
• Redirect implementation: Every URL in the SEO transition plan redirected correctly and verified.

Phase 5: Quality Assurance Deliverables

QA is a dedicated phase, not a final checklist item done the day before launch.

• Cross-browser testing report: Verification that the site renders and functions correctly across Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge on both desktop and mobile.
• Device testing report: Testing across a range of physical devices and screen sizes, not just browser emulation.
• Functionality testing: Every form, button, link, navigation element, and interactive feature tested and confirmed working.
• Performance report: Final Core Web Vitals scores and PageSpeed Insights results before launch, with documentation.
• Accessibility check: Verification against WCAG 2.1 AA standards for keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, and color contrast.

Phase 6: Launch and Post-Launch Deliverables

Launch is not the end of the project. What happens immediately after matters just as much.

• Go-live checklist: A verified record of everything confirmed before the site went live.
• Analytics setup: Google Analytics 4 configured, goals and conversion events set up, and baseline data confirmed.
• Search Console setup: Site submitted to Google Search Console, sitemap submitted, and indexing confirmed.
• SSL verification: Security certificate confirmed active and correctly configured on the live domain.
• Handoff documentation: Written documentation covering how to update content, add new pages, manage integrations, and handle common site tasks.
• Team training: A recorded or live walkthrough of the CMS so your team can manage the site without developer assistance.

For a full scope definition document you can bring into vendor conversations, the website redesign scope of work template covers what to include and how to structure it. And for a broader view of what a properly written project scope covers, the website redesign deliverables breakdown goes into additional depth on what to expect from a well-run agency engagement.

What Gets Cut in Cheaper Engagements

Most deliverable gaps are predictable.

A lower project price often means one or more of these line items was removed from scope.

So What Should a Redesign Include for Your Project?

The honest answer is that the right scope depends on the size of your site, the state of your current platform, and what specific business outcomes the redesign needs to achieve.

A 10-page site has a different deliverables list than a 60-page site with a CRM integration and a gated content library.

The website redesign services page covers what a full Webflow engagement includes and how scope varies by project size and complexity.

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Wondering What You Would Actually Get?

The clearest way to answer that question is a 30-minute conversation where we look at your current site, your goals, and what a properly scoped project would include.

LOW/CODE Agency is a leading AI product team for SMBs and startups. We have shipped 450+ products for companies including Medtronic, Coca-Cola, and Zapier. Every project we scope includes the full deliverables list above, with nothing quietly removed to fit a budget that was too low.

We build in Webflow, which handles CMS configuration, performance optimization, and team training in a way that legacy platforms simply cannot match.

Most companies do not know what they are missing in a proposal until they have already signed one that left it out.

If you want a scope that accounts for everything, schedule a call and we will walk you through exactly what your project would include.