A website redesign is the one moment when structure, content, design and technology can all be fixed at once — and the one moment when they can all go wrong together. This checklist follows a corporate website redesign from the first question to the weeks after launch. Use it to brief an agency, to evaluate proposals, or to run the project yourself.
The idea
Redesigns fail in the same three ways: they start with the design instead of the objective; they treat content and migration as someone else’s problem; and they end at launch instead of at results. The checklist is organised to prevent exactly those three — objective first, content and SEO throughout, measurement after.
Why it matters
A corporate website redesign is a significant investment and, done badly, an expensive way to lose search visibility and stakeholder trust at the same time. Done well, it resets the organization’s most-visited channel for the next five years. The difference is planning, and planning is cheap compared to the alternative.
In practice: the checklist
Phase 1 — Objective and evidence
Define the objective — what the website must do for the business: leads, product discovery, investor confidence, recruiting, dealer support. One primary, a few secondary. Written down and agreed.
Audiences and tasks — who visits, what they try to do, where they fail today.
Audit the current site — analytics by section, Search Console queries and pages, content quality, technical state (see the technical SEO audit checklist).
Stakeholder interviews — sales, HR, IR, marketing, IT: what they need, what they fear.
Decide: refresh, redesign or rebuild — honestly, based on the evidence. A refresh is sometimes the right answer.
Benchmark — rankings, traffic, conversions, Core Web Vitals. You will need the “before”.
Phase 2 — Structure and content
Information architecture — sections, hierarchy and navigation designed around audiences and tasks, not the org chart.
Content inventory and plan — every existing page: keep, improve, consolidate, retire. Every new page: owner, deadline, source.
Content model — page types, components and fields defined before design, so the CMS fits the content rather than the reverse.
URL structure and redirect strategy — decided now, not at launch (see the website migration SEO checklist).
Languages and markets — which, how structured, who translates, who approves.
Integrations — CRM, PIM, ERP, careers, SSO, analytics: listed, owners named, APIs confirmed.
Phase 3 — Design
Design principles — from the brand and the objective; written before the first screen.
Wireframes and journeys — key templates and flows prototyped and tested with real users where the stakes justify it.
Visual design — designed for the brand and the content; components defined as a system so the site stays consistent as it grows.
Accessibility — built into the design, not audited at the end.
Editor experience — how each component is edited, previewed and governed.
Phase 4 — Build
CMS decision — by how you publish and integrate (see best enterprise CMS platforms); built custom, not from a template.
Content model implemented — with metadata, structured data and hreflang as fields.
Front-end coded for the design — performance budget agreed and measured per template.
Integrations built and tested against real data.
Content migrated and entered — with review; this is the longest phase and the most underestimated.
Security, environments, backups — staging, production, deployment pipeline, roles and permissions.
Phase 5 — Pre-launch
Full QA — browsers, devices, forms, integrations, error pages.
Content QA — every page proofread, every link checked, every image with alt text.
Technical SEO on staging — crawl, redirects, canonicals, sitemaps, rendering, Core Web Vitals.
Analytics and Search Console — tracking verified, goals set, properties ready.
Accessibility check — automated plus manual on key templates.
Launch plan and rollback — sequence, owners, timing, communication.
Training — editors trained on the real CMS with real content.
Phase 6 — Launch and after
Launch checklist executed — staging blocks removed, redirects verified from production, sitemaps submitted.
Daily monitoring for the first weeks — errors, indexation, rankings, forms.
Internal announcement and feedback loop — issues reported and fixed quickly.
Measurement at 30 and 90 days against the benchmark — written down.
Run budget — maintenance, security, content and continuous improvement funded, with a named team. A website is run, not finished.
What to do
Print Phase 1 and do not start design until every line is done. Give content its own timeline and owner from day one. Put SEO and migration in the plan before the first wireframe. Budget for the years after launch. And choose a partner who will do all of it as one team — strategy, content, design, engineering and SEO — because a redesign split across vendors is where the three failures above come from.
For what a redesign costs and why, see what does a website redesign cost?; for how we run one, see website redesign services.
FAQ
How long does a corporate website redesign take?
Typically several weeks of strategy and design and a few months of build, depending on content volume, languages and integrations. Content is usually the critical path.
Should we redesign in phases?
For large sites, often yes — section by section or market by market, with structure and SEO planned across the whole so the phases add up.
What is most often forgotten?
Content and translation timelines, integration surprises, the redirect map, and the budget for running the site after launch.
Do we need a new CMS?
Not always. If the platform is sound and the content is modelled properly, rebuild on it. If the CMS is the problem, migrate — and carry the content across with a plan.
Planning a redesign? Tell us about it — we scope after a first conversation, and we will say so if a refresh is the right answer.