Title: Use a Website Redesign RFP to Maximize Your Project’s Success
Author: Travis McAshan
Published: March 12, 2022
Last modified: September 12, 2024

---

# Use a Website Redesign RFP to Maximize Your Project’s Success

 Web Design & Development

![Profile Image](https://www.glidedesign.com/wp-content/uploads/Travis-1.png)

Travis McAshan

Published Mar 2022

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rfp-to-maximize-your-projects-success.svg)

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Table of contents

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Your company leadership has decided that it’s time for your website to be redesigned.
Maybe it’s looking outdated, not performing like it used to, or lacking in features
that your target customers expect. Whatever the reason, you are now tasked with 
vetting and choosing the right digital design agency to help you accomplish the 
redesign and launch of a successful new company website.

If you’re feeling unsure about exactly how to best accomplish this task, don’t worry,
you’re in good company. For many marketing leaders, finding the right agency – one
that can create a great finished product that achieves their goals _And_ can do 
it within their budget – is the hardest part of the process.

 Table Of Contents

 1. [Create a Website Redesign RFP (Request for Proposals)](https://www.glidedesign.com/blog/use-a-website-redesign-rfp-to-maximize-your-projects-success/?output_format=md#create-a-website-redesign-rfp-request-for-proposals)
 2. [What to include in your website redesign RFP](https://www.glidedesign.com/blog/use-a-website-redesign-rfp-to-maximize-your-projects-success/?output_format=md#what-to-include-in-your-website-redesign-rfp)
 3. [Choosing the right agency for your website redesign](https://www.glidedesign.com/blog/use-a-website-redesign-rfp-to-maximize-your-projects-success/?output_format=md#choosing-the-right-agency-for-your-website-redesign)
 4.  * [Ready to take action?](https://www.glidedesign.com/blog/use-a-website-redesign-rfp-to-maximize-your-projects-success/?output_format=md#ready-to-take-action)

## **Create a Website Redesign RFP (Request for Proposals)**

If this is the first time you’re writing a website design RFP, or if it’s been a
while since your last one, you may be wondering what details you should include,
how to format it, what to ask for, among other things.

Having read and responded to hundreds of website redesign RFPs, I can tell you the
best ones fulfill these three major tasks:

**Table Of Contents**

 * Clearly explain the goals of the new website design.
 * Describe the criteria for the desires and expectations of the new site.
 * Provide the most critical details like functionality requirements, deadlines,
   and proposal submission information.

I also can’t stress how important it is to make very sure you are sending your RFP
to the _Right _agencies. You want to do your research and be choosy when deciding
which vendors are the best qualified for your specific project. Keep in mind that
you aren’t just asking potential agencies  to answer questions that will help you
pick the best partner — you’re also communicating to them about who you are and 
creating an impression of whether they would like to work with you.

![hand using pen to write on paperwork](https://www.glidedesign.com/wp-content/uploads/
website-redesign-rfp-2-1024x683.jpg)

## **What to include in your website redesign RFP**

As far as the amount of detail and length of your RFP is concerned, I would categorize
most RFPs I receive into 3 categories: Small (2-3 pages), Medium (10-12 pages), 
and Large (20+ pages). The approach you choose will depend heavily on the amount
of detail you have about your current site and customers, and whether you have a
lot of ideas about what you’d like for your new site or not. Whichever level of 
detail to decide to include, each of the following sections explained are important
to touch upon in order to get the best responses.

**1.** **Overview & Company Background **– To open your RFP and set the context 
for the rest of the proposal, you should start with a description of your company
and products/services, why you need a website redesign, and what the overall requested
project includes.

For your company overview, include enough information so that those who have never
heard of you will get a sense of your business, but not so much that you overwhelm
your reader with unnecessary history. When describing why you need a website redesign,
some good points to make sure to address are: What are your biggest pain points 
or areas of greatest need? and What are the 2-3 main goals of your website redesign?
Last, when giving the overview of your project requests, be sure to include what
key features or functionalities are most important to you (try for your top 5-7 
features or functionalities).

**2.** **Budget Range – **Some marketing leaders are hesitant to include their budget
in an RFP, but it’s a crucial detail to provide if you want to receive the best 
responses to your RFP. Knowing your budget range helps an agency recommend solutions
that are feasible for your project and plan the best way to allocate their time 
and resources if awarded the business. It’s a waste of both your time and the time
of the agency responding if their services are going to be out of your budget. Providing
a budget range also lends more credibility to your RFP and shows that you are committed
to the project.

For the agencies responding, having a budget to plan around will help them customize
their suggestions for the design and functionalities so they can achieve your goals
within that budget. Providing the budget helps to define the playing field for all
of the agencies that will potentially respond to your RFP, and make it easier for
you to evaluate and compare their responses internally.

**3. Timeline & Important Deadlines – **Creating a desired, but reasonable timeline
for your website redesign is important both for the agencies responding and your
internal team. You don’t want your timeline to be so aggressive that you push your
team too quickly through important steps, but you also don’t want to let the process
draw out and lose steam. Remember to think about whether there are any events or
activities coming up where you’ll definitely need your new website. If there is 
a pressing event, make sure to get started early and allow adequate time for the
crucial creation and testing steps to get the polished, effective website you are
looking for.

Unfortunately, there’s no magic answer for how long a website redesign will take.
A lot of it depends on the amount of pages and content on your website, it’s functionality
and the number of integrations needed, and how approvals will be handled. However,
a general range for a typical website redesign is anywhere from 3-6 months. 

You should provide a projected timeline with your desired launch date that accounts
for multiple rounds of revisions and your internal approval process.

In addition to the timeline for your redesign project, you should also include a
timeline and dates for your RFP response process. The most important dates to include
here are your RFP response deadline and your vendor selection deadline (so agencies
know when to expect to hear back from you). You can also provide details such as
your timeframe for shortlisting agencies and your plan for interviewing if those
steps are part of your plan.

**4.** **Challenges/Reasons for Redesign- **In this section, you should define the
issues you’re hoping this new website will solve. In order to provide clear details
in this section, if you haven’t already, you should conduct an audit of your current
website to help you uncover what aspects are still working well and what isn’t performing
anymore (we talk about that in[ more detail in a previous blog](https://www.glidedesign.com/reasons-redesign-your-website/)).
Your audit should cover all aspects of your site from your content, to SEO, to page
performance, to customer journey. As a jumping off point for your analysis, you****
can use online tools such as HubSpot’s free[ Website Grader](https://website.grader.com/)
tool to generate a report showing how well the different aspects of your site are
currently performing.** **Make sure to remember that your website audit is an opportunity
to discover what isn’t working on your current site, but also to uncover what is
working well that you want to make sure to keep. For example, if your customers 
recognize and enjoy your current branding, you want to carry that over to the new
design.

**5.** **Project Goals – **You should use the knowledge you’ve gleaned from your
website audit and the reasons you compiled for your redesign from the previous section
as a basis for creating your project goals. Having a few, well considered major 
goals for your website redesign will help focus the suggestions a responding agency
makes for overall design and functionality. Some common major goals include updating
an outdated look or launching a refreshed brand, creating a better user experience,
adding new functionality or content, and improving the site’s visibility tactics
to increase the number of visitors to your site. For more in-depth details about
this, head over to our blog about[ setting and evaluating your digital marketing goals](https://www.glidedesign.com/digital-marketing-goals-setting-and-reevaluating/).

Something I always suggest to our clients is to make sure the major goals for your
website are tied back to your business objectives. To ensure this, it’s good to 
ask questions like:

 * What is the primary action you want users to take?
 * What if they don’t take that action? What else could they do?
 * How do these actions support your business model and/or marketing goals?

Once you have set the major goals for your redesign, you should add some more granular
goals under each. An easy way to do this is to create an outline that starts with
your main goals prioritized in a numbered list. Then you can add sub-goals that 
define exactly what success in that goal should look like. This should include actual
numbers and metrics that your team will use to evaluate the future success of the
redesign. For example, if your main goal is to increase your visibility, you could
define that goal like this: “Improve average new monthly visitors from X to Y.” 
Just make sure that the goals you set for your site are realistic- there are some
great ideas and suggestions for setting website design goals over at[ Crazy Egg](https://www.crazyegg.com/blog/website-redesign-tips/).

**6.** **Audience **– In this section, you should** **describe who your target customers
are in as much detail as possible- include information from any demographic data
you’ve collected or customer personas you’ve created for your marketing and sales
efforts. Having a clear and thorough picture of the audience you are trying to attract
and engage on your website is critical for the agency responding to your RFP. The
type of audience you are targeting will influence everything they suggest, from 
functionality and UX, to content and aesthetics.

Even if you don’t have specific demographic information about your ideal customers,
you can provide details about the type of customer they are and why they might be
seeking your product or service. Some basic questions to get you started on this
process should include:

 * Who is the primary audience? (i.e. customer, partner, investor, etc.)
 * Who are the secondary audiences? (i.e. vendor, employee, etc)
 * What pain point, circumstance or unmet need has brought them to your site?

**7.** **Desired Website & Requirements – **At this point in your RFP is where you
finally get to describe to your reader exactly what your ideal website would look
like and do. Providing clear, detailed descriptions in this section is crucial to
receiving RFP responses that tick all of your boxes. When you are drafting your 
desired list of features and functionalities for your new site, be sure to identify
which are “must haves’ and which would be ‘nice to have’.

Make sure to be as detailed as possible when describing specific features you want
included, and better yet, provide urls specific websites that show examples. Be 
careful not to use ambiguous terms like “modern” or “interactive” because they mean
different things to different people. To help the responding agency better understand
your desires, include a list of competitor and non-competitor websites that you 
like with notes about the specific aspects that caught your eye, along with a list
of the sites you don’t like and why. If you are requesting something like copywriting,
provide details on the type and amount of copy required (i.e. sections, pages, headlines,
etc.). The more specific you are in your RFP, the more specific responses you’ll
get in proposals.

**Functionalities of new website**

The list of functionalities you are requesting is different from your desired website
features. A functionality essentially defines what your website can do or how it
works. Some details you should make sure to include in this section are where your
current site is hosted, whether you currently use a CRM or marketing automation 
platform, and if there are any other third-party integrations you need to make sure
are carried over to your new site.

Some common examples of website functionality requests include:

 * In-site search
 * Blog/news feed
 * Photo/video library
 * Forms
 * Event calendar
 * Social sharing tool
 * Location map
 * Customer portal
 * eCommerce/Shopping cart

It’s a good idea to create two separate lists of functionalities – those that are
absolutely required, and those that are desired depending on the budget. Separating
your ‘desired’ from your ‘required’ will help agencies give details about the differing
cost and timeline options for your situation.

**Proposal Requirements and Selection Criteria****
It’s a good idea to round out
the end of your RFP by clearly explaining how you and your team will be evaluating
the proposal responses and making the final selection for your project. Providing
an overview outline of what you’d like responding agencies to include in their proposal
responses can help you save some time during the evaluation phase. Don’t forget 
to include the contact information for proposal responses, such as where the proposal
response should be sent and who to contact with any questions.

For more tips on how to draft your website redesign RFP, check out the examples 
and template in[ RFP360’s blog article](https://rfp360.com/website-rfp/).

![young boy reads map](https://www.glidedesign.com/wp-content/uploads/roadmap-for-
a-website-1024x682.jpg)

## **Choosing the right agency for your website redesign**

The RFP process can feel intimidating and time consuming. But by following these
tips, you can improve your process and develop an RFP that gets the best responses
and helps you position your redesign project for success.

A website redesign is a big undertaking that requires a good deal of time and a 
sizable investment to make happen. With that in mind, it’s important to choose the
right partner—an agency that has the expertise and capabilities to do the work, 
and an agency that your team will enjoy working with.

At Glide, our team of designers, developers, and project managers invest their experience
and personal drive in helping[ our thriving customers](https://www.glidedesign.com/clients/)
make the process a smooth one. If you’re up for it, we’re more than happy to discuss
potentially working together and redesigning your website.

#### Ready to take action?

At Glide, our team of designers, developers and project managers invest their experience
and personal drive in helping our thriving customers make the process a smooth one.
If you’re up for it, we’re more than happy to discuss potentially working together
and redesigning your website.

 [Let's Chat About Your Project!](https://www.glidedesign.com/lets-talk/)

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 Table of contents

![optimize-your-brand-ai-driven-search-ebook-cover](https://www.glidedesign.com/
wp-content/uploads/optimize-your-brand-ai-driven-search-ebook-cover-300x388.png)

 Future-Proof Your SEO with GEO Strategies

Discover the key insights on how AI-driven search is reshaping digital visibility.

 [Download Ebook](https://www.glidedesign.com/blog/use-a-website-redesign-rfp-to-maximize-your-projects-success/?output_format=md#geted-post-form-popup)

![optimize-your-brand-ai-driven-search-ebook-cover](https://www.glidedesign.com/
wp-content/uploads/optimize-your-brand-ai-driven-search-ebook-cover-300x388.png)

 Future-Proof Your SEO with GEO Strategies

Discover the key insights on how AI-driven search is reshaping digital visibility.

 Download PDF

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