How to write a website redesign RFP (with a short template)

A website redesign RFP (request for proposal) is a short document that tells developers and agencies what your current site is, what's wrong with it, what the new one has to do, your budget and your deadline, so the proposals you get back can be compared fairly. For most US small and mid-sized businesses, a good one runs 3 to 8 pages, states a budget range, goes to three to five vendors and gives them about three weeks to reply. There's a short website RFP template further down that you can copy, fill in and send.

I'm Mohit Goyal, a freelance senior web developer in Gurugram, India, and I build and rebuild sites on Next.js, React and WordPress for clients in India, the UK and the US. As the developer, I'm the one who has to price a project from whatever the client sends, so this guide is written from that chair: what a developer needs from you to quote properly, what's missing from most RFPs, and what's changed for a website redesign RFP in 2026.

What is a website redesign RFP, and do you need one?

A website redesign RFP is a written request that asks several vendors to propose how they'd rebuild your existing website and what it would cost. You need a formal one when the project is large, when several people must approve the choice, or when your organization's rules require it. For a smaller job, a one-page brief does the same work in far less time.

A redesign RFP differs from a new-website RFP in one way that matters: there's already a site. It has pages, search rankings, forms, logins and years of content, and the vendor has to move or replace all of it without breaking what already works. That's why the redesign version needs a few sections a new build doesn't: an inventory of the current site, a content migration plan (migration just means moving your existing pages and files to the new site) and a plan to protect your Google traffic.

People mix up four documents. Here's the plain version.

So do you need the full thing? eSEOspace, an agency that publishes an RFP template pack, draws the line by project size: under about $30,000, the RFP process can eat a noticeable share of the project's value in staff time, and above roughly $100,000 the process cost is small next to the decision. In between, it depends on how many people need to sign off. The same article's middle path is one I agree with: write a one-page brief and send it to three vendors you've picked yourself on evidence.

Two more cases where the formal route is right. Public bodies, many nonprofits and anyone spending grant money often have no choice, because procurement rules demand it. And if your leadership team can't agree on what the website is for, writing the RFP forces that argument to happen before you've hired anyone, which is much cheaper than having it halfway through the build.

What should a website redesign RFP include in 2026?

A website redesign RFP in 2026 needs nine things: who you are, why you're redesigning, an inventory of the current site, what content moves, how search traffic is protected, the systems the site connects to, accessibility and AI search requirements, budget and timeline, and how you'll pick a winner. Everything else is optional.

The most common problem isn't a missing section. It's thinness. Folyo, a service that passes website RFPs to agencies, studied 503 of them from 2025 and found the average RFP description is 50 words. Nobody can price a redesign from 50 words, so vendors guess, and you get quotes that can't be compared.

How do you describe the current site?

List the address, the platform it runs on (WordPress, Squarespace, Shopify, custom), roughly how many pages it has, and who updates it today. Then add two short lists: what works and must be kept, and what's broken. If you can share read-only access to Google Analytics and Google Search Console (Google's free tools that show visits and search performance), say so. A vendor who can see your real traffic writes a far better proposal than one working from your homepage.

Be honest about whether this is a redesign or a rebuild. A redesign changes how the site looks and reads. A rebuild changes what it runs on. FatLab's Shane Larrabee, who says he's been responding to these RFPs for over 25 years, points out that organizations often say "redesign" when what they need is a rebuild. Use the wrong word and the low quotes come from the vendors who believed you.

What do you say about content migration?

Say how many pages exist, how many you'll keep, and who writes the new words. This is the part most budgets get wrong. FatLab's author says he has seen content migration add 20 to 40 percent to a project budget when it wasn't scoped up front, and that projects regularly run 30 to 50 percent past their first estimate because content arrives late.

A simple way to do it: export a list of your pages into a spreadsheet and mark each one keep, rewrite, merge or delete. A 300-page site where only 150 pages are worth keeping is a very different job from moving all 300. Attach the spreadsheet to the RFP. It takes an afternoon and removes the largest guess from every quote.

How do you protect your Google rankings in the RFP?

Ask every vendor, in writing, how they'll keep your search traffic through the move. FatLab puts the risk plainly: a poorly executed redesign can lose 20 to 60 percent of organic traffic (organic traffic means visits from unpaid search results). The fix is unglamorous work: every old address gets pointed to its new one with a redirect (an instruction that sends visitors and Google from the old page to the new page), page titles and descriptions are carried over, and someone watches Search Console after launch.

Put three requirements in the RFP: a full redirect map before launch, the new sitemap submitted to Google at launch, and at least 90 days of monitoring afterwards. If your new site will run on Next.js, my free Redirect Map Builder turns a list of old addresses into the redirect rules. And if you want to see what happens when this step is skipped, I've written up how to recover when traffic drops after a redesign.

Which systems and integrations do you list?

List every system the website talks to: your CRM (the tool that stores leads and customers, like HubSpot or Salesforce), booking or reservation software, payment provider, email marketing tool, live chat, analytics and any login area. For each one, say whether it stays, goes or is undecided.

On the Crowne Plaza London Kingston hotel website, which I rebuilt on WordPress and Elementor, the room pages had to link through to IHG's booking system, and the site also needed meeting enquiry forms and promo popups. You can't see any of that from a quick look at a homepage, and each item is work that someone has to price. That short list of connections is exactly what belongs in this section of an RFP.

Also say whether you have a platform in mind. "We want to stay on WordPress because our team knows it" is useful. "We're open, tell us what you'd recommend and why" is useful too. Silence is the only bad answer, because half the vendors will assume one thing and half another.

What's new for a website redesign RFP in 2026?

Three things deserve a line each in 2026: accessibility, AI search and ownership.

Accessibility means people with disabilities can use the site, for example with a screen reader or a keyboard alone. Folyo found that half of all RFPs now mention accessibility compliance, but a mention isn't a requirement. Name the standard. WCAG 2.1 AA is the one Folyo uses as its example of a clear requirement (WCAG is the published set of web accessibility guidelines, and AA is its middle level). Then ask how the vendor tests for it. eSEOspace's scoring guide goes further and says a proposal that offers an accessibility overlay or widget should score zero on that line, because a pop-up widget doesn't fix the pages underneath.

AI search is the newer one. Customers now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI answers for recommendations, and those tools can only quote a site they're allowed to read and can make sense of. Ask vendors how the new site will handle AI crawlers (the programs AI companies use to read websites), structured data (hidden labels that tell machines what a page is about) and page speed. You don't need to know the right answer yourself. You'll learn a lot from who has one.

Ownership is the dull line that saves you later. State that the domain, hosting account, code, design files and every login will be in your company's name at the end, and that you can move the site to another developer without asking permission.

Related guide: How to write a project scope or PRD for a website

Should you put your budget in a website redesign RFP?

Yes. State a range or a ceiling. It's the single change that most improves the proposals you get, and most buyers skip it: Folyo found that only 27% of RFPs include a stated budget.

The usual worry is that vendors will simply quote the top of the range. Some will. But the other outcome is worse. Without a number, one vendor assumes a light refresh and another assumes a full rebuild, and FatLab describes the result: proposals ranging from $15,000 to $150,000 for the same brief. You haven't learned who's better value. You've learned that nobody knew what you wanted.

If you don't know what's reasonable, these published dollar ranges give you a starting point. They're market figures from one agency's guide, not my prices.

Those figures come from 925 Studios' 2026 breakdown of redesign costs by provider. For a view from the larger end, the median stated budget across Folyo's 503 RFPs was $50,000, though that sample leans toward nonprofits and government bodies, which run bigger and more formal projects than a typical small business. I go through the US numbers in more detail in how much a website redesign costs in the US.

Two budget habits are worth copying from the people who answer RFPs for a living. First, hold something back: FatLab suggests a 10 to 20 percent contingency, so, as a worked example, a $60,000 project is really a $66,000 to $72,000 commitment. Second, if you can't describe the project well enough to budget it, buy a discovery phase first. That's a short paid piece of work where a vendor audits the site and writes the plan, which FatLab prices at $5,000 to $15,000. You then put the finished plan out for quotes.

What does a short website RFP template look like?

A short website RFP template has ten headed sections and fits on three or four pages once filled in. Copy the one below into a document, replace everything in square brackets, delete what doesn't apply, and attach your page spreadsheet.

WEBSITE REDESIGN RFP: [COMPANY NAME]
Issued: [date]          Proposals due: [date, about 3 weeks out]
Contact: [name, role, email]

1. ABOUT US
[2 to 3 sentences: what you sell, who buys it, where you operate.]

2. WHY WE ARE REDESIGNING
[The 3 biggest problems with the current site, with numbers
if you have them. Example: "Mobile visitors leave before the
quote form loads."]

3. WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE
[2 to 4 measurable goals. Example: "More quote requests per
month" or "Staff can publish a page without a developer."]

4. CURRENT SITE
Address: [URL]
Platform: [WordPress / Squarespace / Shopify / other]
Size: [number of pages, posts, products]
Keep: [what works and must stay]
Fix or drop: [what doesn't work]
Analytics and Search Console access: [yes / on request]

5. CONTENT
Pages to move as they are: [number]
Pages to rewrite: [number]     Written by: [us / vendor]
Pages to delete or merge: [number]
Photos and video: [existing / new shoot needed]

6. SEARCH TRAFFIC
We require: a redirect for every old address, page titles
and descriptions carried over, a new sitemap submitted at
launch, and 90 days of monitoring after launch.

7. SYSTEMS AND REQUIREMENTS
Connects to: [CRM, booking, payments, email, chat, analytics]
Platform preference: [stated, or "open, please recommend"]
Accessibility: WCAG 2.1 AA, tested before launch.
AI search: tell us how AI crawlers and structured data
will be handled.
Ownership: domain, hosting, code and logins in our name.

8. BUDGET AND TIMELINE
Budget: [range or ceiling], including [what it covers].
Launch by: [date], because [reason].
Decision makers: [names and roles].

9. WHAT TO SEND US
- Your understanding of our problem, in your own words
- Approach, platform and why
- Who will do the work, by name
- Timeline with milestones
- Price broken down by phase, plus what is not included
- Costs after launch: hosting, support, licenses
- 2 or 3 similar projects, each with a contact we can call

10. HOW WE WILL DECIDE
Questions by: [date]. Answers shared with all vendors.
Shortlist calls: [week]. Decision: [date].
Scoring: [criteria and weights].

That's the whole thing. If your project is small, sections 1, 2, 4, 8 and 9 on a single page make a perfectly good brief. If you'd rather start from a description of your business and get a first draft of the scope, my free Project Scope Generator turns a two-line idea into pages, features and a build order that you can paste into sections 3 and 7.

How many vendors should get your RFP, and how long should they have?

Send it to three to five vendors and give them three to four weeks. Both numbers are about respect for effort, yours and theirs.

On the count, the advice is consistent. FatLab says three to five vendors is the sweet spot, Sayenko Design says the same, and a guide from Kolonell, an international web studio, stretches it only slightly, to four to six. Fewer than three and you have nothing to compare. More than five or six and you'll spend weeks reading documents that start to blur together.

There's also a reason on the vendor side. FatLab cites a figure that agencies spend an average of 25 hours on each RFP response, and that nearly half of the RFPs they receive are judged not worth the effort. A good vendor looks at how many others are bidding before deciding whether to spend that time. Tell them it's a shortlist of four and you'll get more careful answers than a blast to twenty.

On time, Folyo's data shows a median response window of 21 days, with 23% of RFPs giving less than two weeks. Its recommendation is three to four weeks as a minimum. A tight deadline doesn't get you faster proposals. It gets you proposals only from vendors with nothing else to do, or ones pasting from a template.

Build in a questions window as well. Give vendors a date by which to send questions, then share every answer with all of them. The questions themselves are useful: they show you who read the document closely.

What should a good website redesign proposal contain?

A good website redesign proposal restates your problem in the vendor's own words, explains the approach and platform, names the people who'll do the work, gives a timeline with milestones, breaks the price into phases and says clearly what isn't included. If you asked for those items in section 9 of the template, you can lay the proposals side by side.

Here's what I'd look for when the replies come in.

• Evidence they looked at your site. A strong proposal mentions specific pages, real problems and things you didn't tell them. A weak one could have been sent to anyone with the company name swapped.
• A price you can take apart. Design, build, content migration, SEO work and testing should each have a figure. A single total hides which parts were left out.
• A list of exclusions. Copywriting, photography, paid plugins, hosting and stock images are the usual gaps. A vendor who lists what's excluded is being straight with you.
• Costs after launch. Hosting, support, software licenses and a warranty period (the time after launch when bugs are fixed free). FatLab calls thirty days the minimum warranty, with sixty reasonable for mid-range projects and ninety for complex ones.
• Named people. You want to know who writes the code, and whether they're staff or subcontractors.
• References you can phone. Similar size, similar type of business, and a real person to call.

Red flags are mostly the reverse. No questions asked before sending the proposal. A launch date that matches yours exactly with no comment on whether it's realistic. A price far below the others with no explanation. A promise of first-page Google rankings. And vague wording on who owns the finished site.

How do you score website redesign proposals?

Score each proposal against written criteria with weights that you decided before the proposals arrived, and keep price to a modest share of the total. Deciding the weights early stops the loudest person in the room from picking the winner on looks.

eSEOspace's scoring guide suggests this split as a starting point:

Those weights are from eSEOspace's guide to RFP evaluation criteria, which makes the point bluntly: price is fifteen percent, not forty. FatLab's version is similar in spirit, with 25% each for redesign experience and technical approach, 20% for team and process, 20% for cost and 10% for references. Change the weights to suit your project. An online store should weight the technical approach higher. A site that lives on search traffic should give SEO its own line.

Three habits make the scoring fair. Have each person score alone before the group meets. Score everything else before you look at the prices, so a cheap bid doesn't colour your view of the work. And when a price is far below the rest, ask why before you celebrate. It usually means a section of your RFP was priced at zero.

For the last two candidates, a 45-minute call with the person who'd do the work tells you more than another round of documents. Ask them to walk you through a past redesign: what moved, what broke and how they fixed it.

How long does the whole RFP process take?

A formal RFP process takes about two to four months before any building starts. FatLab says most organizations spend 9 to 18 weeks on the RFP process alone, and that a typical mid-range redesign then runs 14 to 20 weeks from kickoff to launch. Add those together (my sum, not FatLab's) and you're looking at roughly 23 to 38 weeks from first draft to live site, so start well ahead of any fixed date like a trade show or a rebrand.

A small business with one decision maker can go much faster. This is a sensible sequence for a one-page brief or a short RFP.

1. 1

   Week 1: write it

   Fill in the template, export your page list and agree the budget range with whoever signs the check.

2. 2

   Week 1: pick your shortlist

   Choose three to five vendors from referrals and portfolios of similar sites. Email each one first to confirm they want to bid.

3. 3

   Weeks 2 to 4: questions and proposals

   Send the RFP, take questions in the first week, share the answers with everyone, and collect proposals at the deadline.

4. 4

   Week 5: score and shortlist

   Each reviewer scores alone, then the group compares. Open prices last. Take the top two forward.

5. 5

   Week 6: calls, references, decision

   Talk to the people who would do the work, phone their references, pick a winner and tell the others promptly.

One courtesy that pays off: tell the vendors who lost, and tell them why in a sentence or two. They spent days on your project. You may need one of them next year.

What mistakes sink a website redesign RFP?

The mistakes that sink a website redesign RFP are a missing budget, a vague scope, too many recipients, too little time and choosing on price alone. Each one produces proposals you can't compare, or keeps good vendors from replying at all.

• No budget. Covered above, and still the most common one.
• A wish list instead of priorities. Twenty "must-haves" tell a vendor nothing. Mark five as required and the rest as nice to have.
• Leaving out the people who use the site. Sales, support and whoever updates the pages each have needs. FatLab calls the late arrival of these requests stakeholder creep, and it's a common reason projects run over.
• Asking for free design work. Requesting homepage mockups as part of the proposal drives away busy vendors and gets you designs made with no knowledge of your business.
• A fixed launch date with no reason. If the date is real, say why. If it isn't, ask vendors what's realistic.
• Forgetting life after launch. Who hosts the site, who fixes bugs, who trains your staff. FatLab notes that training is typically 2 to 4 hours of live sessions, which is small enough to be forgotten and painful to go without.
• Running a process when you've already decided. If you know who you want, hire them and ask two others for rough price ranges as a sense check. Don't make four companies write proposals for a decision that's already made.

Related guide: How to hire a freelance web developer without getting burned

How can I help with your website redesign RFP?

I can help in two ways: by reading your draft before it goes out, or by answering it as one of your vendors.

If your RFP or brief is still a draft, send it to me or bring it to a 20-minute call. I'll tell you which questions a developer would have to guess at, which usually means the content count, the systems list and the redirect plan. Closing those gaps makes every proposal you receive better, including the ones from other people.

If you'd like a proposal from me, here's what you'd be getting. I'm a freelance senior web developer based in Gurugram, India. I've shipped more than 100 websites in over four years, on Next.js, React and WordPress, for clients in India, the UK and the US. That includes redesigns and rebuilds, from hotel and restaurant sites to WooCommerce stores, and I handle the technical SEO, redirects and Core Web Vitals (Google's page speed measures) myself. When a project needs fresh design before the build, I bring in design partners and stay your single point of contact.

I'm not the right choice for every RFP. If your rules require a US-registered vendor, or you need a team of fifteen working on site, a larger agency will suit you better, and I'd rather say so than waste your time.

What should you do next?

Copy the template, fill in sections 1 to 8 as far as you can today, and leave gaps where you don't know the answer. The gaps are the questions worth asking. Then send me the draft or book a 20-minute call and I'll tell you what a developer would need before quoting, or send you a proposal against it if you'd like one in the mix.