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Template

A website redesign project plan you can put dates against

Redesigns run late for one reason more than any other: the plan lists tasks but not decisions. This template is organised around the six points where someone has to approve something before the next phase can start. Put a name and a date on each gate and the rest of the plan follows. Durations are typical for a company site of ten to forty pages; adjust them, but keep the order.

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  • Six phases
  • One gate each
  • Owner and duration

How to use it

Name the approver before you name the deadline.

Each phase ends at a gate

A gate is a decision that, once made, is expensive to reverse: the structure, the design direction, the content, the launch. For each one, write down who decides, what they need to see to decide, and the date by which they will. If any of those three is unknown, the phase has no end, and the timeline after it is fiction. The plan below gives the phase, its outputs, its gate, the usual owner, and a typical duration. Copy it into whatever tool you use and replace the durations with dates.

Phase 1

Audit and objectives.

  1. 01

    Outputs

    Inventory of current pages with traffic and enquiries per page; list of what is failing and why; objectives with current and target numbers; brief completed.

  2. 02

    Gate

    Objectives and scope approved. The approver confirms what the redesign must achieve and what is out of scope.

  3. 03

    Owner

    Client sponsor, with the supplier producing the audit.

  4. 04

    Duration

    One to two weeks. Longer if analytics and Search Console have to be set up first, which is common.

Phase 2

Structure and content plan.

  1. 01

    Outputs

    Page map with the job of each page; URL plan and redirect map for every changed address; content status per page; writing assignments with dates.

  2. 02

    Gate

    Structure approved. After this, adding a page type is a change request, not a refinement.

  3. 03

    Owner

    Supplier proposes, client sponsor approves. Content owners are named here, not later.

  4. 04

    Duration

    One to two weeks for the plan. Content production runs in parallel with the next two phases and is the usual critical path.

Phase 3

Design.

  1. 01

    Outputs

    Wireframes for each page type; visual direction; full designs for the page types, with responsive states; component list for the build.

  2. 02

    Gate

    Design approved per page type. One round of consolidated feedback per type, from one approver, with real content wherever it exists.

  3. 03

    Owner

    Supplier. Feedback collected by the client sponsor from anyone else who needs to see it.

  4. 04

    Duration

    Two to four weeks. The variable is feedback turnaround, not design time.

Phase 4

Build.

  1. 01

    Outputs

    Working site on a staging address; CMS with real content entered; forms connected and tested; analytics and events in place; redirects configured but not live.

  2. 02

    Gate

    Content complete. The build cannot be finished around missing text, and the launch date depends on this gate more than any other.

  3. 03

    Owner

    Supplier for the build; client for content delivery, with the dates set in phase two.

  4. 04

    Duration

    Two to four weeks of build. Content arriving late extends this one to one.

Phase 5

Pre-launch checks and launch.

  1. 01

    Outputs

    Checklist passed: redirects tested against the full old URL list, metadata on every page, forms sending to the right inbox, analytics receiving events, mobile checked on real devices, accessibility basics, legal pages present.

  2. 02

    Gate

    Launch approved. A written go from the sponsor, on a day when someone is available to react for the following 48 hours. Not a Friday.

  3. 03

    Owner

    Supplier runs the checks and the launch; client sponsor gives the go.

  4. 04

    Duration

    Three to five days for checks. Launch itself is hours.

Phase 6

Post-launch.

  1. 01

    Outputs

    Search Console monitored for crawl errors and lost pages; redirects verified again after 48 hours; first-week analytics compared with the audit baseline; snag list fixed; handover session and documentation for editors.

  2. 02

    Gate

    Project closed. Objectives from phase one reviewed at 30 and 90 days, against the numbers recorded in the audit.

  3. 03

    Owner

    Supplier for the monitoring window; client for the 90-day review.

  4. 04

    Duration

    Two weeks of active monitoring, then the review dates.

Where plans fail

The three slips that account for most late redesigns.

Content assigned to nobody

The plan says “client provides content” with no names or dates. Phase four then waits. Assign every page in phase two.

Approval by committee

Five people give feedback on the design at different times, and each round reopens the last. One approver, one consolidated round per page type.

Redirects as an afterthought

The URL plan is made during build, some old pages are forgotten, and search traffic drops after launch. The redirect map is a phase-two output, tested in phase five.

Frequently asked questions

Questions connected to this decision.

How long does a website redesign take in total?

Adding the typical durations gives nine to seventeen weeks for a company site of ten to forty pages, most of it waiting on content and approvals rather than design or build. A redesign with content already written and one decisive approver can run at the short end.

Can phases overlap?

Content production overlaps with design and build by design. Design and build overlap by page type once the first type is approved. Phases one and two should not overlap with anything, because everything else depends on them.

What if we are also changing the brand?

Brand identity goes before phase three and after phase one, as its own phase with its own gate. Designing pages on an identity that is still moving doubles the design phase.

Is this plan different for a migration to a new platform?

The phases are the same. Phase two carries more weight: the URL and redirect plan, and a content model for the new CMS, become the main outputs. Phase five adds a full crawl of the old site to confirm nothing is left unmapped.

Sources and basis

What supports this page.

This template is drawn from briefs used on real projects. It cites no external standard because there is none; the questions are the ones that, when left unanswered, cost projects the most time.

Related decisions

Choose the route that matches the job.

Website redesign checklist

The item-level checks behind phase five.

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Website brief template

The questions that make phase one faster.

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Website redesign service

The plan above, run by the person who wrote it.

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Next step

Planning a redesign? Send the current site and I will start phase one for free.

A recorded audit of the current site, with the three things that should drive the plan. If you already have a plan, send that too and I will tell you where it will slip.

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