The Website Redesign Process, Week by Week

The short answer

A website redesign process runs in five phases: discovery, structure and content, visual design, build, and QA and launch. For a startup marketing site, a focused team can usually get through them in 2 to 6 weeks; larger sites with many templates, languages or a platform migration take longer. What slows most redesigns down isn't design or development. It's late copy, too many approvers and launch tasks left to the last day.

Who's involved

Keep the group small and the roles clear.

On your side

• Project owner: one person who gathers feedback and makes day-to-day decisions. Usually the head of marketing.
• Final approver: often the founder or CEO. Involve them at the key reviews, not every round.
• Product marketing or sales: for positioning, objections and proof.
• An engineer or IT contact: for DNS, integrations, forms and analytics.

On the agency side

• Project lead: runs the schedule and reviews.
• Designer: structure, wireframes and visual design.
• Developer: the Webflow or Framer build, CMS and integrations.
• Copywriter and motion designer: when copy or animation is in scope.

The website redesign process, week by week

Here is how a six-week redesign of a startup marketing site usually runs. Shorter projects compress the middle weeks; longer ones add design rounds and templates.

Before kickoff

• Agree on goals and the two or three metrics that matter, such as demo requests or sign-ups.
• Benchmark current traffic, top pages and conversions in Search Console and GA4.
• Give the team access to analytics, the current CMS, brand files and any research.

Week 1: Discovery and audit

Interviews with the founder, sales and marketing; a review of competitors and the current site; a content inventory and URL list.

Deliverables: a short brief, the content inventory, a draft sitemap and an agreed list of pages and CMS templates.

Week 2: Structure and content

Wireframes for the homepage and key pages, and copy for the pages that matter most. Writing copy now, not after design, is the single biggest time saver.

Deliverables: final sitemap, wireframes and copy for the homepage, product, pricing and one key landing page.

Weeks 2 to 3: Visual design

A homepage design direction first, then the remaining templates once the direction is approved. Components, type, colour and spacing are set up as a design system in Figma.

Deliverables: approved homepage, key templates for desktop and mobile, and a component library.

Weeks 3 to 5: Build

The site is built in Webflow or Framer on a staging URL: components, CMS collections, interactions, forms and integrations. Content is migrated and the redirect map is drafted.

Deliverables: a working staging site, CMS with real content, forms connected to your CRM and a redirect map.

Week 6: QA, SEO and launch

• Test every template on mobile, tablet and desktop.
• Check Core Web Vitals: Largest Contentful Paint within 2.5 seconds, Interaction to Next Paint of 200 milliseconds or less, Cumulative Layout Shift of 0.1 or less.
• Check text contrast meets WCAG level AA: 4.5:1 for normal text.
• Upload 301 redirects, confirm analytics and key events, and submit the sitemap.
• Train your team on editing pages and the CMS.

Deliverables: the live site, redirects in place, a recorded handover and a short guide to components and CMS fields.

Weeks 7 to 10: After launch

Watch Search Console for crawl errors and 404s, compare conversions with your benchmark and fix small issues. Google notes that search visibility can fluctuate during a move and that it can take a few weeks for most pages to settle. Our SaaS website redesign checklist covers the launch and post-launch steps in detail.

Deliverables checklist

• Brief with goals and metrics
• Content inventory and URL list
• Sitemap and wireframes
• Copy for key pages
• Figma designs and component library
• Staging site with CMS and forms
• Redirect map
• QA and accessibility notes
• Handover recording and documentation

Common pitfalls

• Copy arrives after design. Designers end up guessing, and layouts break when real words arrive.
• Too many approvers. Feedback from six people pulls in six directions. Route it through one owner.
• Scope grows mid-project. New pages are fine, but add them to a second phase instead of moving the launch.
• Redirects left until launch day. Draft the map during the build.
• Launching the same day as a big announcement. Launch a few days earlier, or do a full rehearsal on staging.
• No owner after launch. Someone needs to keep improving pages and the CMS.

Can it be done faster?

Yes, when decisions are quick and content is ready. For Refold AI, we took the company from Cobalt to Refold with a new brand and website in 45 days, ahead of a $6.5M raise. For Sprinto, we rebuilt the brand and website for its $20M Series B and the launch of Sprinto AI. Both launches were tied to a funding announcement, which is exactly when a clear process and quick decisions matter most.

If you are still budgeting, read what affects the cost of a website redesign.

FAQ

How long does a website redesign take?

Most startup marketing sites take 2 to 6 weeks with a focused team. Big content migrations, many templates or several languages add time.

What is the first step in a website redesign?

Set goals and benchmark your current traffic and conversions, so you can measure the new site against them.

Should we write copy before or after design?

Before, or at least alongside wireframes. Design works best around real content.

Do we need to change platform during a redesign?

Not always, but it's the cheapest moment to do it since you're rebuilding anyway. See our Webflow vs Framer comparison.

Planning a redesign? Let's talk about timelines, or see our Website, Product & App Design service.