Website Redesign Project Plan Template: Five Phases, Timeline, Checklist
A redesign project plan you can put dates on: five phases with weeks, who owns what, the risks that move the date, a launch checklist, and a free seven-page PDF.
A redesign goes wrong in the same three places every time: content arrives late, the scope grows in review meetings, and the launch erases pages that were quietly earning. This plan is built around those three. Five phases, a timeline you can put dates on, who owns what, the risks that move the date, and a launch checklist. It is the plan we run on our own projects, written so you can run it with us or with anyone else.
The whole thing is also a seven-page PDF you can print and write on. The download is at the end of this page.
The five phases, with weeks
Typical timeline for a small business site is four to eight weeks from kickoff. Stores, portals, and large catalogs run longer. The weeks below assume content work runs in parallel with structure and design, which it must.
| Phase | Weeks | Owner | Done when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Discovery and baseline | Week 1 | Project lead with the builder | Everyone can name the ten pages that matter and the number the site must move. |
| 2. Structure | Week 2 | Builder, approved by the lead | Sitemap, redirect map, and wireframes approved in writing. |
| 3. Content | Weeks 2 to 4, in parallel | Content owner | Every page in the sitemap has final content on the staging site. |
| 4. Design and build | Weeks 3 to 6 | Builder | The staging site passes the launch checklist. |
| 5. Launch and the 30 days after | Weeks 6 to 8, then a month | Builder, then the care plan or your team | The 30-day numbers are compared with the baseline and written down. |
Phase 1: Discovery and baseline
Goal. Know what you have before anyone draws. Export the top pages, top queries, and conversions from analytics and Search Console. Crawl the current site for a full URL inventory. Sort the content into keep, improve, and retire. Review hosting, speed, plugins, integrations, and forms. Sign off written goals, scope, and a budget band. If you do not know the budget band yet, the pricing guide shows what moves the number.
Phase 2: Structure
Goal. Decide the page tree and the path to the goal before design. The deliverables are a sitemap with every page named and its purpose, a redirect map from every old URL to its new home, a content model for each page type, wireframes for the home page, one service or product page, and the contact or checkout path, and a tracking plan that names the events that count. The redirect map is the one most redesigns skip. It is why a redesign can lose rankings in a week. Our guide to redesigning without losing SEO covers it in depth.
Phase 3: Content, in parallel
Goal. Final words and images before design is finished, not after. Assign a writer to every page, you or the builder, with draft, review, and final dates. Source and size the images and write the alt text. Run the legal and brand review. Load everything into the staging site. “We will figure out the content later” is how timelines and budgets blow up, so this phase starts in week two, not week five.
Phase 4: Design and build
Goal. Design against real content; build what was designed. Three key templates first, then the rest. Build on staging with forms, integrations, search, and speed work included, not bolted on. Accessibility checked on every template. Conversion tracking installed and tested. Two review rounds, one approver.
Phase 5: Launch and the 30 days after
Goal. Launch without losing what ranked, then measure. Redirects live and spot-checked before DNS changes. SSL, backups, and monitoring in place. Sitemap submitted in Search Console and errors watched daily for two weeks. Baseline numbers re-read at 30 days. A care plan or an internal owner named for updates and backups.
Who does what
One name per role. If two people share a job, nobody owns it.
- Project lead decides scope, budget, and final approval, and keeps the plan and the calendar.
- Content owner decides what the pages say and writes or reviews every page.
- Builder decides how it is built: design, build, launch.
- Technical owner holds hosting, domain, integrations, access, and DNS.
- Approver signs off at each phase, within two business days.
Cadence: one 30-minute check-in a week with the plan open. Decisions written down the same day. Two review rounds per deliverable. Every late approval moves the launch date by the same number of days, and everyone knows that going in.
The risks that move the date
| Risk | Early sign | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Content arrives late | Phase 3 dates slip in week 2 | Assign a writer now, or pay for copywriting |
| Scope creep | “While we are at it” in a review | Log it as Later; price it separately |
| Committee approval | More than one approver | Name one approver |
| Rankings lost at launch | No redirect map by end of Phase 2 | No launch without the map |
| Nobody owns tracking | Tracking plan still blank | Decide the events in Phase 2 |
| Access problems | Domain or hosting login unknown | Collect every credential in Phase 1 |
Launch checklist
Every line checked on staging before DNS changes, then again on the live site within an hour of launch.
- Every old URL redirects to its new home
- Sitemap submitted in Search Console
- Title and description on every page; one H1 per page
- Structured data for the business, services, and FAQs
- Forms tested end to end, notifications received
- Phone and email links tap correctly on a phone
- Conversion events firing in GA4
- Images sized, alt text present
- Accessibility check passed on each template
- Speed checked on a phone connection
- SSL, backups, monitoring on
- Admin, domain, hosting, and analytics access in your name
- Care plan or internal owner named; 30-day review on the calendar
Download the template
The same plan as a seven-page PDF with blanks for names, dates, and status, so you can print it or share it with whoever is building the site.
Hiring someone to run it?
Send this plan with your dates filled in. A good studio will push back on something, which is the point. If you are collecting bids, pair it with the website redesign RFP template so proposals come back comparable. And if you are not sure whether the site needs a redesign or a rebuild, the free second opinion audit reads the site and says which.
The SEO lines in Phases 1, 4, 5, and 10 are spelled out, with worksheets, in the SEO launch checklist.