Before a website redesign, decide what needs to work better.

01Diagnose first

A repair, a redesign and a new website are different scopes.

Open your most important page on a phone and try the action a customer should take. Can you explain the offer without reading every section? Can you find relevant proof? Does the form work, and does anyone receive its request? Write down the obstacle before choosing a new look.

Low traffic and low inquiry completion need different investigations. Search Console helps inspect search exposure. An analytics view can show page activity. A saved inquiry and a useful sales conversation are further steps, and each needs its own evidence.

02Write the brief

Give a website designer the business decision, not only a style reference.

A useful first brief fits in a few lines: what the company sells, who the next customer is, what exists today and what that customer should do on the site. Add a current URL and the deadline if one exists. You can send visual references, but explain what you like about them.

Then list what has to be maintained: pages, products, availability, languages, forms and integrations. Say who supplies text and photographs. These answers change both the build and the ongoing workload.

• Who needs the site, and what are they trying to decide?
• Which pages or tasks fail today?
• Which facts, URLs and integrations must survive?
• Who updates content after launch?
• What must work on the first release, and what can wait?

03Inspect the work

Ask to see the journey behind the screenshot.

For Delux, the website had to connect vehicle stock, trust, three languages and contact. The useful question is how a buyer moves between those pieces and how the business keeps the information current.

For DGM, the job is different: a professional buyer starts from a specialty or equipment need, inspects product information and reaches consultation or training. These projects should not become the same template with a new logo. When choosing a designer, ask which decisions belong to your business and why.

• Delux: the sales website and its decisions
• DGM: equipment discovery and inquiry

04Compare proposals

Compare deliverables, responsibilities and cost drivers together.

A page count alone does not describe the cost of a redesign. Ten pages of supplied text are different from a catalogue that needs product data, photography, filters, language versions and an administration tool.

Ask each team to identify content work, design, implementation, integrations, migration, testing and post-launch support. Confirm domain and hosting ownership, access, handover, third-party charges and the way changes are priced. A cheaper proposal may simply leave work for your team; an expensive one still needs a clear reason for every item.

• Content volume and who prepares it
• Languages and translation responsibility
• Catalogue, CMS and integration complexity
• Existing URL/content migration
• Review rounds, handover and agreed support

05Protect the launch

Keep useful URLs and test the contact path before switching.

A redesign does not require changing every address. If URLs change, prepare an old-to-new map and permanent redirects to the relevant replacement pages. Update internal links, canonical tags and the sitemap, and remove staging restrictions from pages intended for search.

Google recommends preparing and testing a URL move, then monitoring it. Search visibility can fluctuate while changes are processed. This is a migration discipline, not a promise to preserve a particular position.

• Open important pages directly on mobile
• Test every language and equivalent-page switch
• Submit a test inquiry in a non-production workflow
• Check confirmation, delivery and the staff response path
• Record the release date and compare complete reporting windows

• Google Search Central: site moves with URL changes — Use when page addresses change.

06A useful result

Agree how you will know the work helped.

Before launch, record the current search and inquiry baseline. After launch, separate relevant impressions, visits, contact attempts, accepted inquiries, qualified conversations and proposals. A WhatsApp click is an attempt to leave the site; it does not prove a message was sent.

Choose the next change from the observed obstacle. If people cannot find the service, improve discovery and the offer page. If relevant visitors arrive but do not understand the proof or next step, investigate that journey. A redesign starts a measurable improvement process; it does not finish the sales work.

• Google's SEO Starter Guide — Search changes need time to assess; following guidance does not guarantee a first-place result.