Website Redesign Request for Proposals (RFP) Template

How to use this template

Send the same document to three suppliers, with the same deadline and the same budget range, so the proposals can be compared line by line. Fill in every bracket before you send it. If you do not know an answer, write "unknown" and say who can find out. Delete the sections that do not apply, such as the shop items for a brochure site.

Three rules make it work. State a budget range, because suppliers who guess your budget guess wrong. Ask for a price per scope item, not one total. Share every supplier's questions and your answers with all bidders, so nobody works from different information.

The template

Copy everything in the block below into a document.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS: WEBSITE REDESIGN

Issued by: [company legal name], [city, country]
Contact for questions: [name, email, phone]
Issue date: [date]
Deadline for questions: [date]
Deadline for proposals: [date, time, time zone]
Decision date: [date]

1. ABOUT THE BUSINESS
[Two or three sentences: what you sell, who buys it, where you operate, how many people work in the business.]

2. WHY WE ARE REDESIGNING
Describe the problem in plain terms. Keep the lines that apply and edit them.
- Enquiries or sales have fallen: [numbers and period]
- The site is slow or does not work well on phones: [PageSpeed or Search Console result]
- We cannot edit the site ourselves: [what we need to change]
- Our services, markets or languages have changed: [details]
- Other: [details]

3. GOALS AND MEASURES
Primary goal: [for example, more enquiry form submissions]
Current baseline: [visitors per month, enquiries per month, conversion rate, source of the figures]
Target after six months: [number]
Secondary goals: [list]

4. THE CURRENT SITE
Address: [https://...]
Platform: [WordPress, Wix, Shopify, custom, unknown]
Pages: [number]. Languages: [list]. Products or posts to move: [number]
Domain and hosting: [provider, and who holds the logins]
Analytics and Search Console: [in place or not, and whether we can give access]
Top pages by traffic and by enquiries: [attached list]
Integrations: [CRM, booking, payments, email service]
Keep: [pages, features, content]
Drop: [pages, features, content]

5. SCOPE OF WORK
Price each item separately. Mark items you recommend we remove or add.
5.1 Discovery and content audit
5.2 Page plan and navigation structure
5.3 Design of [number] page layouts for desktop and mobile
5.4 Build on [platform, or "supplier to recommend and explain"]
5.5 Content: copywriting [yes or no, number of pages], photography [yes or no], translation [languages]
5.6 Forms, integrations and tracking: [list]
5.7 Migration of existing content: [number of pages, posts, products]
5.8 Testing, launch and training for [number] staff
5.9 Support after launch for [number] days

6. REQUIREMENTS
6.1 URL map. A spreadsheet that maps every current address to its new address, or marks it retired, delivered before the build starts.
6.2 Redirects. Permanent server-side redirects (301 or 308) straight to the final page with no chains, tested before launch and kept for at least 12 months.
6.3 Search elements. Titles, descriptions, headings, image text and structured data kept or improved on pages that bring traffic.
6.4 Speed. The main page templates reach the "good" Core Web Vitals levels at the 75th percentile: largest content in 2.5 seconds or less, interaction response of 200 milliseconds or less, layout shift of 0.1 or less. Measured with [tool] before and after launch.
6.5 Search Console. Both the old and new versions verified, the new sitemap submitted, and an indexing report each week for four weeks after launch.
6.6 Accessibility. Target standard: [for example WCAG 2.1 AA]. European Accessibility Act applies to us: [yes, no, unsure].
6.7 Privacy. A cookie notice and privacy text that match the tracking the site uses.
6.8 Devices. Tested on [list of phones, tablets and browsers].
6.9 Ownership. Domain and hosting registered in our name. We receive source files, design files, licences and all logins at handover.

7. WHAT YOUR PROPOSAL MUST INCLUDE
a) Your understanding of our problem, in your own words, in one page or less.
b) Your approach, with milestones and the points where we approve work.
c) The named people on the project, their roles, and who we speak to every week.
d) Two or three relevant projects with live links and a contact we can call. If you have no relevant projects, say so and explain how you will reduce our risk.
e) A fixed price for each item in section 5, with hours where you charge by the hour. State currency and VAT.
f) What you expect us to supply, and by when.
g) What is not included.
h) Year-two costs for hosting, licences and support.
i) Terms: payment schedule, revision rounds included, how changes are priced, who owns the work, how either side can cancel.
j) Any questions for us.

8. BUDGET
Our budget for this project is [EUR amount] to [EUR amount], excluding VAT. If you recommend a price outside this range, explain why.

9. TIMELINE
Target launch date: [date]
Constraints: [campaigns, seasonal peaks, events, staff holidays]

10. HOW WE WILL EVALUATE PROPOSALS
Understanding of our problem: 15 points
Approach and SEO migration plan: 20 points
Relevant evidence and references: 15 points
Design and usability: 15 points
Team and communication: 10 points
Price and value: 15 points
Support, ownership and terms: 10 points
Total: 100 points

11. RULES OF THE PROCESS
- Send questions to [email] by [date]. We will share questions and answers with all bidders.
- Send proposals to [email] by [date and time].
- We will invite a shortlist to a call between [dates].
- This request is not a commitment to award a contract. Proposals are confidential. We do not pay for proposals.
- We will confirm the decision by [date] and sign a contract before work starts.

How do you score the proposals?

Score each criterion from 0 to 5 before you speak to anyone, multiply by the weight, and total it. The weights in the template put most of the value on the plan and the evidence, not the price. This table shows what to look for.

Open the live links, load the sites on a phone and run them through a speed test. Ten minutes of checking tells you more than a presentation. Our guide to choosing a web design company in Cyprus lists further checks.

What should you say about budget?

Give a range, and say it excludes VAT. Without one, suppliers either quote high to be safe or quote low to win, and neither helps you compare. Clutch's web design pricing guide, which we read in November 2026, says most projects reviewed on its platform cost under USD 10,000 while the average is about USD 38,105. Use our website cost guide to sense-check your range before you commit to it.

What do weak proposals look like?

• No questions asked of you.
• A fixed price with no list of what is in it.
• No plan for old addresses, redirects or indexing.
• A guarantee of rankings or traffic. Nobody can promise those.
• Hosting or the domain held in the supplier's name.
• Reference clients who cannot be contacted.

Can you use this for a new build?

Yes. Replace section 4 with a description of what you sell, remove the redirect and URL map lines in section 6, and keep the rest. For the thinking behind the template, read our guide to when and how to redesign a website and the SEO migration checklist.

If you would like us to respond to your RFP, send it through our contact page. Expect a written quote in return. Our web design service page explains how a project runs.