You have a website. It still works, mostly. But the business has moved on, and the site hasn't kept up. You've decided it's time for a redesign, and now you're wondering what you should have ready before the first conversation with whoever builds it.
The good news is that you don't need a technical brief or a design mood board. What helps most is a clear picture of where your business is today, and a rough idea of what you want the new site to do. This post walks through what's worth gathering, why each piece matters, and what you can safely leave for the discovery conversation.
The short answer: know what's changed and what you want next
Before a redesign, the most useful things to have ready are simple. A short list of how your business has changed. Honest notes on what the current site does well and where it falls short. The content you want to keep. The one main thing you want visitors to do. And a few websites you like, with a line on why.
None of this takes long. An hour with a notebook is usually enough. But it turns the first conversation from "tell me about your business" into "here's what we want to fix," which makes everything after it clearer and easier to agree on.
What to gather before you start
1. A plain list of what's changed in your business
Most redesigns happen because the business grew in some way the website never caught up with. You might offer new services. You might serve a different kind of customer. You might have moved, added a team, or dropped something you used to sell.
Write these changes down, even the small ones. They shape the structure of the new site more than any design choice. If you're not sure how far apart the site and the business have drifted, our guide on how to tell if your website still describes the business you used to be is a good place to start.
2. Honest notes on the current site
Spend a few minutes on your own website as if you were a first-time visitor. Then write down what you notice. Keep it simple:
- What do customers already tell you they like about it?
- What questions do people still ask you by phone or message, even though the answer is on the site?
- Which pages do you avoid sending people to?
- Is there anything you've been meaning to update for a long time?
That second question is especially useful. If people keep asking something the site already answers, the answer is probably hard to find or hard to understand. That's a clear, practical thing a redesign can fix.
3. The content worth keeping
A redesign doesn't mean starting from zero. Your current site likely holds things with real value: a good description of a service, customer testimonials, an FAQ you've refined over time, pictures of your actual work or premises, your logo and brand colours.
Make a quick list of what you want to carry over, and what you'd happily let go. You don't need to rewrite anything yet. Just knowing what's worth keeping saves a lot of back-and-forth later.
4. The one thing you most want a visitor to do
Every business website has a main job. For some, it's a phone call. For others, it's a booking, an enquiry form, a WhatsApp message, or a visit to the shop.
Pick the one that matters most. It's fine to have secondary goals, but a site that tries to push five actions equally tends to make none of them easy. Knowing the main one lets the design put it front and centre on every page.
5. A few websites you like, and why
Find two or three websites you enjoy using. They don't have to be in your industry. Next to each one, write a single line about what you like: "easy to find prices," "feels calm," "I understood what they do straight away."
The "why" matters more than the link. It tells the designer what you value, which is far more useful than copying a layout.
Decide who is involved, and who has the final say
This one is easy to overlook. If a partner, a manager, or a family member will want to weigh in, bring them in at the start rather than at the end. Opinions that arrive late are one of the easiest ways for a project to go round in circles.
It also helps to agree on one person who makes the final call on content and design. That person doesn't need to do all the work. They just need to be the one who says "yes, this is right."
Have a sense of priorities, not a full plan
You don't need to know exactly how many pages you need or how the menu should be laid out. That's what the discovery conversation is for. But it helps to know your priorities. Is the main goal to look more current? To explain a new service clearly? To get more enquiries from the site itself?
If you had to pick only one improvement, which would it be? That answer often shapes the whole project. From there, a clear plan and price can be agreed before any work starts, so everyone knows what's being built and why.
If you'd like to see what the steps look like once you begin, our guide to what a website redesign actually involves, start to finish covers it in plain language, and our how it works page shows how we approach it.
What you can leave for the discovery conversation
A discovery conversation is a real part of any good redesign, and it's where the details get worked out together. You don't need to arrive with answers to things like:
- Which fonts or colours to use
- How pages should be structured
- What the new copy should say, word for word
- Technical choices about how the site is built
These are questions for the people building the site, and a good team will ask you the right questions to get there. Your job is to bring what only you know: your business, your customers, and what you want the site to do for them.
The takeaway
Getting ready for a redesign is less about preparing documents and more about getting clear. Know what's changed in your business. Note what works and what doesn't on the current site. Keep the content that's earned its place. Pick the one action that matters most. Bring a few examples you like, and agree who has the final say.
With those in hand, the first conversation becomes focused and productive, and the new site starts from what your business actually is today. If you want to see what that could look like for your own site first, take a look at how we approach old website transformations.