Key facts
- A redesign RFP should name the exact page count and page types up front (home, service, location, blog), because vague scope is the most common cause of change-order disputes on a fixed-price build.
- You need to state who holds the domain registrar login, the hosting or DNS account, and the CMS admin before work starts, not after; whoever holds those three can hold your site hostage later.
- Redirect mapping (old URL to new URL, one to one) belongs in the RFP as a deliverable, not an assumption, because a redesign that drops redirects is the single most common cause of a traffic crash after launch.
- Ask every bidder to state their content migration method (manual, scripted export, or client-supplied) in writing, since copy and image migration is the line item most often quoted low and then billed as overage.
- A fixed-price website RFP should tie the final payment to a written acceptance test, not to launch day, so you are not paying in full for a site that still has open bugs.
Scope boundaries
State the page count and page types by name: your home page, a fixed number of service or product pages, a fixed number of location pages if you have more than one address, a blog or resources template, and any tools like a quote form or a booking widget. If a page type is not named here, it is not in scope, and any bidder who wants to add it must quote it separately.
State the design boundary the same way. Are you asking for a fully custom design, or a build on an existing theme or design system the vendor already owns? Custom design and custom development cost more and take longer than a themed build, and mixing the two inside one quote is how budgets creep. Say whether you want new copywriting or whether you are supplying final copy, and whether you are supplying photography or expect the vendor to source stock images.
State the platform. If you require a specific CMS (WordPress, Shopify, a headless setup, or something else), say so now. If you are open to the vendor's recommendation, say that too, but ask them to justify it in writing against your traffic, your team's technical comfort, and your update frequency. Leaving the platform open without asking for a justification is how you end up locked into a system nobody on your team can maintain.
What the vendor must be given
List the accounts the vendor needs, and decide in advance whether you will hand over full admin access or create a limited role for them. At minimum, a redesign needs access to your domain registrar or a way to update DNS records, your current hosting or CMS admin panel, your analytics (GA4) and tag manager (GTM), and your Google Business Profile if location pages will link to it.
List what you must supply them: your brand assets (logo files, brand colors and fonts if you have a style guide), any existing content you want kept, your customer or product data if the site pulls from a database or a booking system, and login credentials for any third-party tool the site will integrate with (a CRM, a booking platform, a payment processor).
Set a rule that the vendor creates new accounts and invites you as an owner or administrator, rather than building anything under an account only they control. This single line, written into the RFP before work starts, prevents the most common exit dispute: a site or a tool that the vendor technically owns because it was registered in their name.
Ownership and exit clauses
State plainly that you own the finished website, its code, its content, and its design files on final payment, and that the vendor must deliver a full export (files, database, and any custom code) on request, not only on contract termination. Ask for this in writing, not as an assumption baked into a standard contract you have not read.
State who owns the domain name (it should be registered to you, in your name, not the vendor's), who owns the hosting account (your name on the invoice, even if the vendor manages it day to day), and who owns your analytics and tag manager properties (you should be the account owner, with the vendor added as a user).
Add an exit clause: if you end the relationship, the vendor has a fixed number of business days to hand over admin access to every account, remove their own access if you ask, and provide a copy of all source files. Without this clause in writing before the project starts, a vendor dispute over the final invoice can leave your site, or your domain, unreachable while you argue.
Milestones and acceptance tests
Break the project into stages with a written test at each one, not just a delivery date. A workable structure is: sitemap and page list approved, wireframes or design approved, content loaded on a staging URL, redirect map delivered and checked, and a final pre-launch review on the live domain.
At each stage, write down what passing looks like. For the staging review, that might mean every page loads without a broken link, every form submits and the submission is received where it is supposed to go, the site is readable on a phone-sized screen, and page load time is within a stated range. For the redirect stage, that means every URL from your current site's list either 301-redirects to its new equivalent or is confirmed as intentionally dropped.
Tie the final payment to passing the last acceptance test on the live domain, not to the launch date itself. A site that goes live with broken forms or missing redirects is not finished, and the contract should say so, so the last invoice is leverage for fixing what launch day reveals rather than a formality you paid regardless.
Scoring rubric
Score every proposal against the same weighted list so you are not comparing a gut feeling to a gut feeling. A workable split: 30 percent price and payment terms, 25 percent relevant past work in your industry or a comparable one, 20 percent the vendor's written answers to the questions below, 15 percent timeline realism against the scope you gave them, and 10 percent references you actually called.
Score price on total cost and payment schedule, not the headline number alone. A lower quote with 50 percent due up front and vague change-order language can cost more than a higher quote with milestone-based payments and a fixed scope.
Score past work by asking for two or three live sites the vendor built that are similar in size and purpose to yours, and check that those sites still work well today, load fast, and are still online, since a portfolio site the vendor no longer maintains tells you little about ongoing support quality.
Questions every bidder must answer
Make every bidder answer these in writing before you score them: What is included in the fixed price, and what triggers a change order? Who owns the code, the content, and the domain when the project ends? What is your process for migrating existing content and setting up redirects? What happens to my site and my accounts if I want to leave you after launch?
Also ask: What CMS or platform do you recommend for my size of business, and why? How many revision rounds are included at the design stage? Who hosts the site after launch, and can I move hosting providers without penalty? What is your average timeline from signed contract to launch for a project this size, and what is the longest a project like mine has actually taken?
A vendor who answers these clearly, in specific numbers and named responsibilities, is telling you they run a predictable process. A vendor who answers in generalities, or who bristles at being asked, is telling you something too.
Related questions
Three is usually enough to see a real spread in price, scope, and approach, without so many that comparing them becomes its own project. Send the same RFP pack to all three so the quotes are actually comparable.
Stating a budget range gets you proposals scoped to what you can actually spend, rather than a wish-list quote you have to negotiate down later. If you leave budget out, ask every bidder to itemize their price so you can see where the money goes.
Treat that as useful information. A vendor unwilling to put standard ownership terms in writing is telling you how an exit would go if you ever needed one, and that is worth knowing before you sign, not after.
A short one, yes. Even a one-page version of this pack, scope, access, ownership, milestones, gives you leverage and a written record if a dispute comes up later. Skipping it does not save time; it moves the disagreement to after the deposit is paid.
Yes. A redesign here is priced as a one-time package, typically somewhere between $1,500 and $20,000 once the real scope is known. There's nothing charged to set up, the work carries a 30-day guarantee, and we would sign our name to the exact pack written above.
SearchPod is a vendor for this kind of work and would answer this RFP; the acceptance tests here are the ones we agree to.
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