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A website redesign is a bit like moving house: you dream of a new space that’s more attractive, more functional and more modern. Except that, in SEO, moving without taking the necessary precautions means running the risk of losing half your boxes along the way. And by ‘boxes’, we mean organic traffic, hard-won rankings and years of SEO work. It is precisely for this reason that choosing an SEO agency becomes a strategic, even decisive, decision. Here are the steps to follow to make the right choice.
Before contacting any agencies at all, it is essential to carry out some internal planning. Without this stage, discussions with service providers are likely to go off in all directions, and it will be difficult to compare the proposals received.
You should therefore start by setting out in writing the objectives of the revamp (design overhaul, technical migration, change of CMS, editorial repositioning), the scope of the project (showcase website, e-commerce, multilingual platform), the available budget and the desired deadlines. These specifications, however brief, enable you to quickly filter out agencies that are a good fit for the project from those that are not suited to it.
Not all SEO agencies are created equal, and, more importantly, not all of them fully understand the challenges involved in a website redesign. An agency that excels at creating optimised content may be completely out of its depth when it comes to a technical migration. A website redesign requires specialist skills that you need to be able to identify right from the outset.
Here are the technical criteria to consider when assessing an agency’s expertise in this area:
| Criterion | What to check |
| Pre-redesign audit | Does the agency carry out a full audit before starting any work? |
| Redirect map | A clear methodology for mapping old URLs to new ones |
| Technical management | Expertise in Core Web Vitals, crawling and indexing |
| Internal linking | Ability to rebuild a coherent architecture |
| Post-publication monitoring | Monitoring programme lasting at least 3 to 6 months |
| Collaboration between tech teams | Ability to liaise with developers and designers |
| Tools used | Use of professional tools (Screaming Frog, Ahrefs, Semrush) |
It’s also a good idea to ask for specific examples of recent website redesign projects, complete with before-and-after results. An agency that struggles to provide this sort of client case study probably doesn’t have the experience it claims to have.
Once you’ve shortlisted the agencies (ideally 3 to 5), it’s time to start discussions. This phase is crucial: it’s here that their true expertise, advisory approach and the quality of their interpersonal skills really come to the fore. Beyond the sales pitch, there are certain questions that can quickly help you distinguish between them.
Questions to ask as a matter of course during first appointments:
A reputable agency won’t just make grandiose promises. It will ask specific questions about the project itself, identify areas requiring particular attention, and won’t hesitate to challenge certain decisions if they appear risky.
Certain practices should immediately raise red flags. Promising a number one ranking on Google is still the stuff of science fiction (or a scam, depending on your point of view). Offering abnormally low rates for a website redesign project usually signals that the work will be superficial, or even botched.
Other, more subtle warning signs are also worth noting: a refusal to share verifiable references, no offer of a preliminary audit, purely marketing-focused pitches without any technical demonstration, dubious practices such as the bulk purchase of links, or even commitments imposed for 12 to 24 months without a reasonable exit clause. Conversely, transparency regarding the tools used, the teams actually involved and the methods employed is generally a good sign.
The final step is to compare the proposals received, whilst resisting the temptation to focus solely on price. The key consideration must be the overall consistency between the proposed scope, the methodology outlined, the deliverables set out and the team members involved.
In terms of budget, the figures vary considerably depending on the size of the project. For an SME showcase website, the cost of a redesign typically ranges from €2,000 to €6,000, with post-redesign support costing between €500 and €1,500 per month. For a medium-sized e-commerce site, expect to pay between €8,000 and €25,000 for the redesign phase, followed by €3,000 to €8,000 per month thereafter. For large-scale projects, budgets can exceed €50,000 for the initial support phase alone.
When signing the contract, several clauses warrant particular attention: the precise scope of services, dated deliverables, clearly defined KPIs for monitoring, termination conditions subject to reasonable notice, intellectual property rights relating to the deliverables, and mandatory monthly reporting. It is this foundation that safeguards the collaboration in the event of a disagreement.
Choosing Ad’s up Consulting for your website redesign means ensuring that your new site will not only look ‘better’, but, above all, perform better. Whilst many agencies limit themselves to a technical checklist, we approach the redesign as a driver of overall growth.
Ready to revamp your website without jeopardising your visibility? Our experts will guide you every step of the way to ensure your redesign is a lasting success.
