STUDIO NOTES / SEARCH & DIGITAL PRESENCE

Website Redesign Checklist for South African Businesses

By Befound Studio · Updated 8 November 2026

A redesign should make the website clearer and more useful to the business. Agree what needs to improve before choosing a new visual direction.

1. Define the visitor’s next step

Decide whether the main task is an enquiry, a quote request, a purchase or finding information. Follow that journey on a phone as well as a desktop. A clear page should explain the offer, show relevant evidence and make the next step easy to understand.

For a South African service business, state the real base and service area. A studio can be based in Bloemfontein and work nationwide; that does not require invented offices or near-identical pages for every city.

2. Inventory the existing content and URLs

List the pages, useful resources and important incoming links before replacing anything. Identify the preferred URL for each subject and plan how old destinations will continue to work. Keep the sitemap focused on pages intended for search discovery.

Presentation boards and downloadable supporting material can remain accessible from a case study without becoming separate search landing pages. Choose their indexing policy deliberately.

3. Put proof near the decision

Show relevant work close to the service explanation. Explain the actual role and deliverables instead of relying only on a screenshot. Label proposed applications as concepts and distinguish them from delivered work.

Confirm who is responsible for copy, photography, logos, product details and approvals. Missing content is easier to address before the layout depends on it.

4. Test the enquiry journey honestly

Check labels, required fields, service selection and error messages. Follow the final step. A button that prepares an email is not the same as a form that submits a message to a server.

If the journey opens the visitor’s email app, make that clear and provide a copyable brief or direct email address. Do not count “brief prepared” or “email app opened” as a verified enquiry received.

5. Review the launch evidence

• Important URLs load, internal links resolve and old paths have a considered destination.
• Titles, descriptions, canonicals and crawl instructions describe the intended pages.
• Business information and structured data agree with visible content.
• Images are appropriately sized, and the layout works at the required screen widths.
• Contact and purchase journeys have been tested without sending unintended test messages.

Record a baseline before launch and compare meaningful results afterwards. A refreshed appearance, smaller files and completed checks are useful outputs; they are not, by themselves, proof of increased sales.