What should a web design proposal include?

The sections

Discovery

Stakeholder interviews, sitemap, user journeys and the content model.

Design

Which pages get bespoke layouts, which reuse templates, and how many revision rounds.

Copy

Who writes it, page by page. The single biggest source of delay.

Build

Platform, CMS structure, responsive behaviour and browser support.

Integrations

CRM, analytics, booking, payments, anything with a third party in it.

SEO and performance

URL structure, metadata, redirects from the old site, speed targets.

Handover

Training, documentation and who owns the files.

Support

What is covered after launch, for how long, and at what cost after that.

The sitemap test

A proposal without a sitemap is a proposal without a scope. Page count is the unit the whole project is priced in, so if it is missing, the number is provisional whatever the document says.

Look for the distinction between unique page designs and templated pages. Twenty pages built from four templates is a very different job from twenty bespoke layouts, and studios quote both as "20 pages".

A realistic timeline

A designed brand site usually runs eight to sixteen weeks. Discovery two, design three to five, build three to five, content and QA two, launch one.

Watch for a timeline that assumes your copy arrives on time and your stakeholders review within three days. Ask what happens to the schedule and the cost if they do not, because that is the scenario that actually occurs.

After launch

These questions are rarely in the proposal and always matter later.

• Who hosts it, and at what annual cost?
• What is covered by support, and for how long?
• Can your team build a new page without the studio?
• Who owns the design files and the code?
• What does a new template cost in six months?
• Are the redirects from the old site included?

That last one is the most commonly missed, and the most expensive to discover after a launch has already lost you your search rankings.