How to Create the Perfect Website RFP—and Find the Perfect Agency Partner

When it comes to finding the right agency for your website redesign, the quality of your Request for Proposals (RFP) directly influences the quality of the proposals you will receive.

As an agency that reviews hundreds (maybe thousands??) of RFPs every year, we’ve seen it all: from the most detailed and technical briefs, to the vague one-pagers copied and pasted from ChatGPT that leave us with more questions than answers. 

The difference between the two can mean the difference between a project that runs on time and on budget… and one that doesn’t.

This guide will walk you through what to include, what to avoid, and a few insider tips to help your RFP stand out for all the right reasons.

Your RFP is often the first touchpoint potential agencies will have with your team, so being clear from the start is crucial. A strong RFP should:

Here are 5 elements we recommend including in your RFP. 

Give potential partners a sense of who you are and why you exist. This is your chance to make them care about your mission, and provide context as to why you’re doing this project now. Maybe you’re about to celebrate a milestone anniversary, or you finally have buy-in from your Board; either way, context is key.

You should include:

Note: If you can, include baseline website metrics like traffic volume, online conversions, or donation totals. They help agencies understand the scope and tailor solutions more specifically to your needs.

Clarity here helps potential partners shape a more accurate proposal. Include your current tech stack, and anything you’re hoping to have in the next iteration of your site. Be sure to include:

Set the bar high: Ask potential agencies or web designers about their philosophy and approach when it comes to accessibility. It should never be an afterthought, and any reputable agency should have no problem addressing your concerns.

Your organization might not have the luxury of knowing the exact budget in the RFP stage. But even including an approximate range helps agencies tailor their proposals more accurately to your needs. And it also means you won’t waste your time reviewing proposals that are way over your budget or that clearly don’t get the scope of what you’re looking for.

It also helps to address any timeline expectations and if anything is driving the work: a milestone anniversary, launching a campaign, new leadership transition. Whatever it is, context is key.

Include:

Indicate whether you would like agencies to outline their project process, and how in-depth you would like that overview to be.

Understanding an agency’s process can give you valuable insight into how their team operates, whether they follow a consistent and structured approach, and how involved your team will be at each stage of the work.

If requested, project phases might include (but are not limited to):

Advise potential agencies how to structure their proposal so you can compare apples to apples. Typically, this includes:

Insider Tip: It helps to state whether your team is open to an introductory call ahead of the submission deadline. Many agencies find it useful to hear more about the project firsthand before shaping their approach.

Saying “we want a better user experience” can mean a lot of different things. Define what pain points you’re experiencing and what success looks like more specifically.

Don’t gloss over your expectations around content for the site. Content needs to be audited, planned, organized, outlined, created, reviewed, and published. What do you expect the agency to take on, and what do you have internal capacity for? If your expectations are that the agency owns 100% of content needs, be clear about this in your RFP (and expect the budget to reflect that).

We’ve seen it before: an organization comes to us in hopes of a full website redesign, but their brand hasn’t been visited in… a while. It’s difficult to build something on top of a shaky foundation, and brand problems often masquerade as website problems. We highly recommend evaluating your brand before embarking on a website redesign journey.

Websites need to be maintained well beyond launch. Your RFP should state whether you expect the agency to handle updates, hosting, and security after launch, or if you plan to tackle this internally. We don’t recommend making support a part of the RFP requirements, but you should ask what post-launch maintenance would look like.

Before you release your RFP, read it again from the perspective of your dream agency partner. What would you want them to know about your organization, your team, and your project? You’re giving potential vendors a glimpse into your world. You want them to care about your mission and have all the context they would need to create a proposal that will make you think, “That’s EXACTLY what we need!”

A thoughtful, detailed RFP will help you find the right partner who understands your mission, meshes well with your team, and delivers a solution that will grow with you over time.

If you want to make sure your RFP attracts the right responses, start with clarity, be upfront about your needs, and always share the “why” behind the project. The better the brief, the better the partnership, and the better the end result.