How to Write a Website Design & Development RFP (Free Template)
If you are putting together a request for proposal for website design and development, you are about to make a decision you will live with for three to five years. Most website RFPs make that decision harder than it needs to be: they ask vendors to price a project the buyer has not fully defined, they reward the glossiest deck rather than the best build, and they skip the questions that actually predict whether the site will be fast, findable and yours. This guide fixes that. It is written from the other side of the table — we answer these RFPs for a living — and it ends with a free website RFP template you can copy and adapt. No email gate.
Do you actually need an RFP?
Sometimes yes: procurement rules, a board, public money, or a project large enough that you want three comparable bids. Often no. If you are a private company choosing a partner for a site you will iterate on for years, a scoped conversation with two or three shortlisted firms usually gets you a better outcome faster than a formal RFP, because the best firms scope with you rather than guessing at a document. If you do need the formal process, the rest of this page makes it work. If you do not, tell us about the project and we will come back with a scoped plan, not a template.
What to include in a website design and development RFP
Vendors can only price what you describe. The RFPs that get accurate, comparable proposals cover the following, in roughly this order.
1. About you and what the site has to do
Who you are, who you serve, and the one or two business outcomes the site must produce — booked calls, quote requests, online orders, recruiting, investor credibility. Say which matters most. A site built to generate leads is scoped differently from one built to reassure investors.
2. Your audience and how they arrive
Who visits, on what device, and how they find you today (search, referrals, paid, direct). If most traffic is mobile and arrives from Google, speed and search structure become requirements, not nice-to-haves — and a good vendor will price for them.
3. Scope and must-haves
Page count is the least useful number here. Instead, list the kinds of pages and functionality: service pages, location or service-area pages, a booking or quote flow, e-commerce and payments, a blog or resource hub, a client portal, integrations with your CRM, scheduling or field-service software. Mark each as required, preferred, or future.
4. Content and migration
Who writes the copy, who supplies photography, and how much existing content moves over. Content is where website timelines die; be honest about whether you need the vendor to write, edit, or only place it.
5. Technical requirements — the ones that matter
This is the section most RFPs get wrong, so be specific:
- Platform and build approach. Ask for the platform and whether the site will be a custom theme or a purchased template with a page builder. This single answer predicts speed, maintainability and lock-in more than anything else in the proposal.
- Performance. Require green Core Web Vitals on mobile at launch, and ask how the vendor will prove it.
- SEO built in. Clean URL structure, proper headings, structured data (schema), a redirect map for every existing URL, and a plan to preserve current rankings through the migration.
- Accessibility and security. A stated standard (WCAG 2.1 AA is the common one) and how updates, backups and security are handled after launch.
- Integrations. Every system the site must talk to, by name.
6. Hosting, ownership and what happens after launch
Who hosts, who owns the code and content (you should — completely, with the ability to export and move), what the ongoing care or retainer looks like, and what it costs to change things later. Ask explicitly whether you could take the site to another firm tomorrow.
7. Budget range and timeline
Give a range. Vendors who refuse to work with a range are hiding something; buyers who withhold a range get proposals that are either padded or underscoped. State your target launch and any hard dates behind it.
8. Evaluation criteria and logistics
How you will score proposals (weighting build quality, relevant work, team, price), who decides, the timeline for questions, submission, shortlisting and decision, and the format you want responses in. Cap response length — a good firm can make its case in ten pages.
The free website RFP template — copy and adapt
Paste this into a document and fill it in. Cut anything that does not apply; add a section for anything unusual about your project.
- Introduction. Company overview · What we sell and to whom · Why we are issuing this RFP now · The one outcome the new site must produce
- Current situation. Current site URL and platform · What works · What does not · Traffic sources and rough monthly visits · Known technical or content problems
- Goals and success metrics. Primary goal (e.g. qualified leads per month) · Secondary goals · How we will measure success 6 and 12 months after launch
- Audience. Primary and secondary audiences · Device mix · How they find us · What they need to do on the site
- Scope. Required page types and functionality · Preferred · Future phases · Anything explicitly out of scope
- Content and assets. Who writes copy · Photography and video · Content migrating from the current site · Brand guidelines available
- Technical requirements. Platform and build approach (custom theme vs template) · Performance standard (mobile Core Web Vitals) · SEO requirements and redirect plan · Accessibility standard · Security, backups, updates · Required integrations
- Hosting, ownership and support. Hosting expectations · Code and content ownership · Post-launch care/retainer · Training
- Budget. Range for the build · Expected ongoing monthly range
- Timeline. Target launch · Hard dates and why
- Proposal requirements. Recommended approach and platform, with reasoning · Two or three relevant examples with results · Team and who does the work · Process and timeline · Itemized pricing and what is excluded · Ongoing costs · References
- Evaluation and schedule. Scoring criteria and weights · Question deadline · Submission deadline and format · Shortlist and decision dates · Contact
Questions to ask every vendor
- Will this be a custom theme built for us, or a purchased template with a page builder? If a template, which one, and how will you keep it fast?
- Who actually designs and builds the site — your team, or subcontractors?
- Will the site pass mobile Core Web Vitals at launch, and how will you show us?
- How will you protect our current search rankings through the migration?
- Do we own the code and content outright, and could we move the site elsewhere?
- What does month two look like — who handles updates, security and changes, and at what cost?
- Show us a site you launched two years ago. Is it still fast?
Red flags in proposals
- A fixed price quoted without a single scoping question.
- No mention of speed, Core Web Vitals or search structure — the site will be slow and hard to rank.
- A “proprietary platform” or a CMS you cannot export from. You are buying a lease, not a site.
- Portfolio pieces that are beautiful and, when you test them, take five seconds to load on a phone.
- Page counts and “unlimited revisions” as the headline value, rather than outcomes.
- Ongoing fees that are vague, or that climb automatically with your traffic or sales.
What a strong response looks like — and how we answer
A strong proposal restates your goals better than you did, recommends a platform and build approach with reasoning rather than a default, shows relevant work with the outcomes it produced, names the people who will do the work, and prices the project with the exclusions in plain sight. That is how North Sea Strategic responds. We design and develop custom WordPress websites — custom themes coded for speed, not templates — with search structure and schema built in from the first line, hosting and care handled, and a site you own outright on infrastructure you control. Whether you are a local service company, a professional practice, a multi-location operator or a B2B firm, the proposal is scoped to your outcome and quoted fixed.
If you are issuing an RFP, we are glad to be on the shortlist — send it to us. If you would rather skip the process and scope it together, the same link works.
Related decisions
- How much does a website cost? What to expect
- How much does local SEO cost?
- SEO vs Google Ads: where to start
- On the other side of the table: how firms win proposals with content
Frequently asked questions
How long should a website RFP be?
Two to five pages is plenty. Cover your goals, audience, scope, technical requirements, budget range, timeline and how you will evaluate responses. Longer RFPs mostly repeat themselves and push good firms to decline.
Should I include a budget in a website design RFP?
Yes — a range. Without it, vendors either pad the price or underscope the project, and you cannot compare the proposals. A range lets each firm propose the best build for your money.
What is the most important technical question to ask a web design vendor?
Whether the site will be a custom theme built for you or a purchased template with a page builder. That answer predicts speed, search performance, maintainability and lock-in more than anything else in the proposal.
How many vendors should I send a website RFP to?
Three to five shortlisted firms. Blasting it to twenty produces twenty shallow responses; a small, researched shortlist produces proposals worth reading.
Can we skip the RFP and just talk?
If your procurement rules allow it, usually yes — and often with a better result. A scoped conversation with two or three firms surfaces the trade-offs an RFP hides. Tell us about the project and we will respond with a scoped plan.
Let’s build something that performs.
Tell us where you are and where you want to go, and we’ll come back with a plan, not a calendar invite.