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What Deliverables Should I Get From a Redesign?

A Tampa website redesign should deliver more than “a new site.” Here’s the 12-item checklist of artifacts every owner should receive at handoff.

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Beyond “a new site,” every Tampa redesign should deliver 12 specific artifacts at handoff: the live site, redirect map, sitemap, schema audit, Search Console setup, analytics setup, training video, content backup, design system file, page speed report, accessibility checklist, and a 30-day support window. If any are missing, you’re paying for an incomplete deliverable.

The 12-item handoff checklist

Use this list when you’re comparing redesign proposals from any Tampa vendor. If a vendor can’t promise all 12 in writing, you’re going to spend the next 6 months wishing you’d asked upfront.

1. The live site

Obvious, but worth specifying. The deliverable isn’t “a staging URL we’ll launch when you’re ready” — it’s a launched, indexed, working production site on your domain. Launch is the deliverable, not the milestone before delivery.

2. Full 301 redirect map (CSV)

Every old URL mapped to a new URL. Delivered as a CSV before launch and signed off by you. This is the single most important SEO deliverable. Without it, every other deliverable is undermined. See will I lose traffic when I redesign my website.

3. XML sitemap submitted to Google Search Console

Not just a sitemap that exists — one that’s been submitted, accepted, and crawled. Confirmation screenshot included in your handoff folder.

4. Schema markup audit

A spreadsheet listing every page type and its schema (LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ, Article, Product, etc.). Validated through Google’s Rich Results Test. Delivered as a PDF or shared sheet.

5. Google Search Console setup

Property created or transferred to your account, ownership verified, sitemap submitted, performance baseline screenshotted. You should have admin access — not us.

6. Google Analytics 4 setup

GA4 property created or transferred to your account, key events configured (form submissions, phone clicks, scheduling clicks), conversion tracking confirmed. Again — your account, not ours.

7. Training video

A 30-45 minute screen recording walking through how to edit pages, swap images, add blog posts, and manage forms. Tailored to your site, not a generic WordPress tutorial. Stored in your handoff folder.

8. Content backup

A complete copy of your old site’s content (text, images, structure) — in case anything was lost in migration that you want to restore later. Delivered as a ZIP archive.

9. Design system file

For larger redesigns, a Figma or PDF reference showing your color palette, type system, button styles, and layout patterns. So next year, when you add a new page or run an ad campaign, the design stays consistent.

10. Page speed report

Before/after PageSpeed Insights scores for mobile and desktop, plus Core Web Vitals (LCP, FID, CLS). Delivered as a one-page PDF with screenshots.

11. Accessibility checklist

WCAG 2.1 AA audit results — color contrast, alt text coverage, keyboard navigation, ARIA labels. Delivered as a PDF report. Tampa businesses in healthcare, legal, and financial services are at higher legal risk if they skip this. See should I add accessibility compliance during a redesign.

12. 30-day post-launch support window

In writing. Includes:

  • Weekly Search Console review
  • Bug fixes
  • Reasonable copy edits
  • Crawl error monitoring

Not “we’ll get to it when we can” — a defined window with included scope.

What “good” looks like at handoff

You should receive a handoff folder (Google Drive or Dropbox) with:

  • 01-Site-Access/ — admin logins for WordPress, hosting, domain registrar
  • 02-Redirect-Map/ — final 301 CSV
  • 03-Sitemap-Search-Console/ — screenshots of submission and indexing
  • 04-Schema-Audit/ — page-by-page schema report
  • 05-Analytics-Setup/ — GA4 configuration screenshots
  • 06-Training/ — 30-45 min training video
  • 07-Content-Backup/ — old site archive
  • 08-Design-System/ — Figma or PDF style guide
  • 09-Page-Speed-Report/ — before/after PageSpeed PDF
  • 10-Accessibility-Report/ — WCAG checklist
  • 11-Support-Window/ — written 30-day support terms

Compare this to what most Tampa agencies actually deliver: “Here’s your login. The site is live. Let us know if anything breaks.” That’s 1 of 12.

What you should NOT get

Three things that aren’t deliverables, even if they sound like them:

Not a deliverable: Lock-in to proprietary systems

If the agency hosts the site on their own private infrastructure that you can’t move, that’s a lock-in trap. You should own your site on infrastructure you control. We deliver every site on managed WordPress hosting (Kinsta, WP Engine, or Cloudways) under your account.

Not a deliverable: Source code “for an additional fee”

WordPress is open source. Your theme and plugins should be yours, on your hosting, full stop. Any vendor charging extra to release “your” code is treating you like a hostage.

Not a deliverable: SEO guarantees

Anyone who guarantees rankings in writing is lying. Search results are competitive and we don’t control Google’s algorithm. What we can guarantee: schema, redirects, speed, content quality. The rankings follow.

The handoff call

Beyond the folder, you should get a 60-minute handoff call where the vendor walks you through:

  • How to log in and edit each page type
  • How to swap images and update copy
  • How to add a blog post or new service page
  • How to access Search Console and Analytics
  • What to monitor in the first 30 days
  • How to reach the vendor for support

If your handoff is “here’s the URL, good luck” — that’s a $200/hr lesson you’ll pay later.

What this means for your Tampa business

When evaluating redesign vendors, send them this checklist. Ask which items they include in base price and which are add-ons. The answers tell you everything about whether they’re a real partner or a project-flipping shop.

Three honest questions for vendors:

  1. “Can I see a sample handoff folder from a previous project?” Vendors with real process can show you one (with client names redacted). Vendors who can’t have never delivered one.
  2. “How long is your post-launch support window?” 30 days is standard. 14 days is light. Anything under 14 days is a red flag.
  3. “What happens if I find a bug 60 days after launch?” A good vendor’s answer: “Logged, prioritized, fixed in the next sprint if it’s our error, quoted as a small change if it’s a new request.” A bad vendor’s answer: “We can give you a quote.”

The other side of this question is what questions should I ask a redesign vendor — which covers the procurement-side questions before the deliverable conversation.

Our handoff for Tampa redesigns

Every redesign we ship includes all 12 deliverables in base price. Nothing is held back as an upsell. The handoff folder template is the same for a $2K redesign and a $10K rebuild — same artifacts, just different depth for each.

The biggest reason we standardized this list: every redesign we’d ever cleaned up from another vendor was missing 6-10 of these 12. Owners paid $5K-$8K for “a site” and ended up paying us $1.5K-$3K six months later to fix what wasn’t delivered. The list exists so that doesn’t happen again — to you, to anyone in Tampa.

Web Design Tampa Florida

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