How to Write a Great Website RFP (Template)

Web developments and redesigns are among the most common projects for any organization. Start off with a great website RFP template!

If you’re not on the internet, do you even exist?

While some may roll their eyes at that statement, it’s true for any organization with a brand or public presence. The internet is critical to communicating information, finding supporters or customers, and achieving growth.

A good website is essential to a strong online presence. Whether you’re new or hundreds of years old, there comes a time in every organization’s life to build or rebuild a website. This can be daunting. Fortunately, Prosal’s RFP experts have interviewed dozens of leading web firms to find out what they want to know, what’s important to have in a good website, and how to get started with a great website RFP.

If you want to start immediately, we’ve already created a trusted website RFP template for any organization.

This RFP lays out the basic requirements for any website from a high level before going into the technical details and specifics of your current environment and ideal solution. By completing this RFP template, web developers can form a good idea and get a general sense of direction of what your ideal website will look like. It also helps filter poor matches from the start, so you only end up with the best potential partners.

The first two pages cover Introduction, Problem Statement, Context, Proposed Solutions, Goals, Budgets, Timelines, and Instructions for Submission. At a very high level, this puts all of the important information about your website and what you want from a partner at the beginning.

The remainder of the RFP dives into the detailed technical specifications needed for the website.

Why You Should Be Using This Template

This template does a great job itemizing your current environment as well as the technical requirements for functionality, features, back-end requirements, security, and web hosting. All technical requirements are elaborate and detailed, making it an incredibly easy guide to follow for web developers. Even if you don't know what to fill out, it can give you a good sense of what will be important to know and understand down the road.

Another area this RFP exceeds is in is directing web developers to your current website so they can better understand what is expected for the new project and your starting point. Doing so can build a degree of continuity and provide convenience for your users and followers. For this reason, you'll find the Audience as one of the technical specifications in the RFP. You can make that known here too if there is a new audience.

Technical requirements aside, this RFP has specific details for your website project, submission details, and the important criteria for your selection. This information is extremely helpful for potential partners to reduce ambiguities and avoid miscommunication from the start.

Organizations looking to write web development RFPs should reference this template focusing on the technical requirements section. After all, web developers can't get their work done without clear guidance.

We’ve written a few other tips on maximizing responses to any RFP, like allowing up to a month for proposals, and creating the space for 15-20 minute introductory calls. You can read more about that here.