How to Write a Web Design RFP That Actually Gets You Good Proposals

I receive about two or three RFPs a month from businesses looking for web design. Most of them are terrible. Not in an insulting way, they’re just unhelpful. Pages of boilerplate text, vague requirements, unrealistic expectations, and not enough information for me to give an honest quote. The businesses sending these RFPs think they’re being professional and thorough. In reality, they’re making it harder to get a good result.

Here’s the thing most people don’t realize: a bad RFP doesn’t just waste the agency’s time. It wastes yours. You’ll get vague proposals in return, because vague requirements produce vague answers. You’ll struggle to compare proposals because each agency interpreted your requirements differently. And you might end up choosing the wrong partner because the RFP failed to surface the things that actually matter.

I’m going to walk you through how to write a web design RFP that actually works, one that gets you better proposals, makes comparison easier, and sets the project up for success. And I’ll also tell you when you don’t need an RFP at all, because sometimes the process itself is overkill.

When you actually need an RFP

Let’s start here, because many businesses default to writing an RFP when they’d be better served by a simple conversation.

You need an RFP when:

Your budget is above €15,000. Below that, a detailed brief and a few conversations will serve you better. An RFP process for a €5,000 website project adds overhead that doesn’t improve the outcome.

You’re required to get multiple quotes. Government entities, large corporations, and some NGOs have procurement requirements that mandate a formal RFP process. If that’s you, you don’t have a choice, but you can still write a good one.

The project involves multiple stakeholders. When 5 people need to agree on the agency selection, an RFP creates a structured evaluation framework. Without it, the selection becomes a political exercise rather than an informed decision.

You’re comparing fundamentally different approaches. If you’re genuinely unsure whether you need a custom WordPress site, a Shopify store, or a headless CMS, an RFP that invites different approaches can be illuminating.

You probably don’t need an RFP when: you’re a small business with a straightforward project, you already know which 2-3 agencies you want to talk to, or you have a budget under €10,000. In those cases, write a brief (I’ll explain how), send it to your shortlisted agencies, and have a conversation. The brief-and-conversation approach is faster, more personal, and often produces better matches.

What to include in your RFP

A good RFP answers the questions that agencies need answered to give you an accurate, honest proposal. Here’s what to include, in order of importance:

1. About your business

Two to three paragraphs. What you do, who your customers are, what makes you different. Agencies need context to propose relevant solutions. “We’re a luxury real estate agency in Marbella serving international buyers, primarily British and Scandinavian” tells me infinitely more than “we’re a real estate company in Spain.”

Include your website URL if you have an existing site. We’ll look at it before responding, it tells us more than any written description.

2. Project goals

What do you want the new website to achieve? Be specific. “We want more leads” is a start, but “We want to increase qualified enquiries from 10/month to 30/month within 6 months of launch” is something I can actually design for.

Common goals: increase leads, improve brand perception, support a product launch, reduce customer service calls, improve SEO rankings, enter a new market. Pick your top 2-3 priorities. If everything is a priority, nothing is.

3. Scope of work

What needs to be done? Be as specific as possible:

How many pages? List them if you can. “20-page website” is helpful. “A website” is not. If you’re unsure, describe the content you need: “We need pages for our 5 services, an about page, a contact page, a blog, and possibly a portfolio section.”

What functionality? Contact forms, booking systems, ecommerce, multilingual support, member areas, integrations with existing tools (CRM, email marketing, booking software). List everything you know you need and everything you think you might need.

Content: will you provide the content, or do you need the agency to create it? This is a huge variable in pricing. A project where the client provides all copy and photography costs 30-50% less than one where the agency handles everything.

Design: do you have brand guidelines? A logo? Colour palette? Font preferences? Examples of websites you like (and why)? Visual references are worth a thousand words. “We like the clean, minimal feel of [example URL]” helps enormously.

4. Budget range

This is the most contentious part, and I’m going to give you a controversial opinion: always include your budget.

“But if I tell them the budget, they’ll just spend all of it!” This fear is misplaced. A good agency will tell you what they can deliver within your budget and be honest if it’s not enough. Without a budget range, agencies waste time proposing solutions you can’t afford, or worse, they propose something cheap that meets the number they guessed you’d accept, but doesn’t actually solve your problem.

Use a range, not an exact number. “Our budget is between €10,000 and €20,000” gives agencies room to propose different levels of scope. If you genuinely don’t know what things cost, check our guide on web design pricing in 2026 for realistic benchmarks.

5. Timeline

When do you need the website live? Is this a hard deadline (tied to a product launch, an event, a legal requirement) or a preference? This matters because hard deadlines often require different resourcing and may affect pricing.

Be realistic. A custom 20-page website with original content takes 8-12 weeks minimum. If you need it in 4 weeks, say so, but understand that rush timelines typically cost 25-50% more because the agency has to prioritize your project over others.

6. Selection criteria

How will you choose? Tell agencies what matters to you. Portfolio quality? Industry experience? Price? Communication style? Technical approach? Ongoing support options?

This helps agencies tailor their proposals to your priorities. If you care most about ongoing support and maintenance, an agency will emphasize their hosting and support packages. If you care most about design quality, they’ll focus on their portfolio and creative process.

7. Process and logistics

When is the RFP due? Will there be a Q&A period where agencies can ask clarifying questions? (There should be.) Will there be in-person or video presentations? Who is the decision-maker? What’s the expected decision timeline?

Agencies invest significant time in proposals, a good web design proposal takes 4-8 hours to prepare. Respecting their time by being clear about the process is professional and will attract better responses.

Common RFP mistakes that cost you money

Being too prescriptive about technology. “We need a WordPress site with Elementor using the Astra theme with these 12 specific plugins.” This tells the agency you’ve already decided the solution before understanding the problem. Describe what you need the website to do, not how to build it. Let the experts propose the technology. That’s what you’re paying them for.

Copying templates from the internet. I can spot a template RFP immediately. They’re full of irrelevant sections (“describe your disaster recovery plan” for a €8,000 brochure website), bureaucratic language, and generic requirements. Write your RFP in plain language, specific to your actual project.

Sending to too many agencies. Sending your RFP to 15 agencies means you’ll get 15 proposals you don’t have time to evaluate properly. Send to 3-5 pre-vetted agencies. Look at their portfolios first. Read their blog posts. Check their Google Reviews. The shortlisting should happen before the RFP, not after.

Not including a budget range. I already covered this, but it’s the single biggest mistake. It leads to incomparable proposals and wastes everyone’s time. Include the budget.

Ignoring the Q&A phase. Agencies will have questions. Good agencies will have lots of questions, it means they’re taking your project seriously. Allow a Q&A period and share all questions and answers with all participating agencies. This levels the playing field and produces better proposals.

Focusing on deliverables over outcomes. “We need a 20-page responsive website with a blog and contact forms” is a list of deliverables. “We need to increase qualified leads by 200% and improve our brand perception with international buyers” is an outcome. Agencies can propose creative solutions to outcomes. They can only execute on deliverables. Outcomes produce better proposals.

How agencies evaluate your RFP

Understanding the other side of the table helps you write a better RFP. Here’s what I evaluate when I receive one:

Is this a real project? Surprisingly, many RFPs are fishing expeditions, companies gathering quotes with no real intention to proceed, or using agency proposals to scope work they’ll do in-house. Agencies develop a nose for this. Signs of a serious project: specific goals, a realistic budget, a named decision-maker, a clear timeline.

Can we actually help? If the project requires ecommerce expertise and we specialize in service business websites, it’s not a good fit. Clear scope helps agencies self-select out when they’re not the right match, which actually helps you.

Is the budget realistic for the scope? “20-page custom website with ecommerce, multilingual support, and custom integrations for €5,000” tells me the client doesn’t understand what they’re asking for. I’ll either decline or have an honest conversation about expectations. Include your budget and scope together so agencies can tell you if they’re aligned.

Will this client be good to work with? The tone of your RFP signals what the working relationship will be like. Collaborative language (“we want to work with an agency that…”) attracts better agencies than controlling language (“the vendor must comply with…”). Good agencies choose their clients as carefully as you choose your agency.

The simpler alternative: the web design brief

For most small and medium businesses, especially here on the Costa del Sol, a web design brief is better than a formal RFP. A brief is a shorter, more conversational document that covers the same essential information without the bureaucratic overhead.

A one-page brief should include:

Your business: who you are, what you do, who your customers are. Your goals: what the website needs to achieve. Your scope: what you need built (rough page count, key features). Your budget range. Your timeline. 3-5 websites you like (with a note about what you like about each). Contact person and preferred communication method.

Send this to 2-3 agencies you’ve pre-selected. Have a 30-minute call with each one. Ask them how they’d approach your project, what they’d prioritize, and how they work. You’ll learn more in those conversations than in any written proposal.

The brief-and-conversation approach works because web design is inherently collaborative. The best outcomes come from good communication between client and agency, and a conversation reveals communication quality far better than a written proposal.

After the proposals come in

You’ve received your proposals. Now what?

Don’t choose based on price alone. The cheapest proposal is rarely the best value. Compare what’s included: how many revision rounds, what’s the project management approach, what happens after launch, is hosting and support included?

Check the assumptions. Every proposal will contain assumptions, things the agency assumed about your requirements because the RFP wasn’t specific enough. Review these carefully. Different assumptions lead to different prices, which makes comparison misleading.

Evaluate the process, not just the output. How the agency approached your RFP tells you how they’ll approach your project. Did they ask smart questions? Did they push back on unrealistic requirements? Did they suggest alternatives you hadn’t considered? The agencies that challenge you during the RFP phase will produce better work than the ones that just say yes to everything.

Meet the team. You’ll be working with these people for weeks or months. Do you like them? Do they communicate clearly? Do they seem genuinely interested in your project? Chemistry matters more than most people admit. A brilliant agency that’s hard to communicate with will deliver a worse result than a good agency that understands you immediately.

The RFP process should make your life easier, not harder. Keep it focused, be honest about your budget and goals, and remember that the goal isn’t to get the most proposals, it’s to find the right partner. Write accordingly.