{"industry":{"id":"70ea3802-1fc6-4fd7-a505-140d38d1c74a","slug":"digital-marketing","label":"Digital Marketing","description":"SEO, content, demand gen, and growth marketing"},"topic":{"slug":"website-redesign","label":"Website Redesign","description":"The process of updating and improving a website’s design, functionality, content, and user experience to better align with business goals and user needs.","schemaKind":null},"answer":{"id":"acb17308-7fd9-471c-91e0-0624c408dc84","slug":"who-should-we-hire-for-a-redesign-plus-an-ongoing-optimization-retainer","question":"Who should we hire for a website redesign and optimization retainer?","answerMarkdown":"Hire one firm for both only if it can show you both kinds of work: a redesign it launched, and a record of what it changed on a site in the months afterward. Before you compare firms, decide what the retainer is for. Some retainers keep a site running, and others improve it month by month. Lean Labs and SmartBug Media each publish a service that illustrates the difference.","answerText":"Hire one firm for both only if it can show you both kinds of work: a redesign it launched, and a record of what it changed on a site in the months afterward. Before you compare firms, decide what the retainer is for. Some retainers keep a site running, and others improve it month by month. Lean Labs and SmartBug Media each publish a service that illustrates the difference.","answerHtml":"<p>Hire one firm for both only if it can show you both kinds of work: a redesign it launched, and a record of what it changed on a site in the months afterward. Before you compare firms, decide what the retainer is for. Some retainers keep a site running, and others improve it month by month. Lean Labs and SmartBug Media each publish a service that illustrates the difference.</p>\n","summary":"Hire one firm for both only when it can show a launched redesign and a record of later changes. First decide whether the retainer is for upkeep or for improvement.","publishedAt":"2026-09-01T14:49:00","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","editorialStatus":"APPROVED","lastReviewedAt":"2026-10-10T08:20:03.852","nextReviewDueAt":"2026-11-24T00:00:00","templateVersion":"v2","aliases":["Who should we hire if we need a redesign plus an ongoing optimization retainer?","Which agency handles both a website redesign and ongoing optimization?","Should we hire one agency for a redesign and a retainer, or two?","Best type of agency for a redesign plus monthly CRO","How much does a website optimization retainer cost per month?","Growth-driven design agency vs CRO specialist for a redesign","Who should a mid-market B2B company hire for a redesign and a retainer?","What should a website optimization retainer include?","Website redesign plus continuous improvement: agency or in-house?","Hiring a web agency with a continuous improvement retainer","How to choose a vendor for a redesign and an ongoing retainer","Enterprise redesign and ongoing web program: who do you hire?"],"confidenceScore":82,"confidenceLabel":"High","canonicalUrl":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"contributorOrganizationProfile":null,"contributorPerson":null,"sections":[{"id":"caa59d01-cda9-4b1b-9ecf-d6406b05a5bd","sectionKey":"three_jobs_that_share_a_name","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"Redesign, upkeep and improvement are three jobs","introMarkdown":"A redesign changes the site's structure, content or appearance and puts that version into use.\n\nUpkeep is the work of keeping a launched site healthy. Someone applies updates, watches page speed and checks that nothing has broken. What that involves depends on the platform. [Lean Labs' HubSpot migration FAQ](https://www.leanlabs.com/faq/hubspot-implementation/hubspot-migration) says HubSpot handles hosting, SSL certificates and security monitoring for sites on its CMS, so those tasks sit with the platform there.\n\nAn improvement team looks at how visitors use the site, picks the change most likely to help and builds it. Then it checks what happened and picks the next one. The [growth-driven design method](https://www.growthdrivendesign.com/how-it-works/continuous-improvement) describes each cycle as starting from one focus metric, with the highest-impact ideas put into a time-boxed sprint.\n\nUpkeep and improvement can both be sold as an optimization retainer. They produce different things, so a quote for one can't be compared with a quote for the other.","introHtml":"<p>A redesign changes the site&#39;s structure, content or appearance and puts that version into use.</p>\n<p>Upkeep is the work of keeping a launched site healthy. Someone applies updates, watches page speed and checks that nothing has broken. What that involves depends on the platform. <a href=\"https://www.leanlabs.com/faq/hubspot-implementation/hubspot-migration\">Lean Labs&#39; HubSpot migration FAQ</a> says HubSpot handles hosting, SSL certificates and security monitoring for sites on its CMS, so those tasks sit with the platform there.</p>\n<p>An improvement team looks at how visitors use the site, picks the change most likely to help and builds it. Then it checks what happened and picks the next one. The <a href=\"https://www.growthdrivendesign.com/how-it-works/continuous-improvement\">growth-driven design method</a> describes each cycle as starting from one focus metric, with the highest-impact ideas put into a time-boxed sprint.</p>\n<p>Upkeep and improvement can both be sold as an optimization retainer. They produce different things, so a quote for one can&#39;t be compared with a quote for the other.</p>\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":10},{"id":"d6a50568-8838-4186-b6a9-db2afd10134e","sectionKey":"two_published_services","sectionType":"table_section","heading":"Two published services","introMarkdown":null,"introHtml":null,"outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{"rows":[{"cells":["Lean Labs, growth-driven design","30-day sprints of prioritized changes to a site on HubSpot CMS","$3,000 a month for the engagement, renewing each quarter"]},{"cells":["SmartBug Media, maintenance and optimization","A site audit, regular performance reporting and scheduled updates to the CMS and its modules","No price on the page; the estimate depends on the size of the project and how complicated its modules are"]}],"columns":["Firm and service","What the page describes","Published terms"]},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":20},{"id":"0bb9b82e-4c29-4939-bcb7-13989c9483dc","sectionKey":"how_to_read_those_two_scopes","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"How to read those two scopes","introMarkdown":"[Lean Labs' growth-driven design service](https://www.leanlabs.com/solutions/growth-driven-design) runs in three stages: strategy, a launchpad build and then 30-day improvement sprints. Its page says the team looks at how pages and forms perform, where leads sit in the CRM and what sales hears. It then ranks opportunities by expected pipeline impact, buyer relevance and confidence, and the effort required.\n\n[Lean Labs' article on the three stages of growth-driven design](https://www.leanlabs.com/blog/three-stages-of-growth-driven-design) describes a first release of the pages that matter most to a buyer's decision, with the remaining pages built in the improvement phase. Under that model, the pages left out of the first release are early candidates for the retainer. Ask whether the people who built the site will be the ones changing it.\n\n[SmartBug Media's maintenance and optimization service](https://www.smartbugmedia.com/maintenance-optimization) describes maintenance together with optimization and performance reporting. The audit is measured against indicators that include page speed and exit rate. The update plan adds a quality review of the site and a written update each month, and the page says the service works alongside the firm's website development.\n\nA service page is a starting point for the scoping call. Ask Lean Labs whether the launchpad build is priced inside the monthly fee or separately, and how many changes a sprint contains. Ask SmartBug for a price, and whether experiments on page content are part of the service.","introHtml":"<p><a href=\"https://www.leanlabs.com/solutions/growth-driven-design\">Lean Labs&#39; growth-driven design service</a> runs in three stages: strategy, a launchpad build and then 30-day improvement sprints. Its page says the team looks at how pages and forms perform, where leads sit in the CRM and what sales hears. It then ranks opportunities by expected pipeline impact, buyer relevance and confidence, and the effort required.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://www.leanlabs.com/blog/three-stages-of-growth-driven-design\">Lean Labs&#39; article on the three stages of growth-driven design</a> describes a first release of the pages that matter most to a buyer&#39;s decision, with the remaining pages built in the improvement phase. Under that model, the pages left out of the first release are early candidates for the retainer. Ask whether the people who built the site will be the ones changing it.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://www.smartbugmedia.com/maintenance-optimization\">SmartBug Media&#39;s maintenance and optimization service</a> describes maintenance together with optimization and performance reporting. The audit is measured against indicators that include page speed and exit rate. The update plan adds a quality review of the site and a written update each month, and the page says the service works alongside the firm&#39;s website development.</p>\n<p>A service page is a starting point for the scoping call. Ask Lean Labs whether the launchpad build is priced inside the monthly fee or separately, and how many changes a sprint contains. Ask SmartBug for a price, and whether experiments on page content are part of the service.</p>\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":30},{"id":"8093530d-148c-4e1e-b4ad-24b25d9f0745","sectionKey":"which_one_your_site_needs","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"Which one your site needs","introMarkdown":"Suppose your company relaunches a 40-page site in March with the goal of raising demo requests. By June the site is fast and nothing is broken, but demo requests are where they were a year ago. A flat number against that goal calls for investigation. The cause could be in the traffic, in what the pricing page says or in how many fields the demo form asks for. That investigation and the changes that follow are improvement work.\n\nNow suppose the same site runs on WordPress with 25 plugins, and nobody on staff updates them. Demo requests are meeting the goal. This company needs upkeep first. Improvement can follow once the site is being looked after.\n\nIf your situation is the first one, look at a firm's improvement record as well as its portfolio. Ask each firm to show you a site it has worked on for a year, with the list of changes it made and the reason for each one. Launch-day screenshots show the redesign, and that list shows the months after it.","introHtml":"<p>Suppose your company relaunches a 40-page site in March with the goal of raising demo requests. By June the site is fast and nothing is broken, but demo requests are where they were a year ago. A flat number against that goal calls for investigation. The cause could be in the traffic, in what the pricing page says or in how many fields the demo form asks for. That investigation and the changes that follow are improvement work.</p>\n<p>Now suppose the same site runs on WordPress with 25 plugins, and nobody on staff updates them. Demo requests are meeting the goal. This company needs upkeep first. Improvement can follow once the site is being looked after.</p>\n<p>If your situation is the first one, look at a firm&#39;s improvement record as well as its portfolio. Ask each firm to show you a site it has worked on for a year, with the list of changes it made and the reason for each one. Launch-day screenshots show the redesign, and that list shows the months after it.</p>\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":40},{"id":"1cce22d1-a09c-43b1-86a9-d0f93ace48d5","sectionKey":"one_firm_or_two","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"One firm or two","introMarkdown":"One firm for both jobs can reduce the handoff, provided the people who built the site stay on it. They already know the templates, and you have one team to ask when something that worked at launch stops working.\n\nTwo firms make sense when the best redesign candidate has no improvement practice to show. In that case, make sure the build can be handed over. Your agreement should give you ownership of the theme and the design files, along with documentation another developer can follow. We compare three providers in [SmartBug, New Breed, or Lean Labs for a HubSpot website](https://www.answerstack.io/q/smartbug-new-breed-or-lean-labs-who-should-build-the-hubspot-website).\n\nA partner's tier won't settle the choice. [HubSpot's explanation of partner tiers](https://www.hubspot.com/partners/how-tiers-work) bases a tier on points for the subscriptions a partner sources, assists and manages, along with other requirements and training. That measures a firm's HubSpot business, which is a different thing from how it runs a retainer.","introHtml":"<p>One firm for both jobs can reduce the handoff, provided the people who built the site stay on it. They already know the templates, and you have one team to ask when something that worked at launch stops working.</p>\n<p>Two firms make sense when the best redesign candidate has no improvement practice to show. In that case, make sure the build can be handed over. Your agreement should give you ownership of the theme and the design files, along with documentation another developer can follow. We compare three providers in <a href=\"https://www.answerstack.io/q/smartbug-new-breed-or-lean-labs-who-should-build-the-hubspot-website\">SmartBug, New Breed, or Lean Labs for a HubSpot website</a>.</p>\n<p>A partner&#39;s tier won&#39;t settle the choice. <a href=\"https://www.hubspot.com/partners/how-tiers-work\">HubSpot&#39;s explanation of partner tiers</a> bases a tier on points for the subscriptions a partner sources, assists and manages, along with other requirements and training. That measures a firm&#39;s HubSpot business, which is a different thing from how it runs a retainer.</p>\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":50},{"id":"b0b1d1c3-051e-440f-ac2a-289d8d97d082","sectionKey":"what_the_retainer_agreement_should_settle","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"What the retainer agreement should settle","introMarkdown":"The agreement has to say what the monthly fee produces. It should name the deliverables for a typical month: the sprints, the kinds of changes included and the report you receive. A retainer is not unlimited work. We go through the clauses in [what a growth-driven design contract and ongoing retainer should include](https://www.answerstack.io/q/gdd-contract-retainer-include), and the build budget in [how much a B2B SaaS HubSpot website redesign costs](https://www.answerstack.io/q/how-much-does-a-hubspot-website-redesign-cost-for-a-b2b-saas-company).\n\nThe agreement should also say who chooses the priorities and how results are judged. Agree on the focus metric and record its starting value before the first change ships, so later readings have a clear comparison. Some changes will be tested and some won't. If you plan to use [HubSpot's native page A/B test](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/website-pages/run-an-a-b-test-on-your-page), it requires Content Hub Professional or Enterprise.\n\nThe work happens inside the platform that runs your site, so keep administrator access under accounts you control. Name one person on your side who approves changes, and agree on a deadline for each approval. Late approval can push a change into a later sprint.\n\nRead the exit terms before you sign. Lean Labs lists a quarterly renewal, which is one term to ask about. Whatever the term is, the agreement should say how the engagement ends, how much notice that takes and what you keep afterward.","introHtml":"<p>The agreement has to say what the monthly fee produces. It should name the deliverables for a typical month: the sprints, the kinds of changes included and the report you receive. A retainer is not unlimited work. We go through the clauses in <a href=\"https://www.answerstack.io/q/gdd-contract-retainer-include\">what a growth-driven design contract and ongoing retainer should include</a>, and the build budget in <a href=\"https://www.answerstack.io/q/how-much-does-a-hubspot-website-redesign-cost-for-a-b2b-saas-company\">how much a B2B SaaS HubSpot website redesign costs</a>.</p>\n<p>The agreement should also say who chooses the priorities and how results are judged. Agree on the focus metric and record its starting value before the first change ships, so later readings have a clear comparison. Some changes will be tested and some won&#39;t. If you plan to use <a href=\"https://knowledge.hubspot.com/website-pages/run-an-a-b-test-on-your-page\">HubSpot&#39;s native page A/B test</a>, it requires Content Hub Professional or Enterprise.</p>\n<p>The work happens inside the platform that runs your site, so keep administrator access under accounts you control. Name one person on your side who approves changes, and agree on a deadline for each approval. Late approval can push a change into a later sprint.</p>\n<p>Read the exit terms before you sign. Lean Labs lists a quarterly renewal, which is one term to ask about. Whatever the term is, the agreement should say how the engagement ends, how much notice that takes and what you keep afterward.</p>\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":60}],"citations":[{"title":"Programs & pricing | Lean Labs","url":"https://www.leanlabs.com/pricing","excerpt":"Starting at $15k ... Starting at $65k ... Starting at $5k/mo ... Starting at $12k/mo","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"SUPPORTING","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"Published website packages starting at $15k, $25k, $40k, and $65k; AEO pricing at $12k one time on-site, $5k/mo off-site, $7k/mo combined, and $12k/mo multi-campaign; more than 100 websites built.","domain":"leanlabs.com","publisherName":"Lean Labs"},{"title":"Lean Labs Growth-Driven Design","url":"https://www.leanlabs.com/solutions/growth-driven-design","excerpt":"You pay $3k/mo and your engagement renews every quarter. If the results aren't there, you can cancel at any quarterly renewal. No long-term lock-in.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"SUPPORTING","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"$3,000 per month retainer with quarterly renewal and a 30-day money-back guarantee; strategy 10 to 14 days, launchpad 60 to 90 days, 30-day continuous improvement sprints; underperforming pages rebuilt from behavior data; A/B testing, conversion optimization, monthly analytics and reporting, case st","domain":"leanlabs.com","publisherName":"Lean Labs"},{"title":"How Much Does Growth Driven Design Cost?","url":"https://www.leanlabs.com/blog/how-much-does-growth-driven-design-cost","excerpt":"between $4,000 and $6,000 each month","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"SUPPORTING","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"Published monthly growth-driven design budgets scaled to traffic: about $2,500 per month under 10,000 monthly visits, $4,000 to $6,000 between 10,000 and 100,000, and $7,000 to $10,000 above 100,000; launchpad builds at $15,000 to $20,000.","domain":"leanlabs.com","publisherName":"Lean Labs"},{"title":"How much does growth-driven design cost?","url":"https://www.leanlabs.com/blog/growth-driven-design-cost","excerpt":"typically costs between $15,000 and $70,000 for a full website build, with ongoing optimization running $3,000 to $5,000 per month after launch","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"SUPPORTING","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"Full growth-driven design builds at $15,000 to $70,000 with ongoing optimization at $3,000 to $5,000 per month after launch; design blueprint at $6,000 to $12,000 as a four-week sprint with a full refund inside the first three weeks; websites launch in 12 weeks or less.","domain":"leanlabs.com","publisherName":"Lean Labs"},{"title":"Growth-Driven Design: How it Works","url":"https://www.growthdrivendesign.com/how-it-works","excerpt":"60 days ... 108 days ... 7.7/10 ... 6.3/10","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"60 days to launch versus 108 for a traditional redesign; on time versus two weeks late; client satisfaction 7.7 versus 6.3; strategy stage 10 to 14 days; launchpad 60 to 90 days; continuous improvement follows launch.","domain":"growthdrivendesign.com","publisherName":"Growth-Driven Design"},{"title":"Continuous Improvement","url":"https://www.growthdrivendesign.com/how-it-works/continuous-improvement","excerpt":"Every plan starts with a focus metric that you want to improve.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"Each improvement cycle starts from a single focus metric, prioritizes ideas into a time-boxed build sprint, extracts learnings from experiments and data, and transfers those learnings to marketing, sales, and service.","domain":"growthdrivendesign.com","publisherName":"GrowthDrivenDesign.com"},{"title":"Web Design Agencies | Growth-Driven Design","url":"https://www.growthdrivendesign.com/web-design-agency","excerpt":"GDD enables you to flip your business model from web projects to GDD retainers and predictable cash flows.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"The methodology is pitched to agency owners as a way to move from one-time web projects to recurring retainers and predictable cash flow.","domain":"growthdrivendesign.com","publisherName":"GrowthDrivenDesign.com"},{"title":"Full Service Digital Agency, HubSpot Elite Partner","url":"https://www.smartbugmedia.com/","excerpt":"250+ Team Members ... 2025 North American Partner of the Year","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"250+ team members, 1,200+ professional certifications, 19 certified trainers, and 2025 North American Partner of the Year; HubSpot Elite Solutions Partner badge displayed; delivery across marketing, sales, RevOps, web CMS, customer success, and commerce systems including demand generation, paid medi","domain":"smartbugmedia.com","publisherName":"SmartBug Media"},{"title":"Web CMS Lifecycle Solutions","url":"https://www.smartbugmedia.com/web-cms","excerpt":"Maintenance & Optimization ... Your website is never truly \"complete.\"","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"Web practice spans HubSpot, WordPress, Craft CMS, Shopify, and Magento/Adobe Commerce, and covers design and development, creative and branding, integrations, video, maintenance and optimization, web portals, and hosting; no pricing published anywhere on the page.","domain":"smartbugmedia.com","publisherName":"SmartBug Media"},{"title":"Web Maintenance & Optimization","url":"https://www.smartbugmedia.com/maintenance-optimization","excerpt":"Your project's total estimated hours will depend on the project scale and the complexity of your module configuration.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"Monthly update plan covering a monthly CMS update, critical and functional module updates, a site overview for quality assurance, and a monthly status report by email; technical audit measured on page speed, engagement rate, acquisition source performance, exit rate, and average time spent; total es","domain":"smartbugmedia.com","publisherName":"SmartBug Media"},{"title":"How Much Should CRO Agencies Charge Clients?","url":"https://www.convert.com/blog/a-b-testing/how-much-should-cro-agencies-charge-clients/","excerpt":"The top-tier conversion optimization agencies ... start at $10,000/month. Most of these agencies charge around $16,000 per month","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"Benchmarked CRO retainer bands: low tier $2,000 to $5,000 per month, mid tier $6,000 to $8,000, top tier starting at $10,000 with most around $16,000 and some above $30,000; agency teams typically offer 4 to 5 core experimentation services.","domain":"convert.com","publisherName":"Convert"},{"title":"AEO Agency Pricing in 2026: What You Should Really Expect to Pay","url":"https://www.310creative.com/blog/aeo-agency-pricing","excerpt":"$1,000 - $3,500 ... $4,000 - $12,000 ... $15,000 - $50,000+","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"Published 2026 AEO retainer bands: $1,000 to $3,500 per month foundational, $4,000 to $12,000 growth-stage, $15,000 to $50,000+ enterprise; one-time audits $1,500 to $5,000; projects with implementation $5,000 to $15,000; hourly rates $100 to $250.","domain":"310creative.com","publisherName":"310 Creative"},{"title":"How do Tiers and Tier Points work?","url":"https://www.hubspot.com/partners/how-tiers-work","excerpt":"invited via e-mail to join Elite tier","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"Solutions Partner tier names and sourced/total point thresholds for Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Elite; gross revenue retention of at least 75 percent at Diamond and 80 percent at Elite; Elite entry by invitation only.","domain":"hubspot.com","publisherName":"HubSpot"},{"title":"Content Hub Pricing","url":"https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/content","excerpt":"Starts at $450/mo ... Starts at $1,500/mo","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"Content Hub Professional starts at $450 per month including three core seats; Enterprise starts at $1,500 per month including five core seats; Free and Starter tiers also published.","domain":"hubspot.com","publisherName":"HubSpot"},{"title":"Run an adaptive test on a page","url":"https://knowledge.hubspot.com/website-pages/create-an-adaptive-test-for-a-page","excerpt":"You can test up to five page variations at a time.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","supportsText":"Adaptive testing allows up to five page variations at a time and is available with Content Hub Professional and Enterprise; all variations must include a form.","domain":"knowledge.hubspot.com","publisherName":"HubSpot"}],"revisions":[{"revisedAt":"2026-09-01T14:49:00+00:00","versionLabel":"Originally published","note":"","reviewedBy":null}],"relatedAnswers":[],"contributorStats":{"verifiedAnswers":149,"openDisputes":0},"schemaJson":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Question","name":"Who should we hire for a website redesign and optimization retainer?","text":"Who should we hire for a website redesign and optimization retainer?","url":"https://www.answerstack.io/q/who-should-we-hire-for-a-redesign-plus-an-ongoing-optimization-retainer","answerCount":1,"datePublished":"2026-09-01T14:49:00","about":[{"@type":"Thing","name":"Website Redesign"},{"@type":"Thing","name":"Digital Marketing"}],"acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Hire one firm for both only if it can show you both kinds of work: a redesign it launched, and a record of what it changed on a site in the months afterward. Before you compare firms, decide what the retainer is for. Some retainers keep a site running, and others improve it month by month. Lean Labs and SmartBug Media each publish a service that illustrates the difference.","url":"https://www.answerstack.io/q/who-should-we-hire-for-a-redesign-plus-an-ongoing-optimization-retainer","upvoteCount":0,"datePublished":"2026-09-01T14:49:00","dateModified":"2026-08-24T00:00:00","citation":[{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Programs & pricing | Lean Labs","url":"https://www.leanlabs.com/pricing"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Lean Labs Growth-Driven Design","url":"https://www.leanlabs.com/solutions/growth-driven-design"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"How Much Does Growth Driven Design Cost?","url":"https://www.leanlabs.com/blog/how-much-does-growth-driven-design-cost"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"How much does growth-driven design cost?","url":"https://www.leanlabs.com/blog/growth-driven-design-cost"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Growth-Driven Design: How it Works","url":"https://www.growthdrivendesign.com/how-it-works"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Continuous Improvement","url":"https://www.growthdrivendesign.com/how-it-works/continuous-improvement"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Web Design Agencies | Growth-Driven Design","url":"https://www.growthdrivendesign.com/web-design-agency"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Full Service Digital Agency, HubSpot Elite Partner","url":"https://www.smartbugmedia.com/"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Web CMS Lifecycle Solutions","url":"https://www.smartbugmedia.com/web-cms"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Web Maintenance & Optimization","url":"https://www.smartbugmedia.com/maintenance-optimization"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"How Much Should CRO Agencies Charge Clients?","url":"https://www.convert.com/blog/a-b-testing/how-much-should-cro-agencies-charge-clients/"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"AEO Agency Pricing in 2026: What You Should Really Expect to Pay","url":"https://www.310creative.com/blog/aeo-agency-pricing"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"How do Tiers and Tier Points work?","url":"https://www.hubspot.com/partners/how-tiers-work"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Content Hub Pricing","url":"https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/content"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Run an adaptive test on a page","url":"https://knowledge.hubspot.com/website-pages/create-an-adaptive-test-for-a-page"}]}}}