What to prepare before you commission a business website

Website projects that drag on are often not held up by design or code. They are held up by decisions nobody made at the start and content nobody had ready. A little preparation before the first meeting changes that. You do not need technical knowledge for any of it, only a clear view of your own business.

Decide what the website is for

A website can do many jobs, but it does one or two of them well. Before you talk to anyone about colours or pages, write down in a sentence what you want a visitor to do. It might be to call you, request a quote, book an appointment, buy something, or simply trust that you are a real and capable business.

That sentence becomes the test for every later decision. If a page, a feature or a paragraph does not help a visitor take that step, it probably does not belong on the first version of the site.

Know who you are talking to

Think about the people you most want to reach and the questions they ask before they buy from you. What do they already know? What worries them? What do they compare you against? A site written for a procurement officer reads very differently from one written for a parent choosing a school or a shop owner looking for a supplier.

You already hear these questions every week, on the phone and in messages. Collect the ten you hear most. They make a very good outline for your website.

Gather your content early

Content is the part of a website that only you can supply, and it is the part that most often arrives late. Start collecting it before the project begins:

• A plain description of what you offer, in the words your customers use
• Your logo in the best quality you have, and any brand colours
• Real photographs of your work, your premises, your products or your team
• Contact details, opening hours and the areas you serve
• Anything that builds trust and that you are allowed to publish, such as certifications or memberships

Do not worry about polish. Rough notes and phone photographs are enough to start with. It is far easier for someone to improve real material than to invent it for you.

Decide what happens after someone gets in touch

A website that generates enquiries is only useful if somebody answers them. Decide where enquiries should go, who is responsible for replying, and how quickly. If several people share the job, agree on how you will avoid two people answering the same message, or nobody answering it at all.

This is also the moment to think about whether an enquiry should land in an inbox, in a spreadsheet, or in a system you already use. It is a small decision that saves a great deal of manual work later.

Sort out the practical details

A few practical things are worth settling before work begins, because they can hold up a launch at the last minute:

• Who owns your domain name, and who has the login for it
• Whether you want email addresses on your own domain
• Who will update the site after launch, and how often
• Who has the final say on design and wording

The last point matters more than it looks. Projects move quickly when one person can approve a decision, and slowly when every choice needs a meeting.

Bring examples, not a finished design

You do not need to arrive with a design in mind. It helps much more to bring two or three websites you like and two or three you do not, with a sentence on why. "I like how quickly I can find the phone number" tells a designer more than "make it modern".

Be open about what you have not decided yet as well. A good team would rather hear "we are not sure" at the start than discover it halfway through.

The short version

Know what you want visitors to do, know who they are, have your content and logins ready, and decide who replies and who approves. With those in hand, the conversation with whoever builds your site can be about making it good, not about working out what it is.