IN THIS ARTICLE · 9 PARTS
The fastest website projects are not the ones with the biggest budget. They are the ones where the business owner has a few things ready before the first call. You do not need to be technical, and you do not need everything to be perfect. You just need the raw material.
Here is what to gather, and why each item matters. If this is your very first website, start with your first business website: a step-by-step plan.
Your logo and colours
If you have a logo, find the best file you can: ideally the original from whoever designed it. A sharp logo makes the whole site look more professional. If you only have a blurry version, that is fine too; tell us, and we will work with what there is.
If your business already uses certain colours, on the shop sign, the van or business cards, note them down. Your website should feel like the same business people already know.
Photos of the real thing
Real photos beat stock photos almost every time, and they are one of the features every great website should have. People want to see your shop, your team, your work and your products, not a stranger smiling at a laptop. Research by Nielsen Norman Group shows that people ignore generic stock photos but study real ones closely [1].
- Photos taken on a modern phone are good enough, as long as there is daylight.
- Take a few wide shots and a few close-ups.
- Show finished work: the kitchen you fitted, the cake you baked, the car you repaired.
- If you have a team, a simple photo of the people helps visitors trust you.
The words: what you do, for whom and where
You do not need to write the website yourself. But you know your business better than anyone, so a few notes go a long way:
- What you do, in one or two sentences, the way you would say it to a customer.
- Your main services or products, and which ones matter most to you.
- Where you work: the town, the neighbourhoods or the whole country.
- What makes you different: experience, speed, guarantees, a family business.
- Prices or "from" prices, if you are happy to show them. They help people decide.
Contact details and opening hours
Make a short list of how customers should reach you: phone, email, WhatsApp or Viber, your address and opening hours. Decide which one you want people to use first. A website that says "call us" clearly works better than one that offers six options equally. Nielsen Norman Group lists clear, upfront contact details among the four factors that make a website trustworthy [2].
Proof that you are good at what you do
Reviews, testimonials and examples of your work help new customers choose you. Projects you are proud of can each become a case study page. Collect a few good reviews (from Google, Facebook or messages from happy customers, with their permission), and any photos of projects you are proud of.
Websites you like
Spend ten minutes looking at websites you like, from any industry, and note what you like about them. "Clean and simple", "lots of photos" or "easy to call from the phone" is exactly the kind of feedback that helps a designer.
Access to your existing domain
If you already have a website or a domain, find out where it is registered and who has the login. This is often the slowest part of a project, because the person who set it up years ago is hard to reach. Starting early saves days. If you do not have a domain yet, see how to choose a domain name. When you are ready, here is how we go from first call to launch. ICANN, which coordinates domain names worldwide, sets out the rights of the domain holder, so it helps to know who that is [3].
Do not wait for perfect
The most common reason websites get delayed is waiting for the perfect photos or the perfect text. Launch with good, and improve from there. Every site we build launches as version 1.0, and the next changes become v1.1, v1.2 and so on. A website that is live and getting better is worth more than a perfect one that is still on someone's to-do list.
Have your logo, a handful of real photos, a few notes about your services and your contact details ready, and the rest can be done together.
References
- Nielsen Norman Group. "Photos as Web Content." nngroup.com
- Nielsen Norman Group. "Trustworthiness in Web Design: 4 Credibility Factors." nngroup.com
- ICANN. "Registrants' Benefits and Responsibilities." icann.org
