The quickest way to get a website you're happy with is to give your web designer the right material at the start. In our experience, most delays on small projects aren't about design or code. They come from waiting for a logo, chasing a price list or rewriting a page because something important was missed.
You don't need to have everything perfect. Rough notes are fine, and a good designer will help shape them. What matters is that the raw material exists. Here's what to gather, roughly in order of importance.
The essentials
These are the things almost every site needs, whatever the business.
- Your business name exactly as you want it to appear, including any capital letters or punctuation.
- Contact details: phone number, email address and, if customers visit you, your full address.
- Opening hours, including any variations such as half days or seasonal hours.
- The areas you cover, if you travel to customers. A list of towns or postcode areas is more useful than "and surrounding areas".
- A list of your services, with prices or typical starting prices where you're comfortable sharing them.
Your logo and brand
Send the best version of your logo you can find. The original file from whoever designed it is ideal, as it can be resized without going fuzzy. If all you have is a picture from your van or a business card, send that anyway and say so.
If you have colours or fonts you always use, mention them. If you don't, that's fine too. It's useful to know whether there's anything you definitely don't want, such as a colour that clashes with your shop front.
Photos
Real photos make a bigger difference than almost anything else. A plumber's site with pictures of finished bathrooms will feel more trustworthy than one full of stock images of smiling tradespeople holding spanners.
- Send the original files rather than screenshots or images saved from social media, which lose quality.
- Include a mix: your work, your premises, your team, and anything that shows what makes you different.
- Only send photos you have the right to use. If a customer's home or face is in shot, check they're happy with it.
- Don't worry about sorting or editing them. Your designer can choose and crop.
The words
This is where people tend to get stuck, so it helps to break it down. You don't need to write polished copy. Bullet points, a voice note typed up, or even an email to a friend explaining what you do will give your designer plenty to work from.
A few prompts that help:
- What do you do, and who do you usually do it for?
- What are the questions customers ask you most often? Write down your usual answers.
- What do customers tend to say they like about you?
- Is there anything you'd like to stop being asked for, or a type of job you no longer take on?
- How did the business start? A couple of sentences is plenty.
A café might jot down its signature bakes and where the coffee comes from. A dog groomer might explain how they handle nervous dogs. These small details are what make a site sound like your business rather than anyone's.
Your existing website and accounts
If you already have a website, send the link and say which parts you'd like to keep, change or drop. Also send links to any social media profiles and review pages you'd like to feature.
More importantly, check you know who controls your domain name, the web address itself. It should be registered in your name or your business's name, and you should be able to log into the account. If someone else registered it for you years ago, now is a good time to sort that out. Never send passwords by email. Your designer can usually be added to an account as a user, or walk you through any changes you need to make.
Practical extras
Depending on your business, it's worth having these ready too:
- A link to any booking tool you already use, if you'd like a booking button on the site.
- A menu or price list in its current form, even if it's a photo of a board.
- Membership or registration details relevant to your trade, with any numbers you're happy to display.
- Any wording you're required to include, such as terms for gift vouchers.
Sites you like (and don't)
A few links to websites you like the look of are surprisingly helpful. They don't need to be in your industry. Add a line about what appeals, whether that's the colours, the layout or simply that it's easy to use. Examples of sites you dislike are just as useful, because they save your designer from going down the wrong road.
How to send it all
Keep it simple. One shared folder or one email with attachments is far easier to work from than material scattered across several messages and apps. Name files clearly, for example "shop front summer" rather than "IMG_4821", and keep a short note of anything still to come so nothing gets forgotten.
If you're getting ready for a new website or a refresh and want to check you've got what's needed, WebFresh Studio is happy to help. Visit webfreshstudio.com or email [email protected].