Websites are not delayed by code. They are delayed by missing words and missing photos.
Behind almost every project that ran a month late is one sentence: "I still need to write that." It is nobody's fault, because nobody tells the client in advance what will actually be needed. So let me try to fix that.
Here is what you can prepare before you approach anybody. Having it ready will lower your quote and shorten your timeline, whether you hire me or somebody else.
1. One sentence about what you do
Not a slogan. A sentence somebody outside your industry would understand.
Try this: write down what you sell, to whom, and why they would buy it from you rather than someone else. If that does not fit into two sentences, a website will not fix it. Most bad websites are not badly designed. They are built on an unclear answer to this question.
2. What the visitor should do
Pick one main action. Call, enquire, order, book, visit.
Not three. With three, visitors do none of them. The other actions can still be on the site, but one of them has to be the one that tells you whether the site is working. On a campaign landing page it is the only action on the page.
3. A list of content types
Do not count pages, list types. For example: home, about, one service, service index, article, contact.
This list is what the price and schedule of a custom website are calculated from. Send it early and you get a sharper quote instead of paying for guesswork.
4. Words, at least roughly
They do not have to be finished. They have to exist.
Write them into a document the way you would say them to a customer on the phone. Do not attempt marketing language, that gets polished later. Rushed text at the top of a website shows more than anything else, and it is the one part nobody else can do well for you, because you are the one who knows your customers.
Easy to forget, worth thinking about early: prices or price ranges, terms and conditions, privacy policy, company details.
5. Photos
Your own photos beat stock every time. Even worse ones.
What almost every site needs:
- The space, premises or product, landscape orientation, high resolution.
- You, or your team. People buy from people, and a photograph of a face does more for trust than an entire "about us" page.
- A few details. Material, hands working, the finished thing up close.
Do not shoot in portrait orientation if you know it is going on a website. Almost every website is landscape, and a portrait photo loses half its frame to cropping.
6. A logo in a proper format
You need an .svg, .ai or .eps file, not an image pulled off Facebook.
If you do not have one and nobody can find it, say so up front. Redrawing a logo is a small line item when it is planned for, and an unpleasant surprise when it surfaces mid project.
7. Access
This is usually the worst part, and worth starting immediately, because waiting on somebody else's reply cannot be sped up.
- The domain. Where it is registered and who can log in.
- The existing site, if there is one. Admin and hosting access.
- Analytics, if you have it and want to keep the history.
- Email. Whether it runs on the same domain, because moving the site can affect it.
Domains are routinely registered to a former colleague, an agency, or a relative who set it up in 2017. Find out before something needs switching.
8. Who approves
One person. Ideally you.
When four people approve a design, the result is not four times better. The result is the average of four opinions, which is always a bland website and twice the schedule. Collect feedback from as many people as you like, but let one person decide.
What if you do not have all this
That is fine, we can still start. But the rule is simple: the more of this list you bring, the cheaper and faster the site will be. And that saving is not small, it is usually weeks.
If the words defeat you, send me bullet points. Bullet points can become text. An empty document cannot. Feel free to send them straight away with your enquiry.