What to prepare before building your small business website

The biggest cause of delays in website projects usually isn’t design or development. It’s waiting on content, logins and decisions. A little preparation up front keeps the project moving and helps you get a more accurate quote.

1. Be clear on what the website is for

Write down the one or two things you most want visitors to do. Call you? Request a quote? Book an appointment? Buy online? Every design decision should support those actions.

2. Know who you’re talking to

Describe your ideal customers: where they are, what they’re looking for, and the questions they usually ask before they buy. Those questions often become your most useful page content.

3. Sketch out the pages

A simple list is enough to start. A typical small business site might have:

• Home
• Services (often one page per main service)
• About
• Work, projects or gallery
• Pricing or packages, if you publish them
• FAQ
• Contact

4. Gather your content

• Logo in a high-quality format (SVG or a large PNG).
• Brand colours and fonts, if you have them.
• Photos of your work, team or premises. Real photos build more trust than stock images.
• Copy for each page, even rough notes. It’s easier to refine words than to start from nothing.
• Testimonials from real customers, with their permission.
• Business details: ABN, address or service area, phone, email and opening hours.

5. Sort out access

Find out who controls your domain name, current hosting and any accounts the site will connect to, such as Google Business Profile, analytics, booking software or payment providers. Where possible, add your developer as a user rather than sharing your own password, and never send passwords by plain email.

6. Collect examples

Save three to five websites you like, from any industry, and note what you like about each one: the layout, the tone, how easy it is to find information. This is one of the fastest ways to communicate taste.

7. Decide on budget, timeline and sign-off

Have a budget range in mind, a realistic launch date, and one person who can approve designs and content. Projects with a single decision-maker tend to move much faster.

Don’t have everything ready? That’s normal. Get in touch and we can work out together what’s needed and in what order.