What to have ready before a web designer starts

Whoever builds your website, the questions at the start are mostly the same: what you do, who for, where and how people reach you. Having the answers ready means less back and forth, and a first version that’s closer to what you pictured. Most of it you already have. It’s just spread across your phone, your email and your head.

This is our own checklist, the one we’d want any owner to have before a website is built.

• Your domain name. That’s your web address, like yourbusiness.example. Find the login for the company you registered it with (your registrar), or the receipt that shows who did.
• Your current website, if you have one: the login for the builder or host it runs on.
• Your Google Business Profile, if you have one, and the Google Account that manages it.

Your web designer may need to work in your Google accounts. You don’t have to hand over your password for that:

• Google Business Profile: add them as a manager. Google says managers have mostly the same access as owners, but can’t add or remove people or remove the profile (Google’s help).
• Google Search Console: add them as a user, with the permission level they need. A Restricted user has simple view rights on most of the data, and can’t add users or submit a sitemap (Google’s help).

Our setup guides show where these settings are: Google Business Profile and Search Console.

Write these down in one place, exactly the way you want customers to see them:

• your business name, the same one on your sign
• your address, or the towns and areas you serve
• your phone number and email
• your regular hours, and your holiday hours
• your services, and your prices if you show them

Then check them against your Google Business Profile. Google’s guidelines ask for your real-world business name, as used on your storefront and website, and your regular customer-facing hours. When your website and your profile say the same thing, customers get the same answer wherever they look.

• Your own photos: your work, your team, your space, your products. Photos you took yourself, or that you have permission to use.
• Your logo: the original file from whoever designed it, if you can find it, not a screenshot.
• Your colors, if you already use them on a sign, a van or business cards.

If you want customer reviews on your site, gather a few real ones, with the customer’s OK. A U.S. Federal Trade Commission rule announced in August 2024 bans fake reviews and testimonials.

This is the one that shapes everything else:

• The one thing a visitor should do. Call you, book online, ask for a quote, visit the shop. Pick one to put first.
• The questions customers ask you every week. Those answers belong on the site.
• Two or three websites you like, and what you like about each. They don’t have to be in your line of work.
• What might come later, like online booking, a shop or more pages, so the site has room for it.

When you have most of this, you’re ready. Our pricing page shows what each of our packages includes.