7 Things to Prepare Before Starting a Website Project
Before starting a website project, most of the delays that follow trace back to one thing: nobody prepared what the designer actually needed, before the project began.
It's not that business owners do anything wrong exactly. Most people have never done this before, so they don't know what "being prepared" even looks like until the project is already underway.
What it costs you to get this wrong
An unprepared start doesn't kill a project, but it stretches it out. Every question the designer has to chase down after kickoff is a few more days added to your timeline, and those few days add up fast across an entire project.
Table of contents
Your content: copy, photos, and testimonials
A clear goal for what you want the site to do
A budget range, even a rough one
Logins and access to your domain and hosting
One person to make decisions and give feedback
Time set aside for reviewing and approving work
You don't need a finished design direction yet
FAQ
Before we get into the checklist
if you'd rather skip straight to seeing what's possible for your own homepage, we do a small number of free redesigns each month.
1. Your content: copy, photos, and testimonials
Content means the actual words describing what you do, any photos worth using, and testimonials or reviews from past customers.
This matters more than almost anything else on this list. Content is usually the real bottleneck in a website project, and if it's not ready, everything downstream waits on you rather than the designer.
Start a simple document with rough bullet points for each page: what it needs to say, who it's for, and what you want the reader to do next. It doesn't need to be polished, it just needs to exist.
2. A clear goal for what you want the site to do
Every page on a website should point toward one main action: booking a call, submitting an enquiry, signing up, or something else specific to your business.
This matters because without a clear goal, a designer has to guess, and a page built around a guess usually tries to do everything at once. A homepage that asks visitors to call, email, sign up, and read a blog post all at the same volume ends up asking them to do nothing.
Write down the single most important action you want a visitor to take, then treat everything else on the page as secondary to that.
3. A budget range, even a rough one
You don't need an exact number, but having a rough range in mind before your first conversation saves everyone time.
This matters because without any range at all, quotes tend to come back either far above what you expected or so stripped down they're not worth having. A rough number lets a designer scope something realistic from the start.
Decide on a range before you reach out, even something as loose as "somewhere between X and Y," and share it early rather than waiting to be asked.
4. Logins and access to your domain and hosting
This one sounds mundane, but it causes more delays than almost anything else on this list. Your domain is where your website address is registered, and hosting is where the actual site files live.
This matters because a project can be fully designed and built, then sit waiting for weeks simply because nobody could log into the account needed to launch it.
Gather these logins early, or at minimum confirm who has access to them, before the project starts. If you're not sure where your domain is registered, check your email for the original purchase receipt.
5. One person to make decisions and give feedback
If feedback has to be collected from three people before it goes back to your designer, every round of revisions takes three times as long.
This matters because the speed of feedback, not the speed of design work, is usually what decides how long your project actually takes. One clear decision maker keeps that moving.
Pick one person internally, even if it's you, to gather any internal opinions and give the final word back to the designer. Committees are fine for internal discussion, but they're slow for approvals.
6. Time set aside for reviewing and approving work
A project quote is only realistic if you can actually review drafts within a day or two of receiving them. That's rarely automatic, since running a business is more urgent day to day than reviewing a mockup.
This matters because a four-week estimate can easily stretch into months if feedback sits unanswered for weeks at a stretch, through no fault of the design work itself.
Block out rough time on your calendar for the likely review points in the project before it starts, the same way you'd block time for any other commitment.
Source: Research on how business communication speed affects project timelines
7. You don't need a finished design direction yet
Plenty of business owners hold off starting a project because they don't know exactly what they want it to look like. That's a reasonable worry, and also not something you need to solve on your own.
This matters because a proper discovery call exists precisely for this. A real web designer will ask questions to get a sense of what your brand should communicate, then suggest a few potential directions based on that, rather than expecting you to arrive with a finished vision.
Come to that first conversation with a few websites you like the feel of, even if you can't explain exactly why. That's usually enough for a good designer to work with.
You know what to prepare now. Doing it while running a business is the harder part.
At this point you have a clear list of what to get ready before a project starts. Actually finding the time to gather content, sort logins, and block calendar time is a different problem though, especially while you're also running the business the website is meant to support.
There's a faster way to start, without waiting until every item on this list is perfectly in order.
FAQ
Do I need professional photos before starting a website project?
Not necessarily. Decent phone photos are a fine starting point, and you can always add professional photography later. What matters more is having something to work with rather than nothing.
What if I don't know what design style I want?
That's normal, and it's exactly what a discovery call is for. Bring a few websites you like the feel of, and a good designer can work out a direction from there.
How much information does a web designer actually need from me upfront?
Enough to understand your goal, your rough budget, and what content you already have. You don't need everything finalized, just enough for a realistic starting point.
Do I need to write all my own website copy before starting?
Not always, some designers or writers can help with this, but you should at least have rough bullet points for what each page needs to say. Starting from nothing tends to slow the project down the most.
What if my business doesn't have a fixed budget yet?
A rough range is enough to start a useful conversation. An exact number isn't necessary, but having no idea at all makes it hard for anyone to scope something realistic.
Who should be the main point of contact during a website project?
One person, ideally someone with the authority to approve decisions without checking with several other people first. This keeps feedback rounds fast and the project on schedule.
What happens if I'm not ready when the project starts?
Most projects can still begin, but expect the timeline to stretch if content, access, or feedback aren't ready when needed. Being upfront about what's missing at the start is better than discovering it mid-project.
Get a free homepage redesign.
Each month we take on a small number of free homepage redesigns for real businesses. If you're wondering how long it would take to build a website that actually looks like it belongs to your business, this is the easiest way to find out.
Here's exactly what you get: we'll take your current homepage and build a real visual mockup of what a redesign could look like, along with a short Loom video walking you through what we'd change and why. It's yours to keep either way, whether or not we ever work together.
There's no cost, no pressure, and no generic template. We review every submission personally, and we only take a handful each month so each one gets proper attention.
If you'd rather talk it through first
You can also book a call and we'll look at your site together.
Written by
Mikkel Calmann
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