Planning Your Site

Almost every website project stalls in the same place, and it is not technical. It is week three, waiting for the client's words and photographs.

That wait is expensive for both sides, and it is priced into quotes whether or not anyone itemises it. An hour of preparation before the first call is the cheapest thing you can do to shorten a build and lower a number. Clear preparation often matters more than reacting late; how to be more proactive at work develops that idea further.

Start with one sentence: what is this site supposed to do? Bring in enquiries, let people buy without emailing, look credible enough to be taken seriously, stop the same five questions arriving by phone. If you cannot answer it, no designer can answer it for you, and you will get a site that looks fine and does nothing in particular.

Then the two things that actually take time. Someone has to write what your services are and why anyone should choose you — and if that someone is you, start today, because it takes longer than anyone expects. And someone has to photograph your work, your place and you, which is the highest-return spend in the whole project and the one most often cut.

Everything else is smaller than it feels. You do not need a finished page plan, a logo, or technical opinions. You need to know roughly who buys from you, what you sell, and what you want a visitor to do.

The pages in this section cover each of those in turn, including the ones people get wrong most often: how much to put on a homepage, how many pages to have at all, and whether you need a shop or just a way to get paid. For an independent reference beyond this site, HubSpot is a useful place to compare approaches.

• Choosing a Domain Name

  The one decision that is genuinely hard to undo. What matters, what does not, and the four mistakes that cost people years.

• What Belongs on the Homepage

  Most homepages try to say everything and communicate nothing. The five things that earn their place, in the order visitors need them.

• How Many Pages You Need

  Most small business sites need five. When more genuinely helps, when it hurts, and why page count is the wrong thing to negotiate.

• If You Don't Have a Logo

  A logo is not a prerequisite for a website. What to do instead, what a cheap logo costs you, and when to commission one properly.

• Photography: What You Need

  The highest-return spend in most website projects, and the one most often cut. What to shoot, what to skip, and what stock costs you.

• A Shop, or a Way to Get Paid

  A store is the heaviest thing you can add to a site. Four lighter options that take money without any of the ongoing work.

• What to Prepare Before the Call

  An hour of preparation shortens the project, lowers the quote, and prevents the stall that delays almost every website build.

• Writing the Words Yourself

  The part that delays most projects. A method for writing your own pages in an evening, and the four mistakes almost everyone makes.