What to prepare before a website project starts: an evening’s checklist
- Half of all projects stall waiting on materials from the client, not on development.
- Gathering everything below takes one evening and saves two weeks.
- The most important item is not the logo — it is knowing who you sell to and why.
We have seen projects sit still for a month over three missing photographs. Here is what to have ready before the first conversation.
1. Understanding your customer
- Who buys from you, in one sentence. Not “anyone who needs it”.
- The three objections you hear most often.
- Why people choose you over the competitor next door. If the answer is “we do quality work”, think again.
2. Materials
- Logo in vector (.svg or .ai). Not a screenshot from your old site.
- Brand guidelines, or at least your colours, if they exist.
- Photographs: product, team, process, premises. Originals, not messenger-compressed copies.
- Your price list or price ranges — even if you do not plan to publish them.
3. Copy
It does not have to be finished. Drafts or even voice notes are enough: a description of your service in your own words often beats “sales copy” from a writer seeing your niche for the first time.
4. Examples
Three to five sites you like and two you do not. The explanation is the valuable part. “I like it because it feels spacious and the prices are visible” tells a designer more than ten links with no comment.
Competitor examples are more useful than “beautiful websites”. A studio’s award-winning design from Berlin may simply not work for your audience.
5. Technical access
- Domain: who registered it and who has access.
- Hosting, if you already have it.
- Mail on your domain — you will need it for forms.
- Google Analytics and Search Console access, if the site already exists.
6. Who decides
The most underrated item. Name one person whose word is final and involve them from the first layout. Projects derail not because the design is bad, but because the owner saw it for the first time in week four.
Our brief walks you through this list and takes about five minutes.