Website Planning Without Making It a Whole Thing
Planning a website doesn’t have to start with sitemaps, technical jargon or knowing exactly what every page should say. It starts with figuring out what the website needs to accomplish, who needs to use it, what information and materials you already have, and what still needs to be sorted out.
This super nifty website planning guide walks you through the practical decisions that go into planning a small business website. Answer a few questions about your business, customers, services, content and existing website resources, and we’ll turn your answers into a useful website project brief. You can print it, bring it to us, take it to another web designer, or use it to get your own thoughts organized before anybody starts moving pixels around.
What are we planning?
Start with the basic situation. A new site and a redesign often need different kinds of preparation.
What kind of business is this?
Pick the commercial model that comes closest.
What is the website's most important job?
Pick one. The site can do other things too, but this is the job that should win arguments later.
What kind of buying decision is this?
Check everything that is usually true. This changes what the site should emphasize.
How should your website services be organized?
The number and complexity of your services helps determine whether one Services page is enough or whether customers would benefit from separate service pages. Distinct service pages can make important information easier to find and give each subject enough room to be useful.
What website content and assets do you already have?
Check the useful raw material that exists now. Website planning is much easier when the underlying business information, photography, reviews and service details are available, even if none of it is polished yet.
What website accounts and systems are involved?
Check what you already control or know about. Domain access, hosting, analytics and connected business systems are common parts of a website project. You do not need to know how the machinery works. You just need to know where the keys are.
Who is going to deal with the website afterward?
This changes how the site should be set up and how much training or ongoing support makes sense.
Here is what I would walk into a website meeting with.
This is a planning document, not a prescription. It gives you and your designer a useful starting point.
Website Planning Brief
1. Recommended starting structure
2. What matters most
These are the things the design and content should make unusually easy to understand or do.
3. Gather these before or during the project
4. Your designer should handle
5. Accounts / access to locate
6. Questions worth discussing
7. Probably not necessary at launch
8. Overall readiness
What should you have before starting a website?
You do not need a finished sitemap, polished copy or a folder full of perfectly optimized photographs before talking to a web designer. You do need enough raw information to make useful decisions. That usually means knowing what the business does, who the website is for, which services or products matter most, what action you want visitors to take and what material already exists.
For a small business website, the most useful starting materials are usually service information, real customer questions, reviews, project examples, photographs, logo files, staff information where relevant, and access to the domain and any existing website accounts. A designer can help organize and improve those things. They cannot reliably invent the underlying business facts for you.
How do you plan the structure of a business website?
Website structure should follow the way customers understand and evaluate the business. Most small business websites need a clear homepage, useful service or product information, an About page, a contact path and some form of proof. Distinct services often deserve their own pages when customers search for them separately or need substantially different information before buying.
The goal is not to create the largest possible website. The goal is to give important subjects enough room to be genuinely useful. A focused page about one service can help both customers and search engines understand that service better than a giant page that briefly mentions everything.
What content do you need for a website?
Good website content starts with useful business information: what you do, who you help, where you work, how the process works, what customers commonly ask and what should happen next. That information can begin as notes, emails, brochures, voice memos or rough answers. It does not have to arrive as finished marketing copy.
For many service businesses, reviews, FAQs, project examples and clear service descriptions are more valuable than generic promotional language. If customers repeatedly ask a question before hiring you, there is a good chance the website should answer it.
What photos and assets should you gather for a website?
Real photography is especially valuable when customers need to see the work, location, people or products behind the business. Useful assets may include project photos, before-and-after images, staff headshots, storefront or facility photos, product images, testimonials, brochures, PDFs and logo files.
Keep original image files somewhere safe, but do not assume bigger is always better on the live site. Website images should be sized and compressed for how they will actually be displayed. Large files that are never shown at large dimensions simply make pages heavier.
What technical information should you know before a website project?
You do not need to understand hosting, DNS or web development. You do need to know who owns the important accounts. Before a redesign or migration, locate domain registrar access, hosting information, existing website logins, Google Business Profile access, analytics and Search Console accounts, and any booking, CRM, newsletter or payment systems the website needs to connect with.
The business should retain control of its domain and critical accounts. Your designer can handle the technical work without becoming the only person who can access the machinery.
You do not need to figure everything out first.
A website planning checklist is useful because it shows what is already clear and what still needs to be decided. It is not an entrance exam. A good web designer should help determine the sitemap, content priorities, technical setup, mobile behavior, SEO foundation, redirects, forms and launch process.
The purpose of planning is to avoid paying for design before the important business questions are understood. If you can explain what the website needs to accomplish, who it is for and what the business actually offers, you have enough to begin a productive conversation.
Want somebody to help turn this into the actual website?
Bring the brief. We'll already have something useful to talk about.
Talk to Blue Dozen Design