What To Have Ready Before You Hire Anyone.
Website projects rarely run late because of the design. They run late because nobody could decide, or the words were never written. Here is the short list that prevents both.
Design Is Almost Never The Hold Up.
Ask anyone who builds websites for a living what makes a project overrun and you will not hear about design. You will hear about content that never arrived, an approver who was never identified, and a scope that grew one small request at a time.
None of that is the fault of the person who hired the designer. Nobody tells you what to prepare, because the preparation is not billable and it slows down the sale. So here it is, in the order it matters, and you can take this list to whoever you end up hiring.
Six Things To Sort First.
One sentence on what it is for
Not what it should contain. What it should achieve. More enquiries from a particular kind of client, orders without phone calls, fewer people asking the same question. If you cannot finish the sentence, no designer can build the thing that finishes it for you.
Who it is talking to
One real person, described in a line. A procurement manager comparing three suppliers is a different website from a bride choosing a venue. Vague audiences produce vague websites, and vague websites are the ones that get rebuilt in two years.
The words, or a decision about them
The most common reason a launch date moves. You do not need finished copy for every page, but you do need to decide now whether you are writing it, somebody is writing it for you, or it is being paid for as part of the project. All three are fine. Leaving it undecided is not.
The pictures, or a budget for them
Real photographs of your work, your premises and your people beat stock images by a wide margin, and buyers can tell the difference instantly. If they do not exist, plan a shoot into the timeline rather than discovering the gap the week before launch.
Your access, in your own name
Domain registrar login, hosting, analytics, your Google Business Profile. Track these down before you start. Projects stall for weeks because a domain sits in the account of an agency somebody stopped working with in 2019, and nobody remembers the password.
One person who decides
Name them. Feedback from four people with equal authority does not produce a better website, it produces a slower one and a compromised design. Gather opinions by all means, then let one person make the call.
Five Questions Worth Asking.
- Who owns it at the end? The domain, the hosting, the files and the accounts should end up in your name. Get that in writing rather than assuming it.
- What happens if I stop paying? Ask directly whether the site continues to exist. Some monthly website arrangements switch off when the payments do.
- Can I edit it myself? And if so, what exactly can you change without going back to the builder. Text is normal. Layout usually is not.
- How many rounds of changes are included? Then ask what a round costs after that, before you are in the middle of one.
- What happens after launch? Updates, backups, security and someone to call. A site that nobody maintains becomes a liability inside about a year.
What You Do Not Need Yet.
You do not need to know which platform to use. That is a decision to make together once somebody understands what you are selling, and getting it wrong early is expensive.
You do not need a page by page plan. Structure is part of the work, and a list of pages written before anyone has thought about the business tends to describe your organisation chart rather than what a customer is looking for.
You do not need every word finished. A rough version of the important pages is enough to design against, and copy usually improves once you can see it in place.
What you do need is the six things above. Bring those and almost any competent person can build you something good.
Answered Before You Ask.
What Should I Prepare Before Contacting A Web Designer?
Do I Need To Write The Content First?
How Do I Know If A Quote Is Fair?
Who Should Own The Domain And Hosting?
How Long Does A Website Project Take?
What If I Do Not Know What I Want Yet?
The Other Two.
Got Most Of That Ready?
Send it over in whatever state it is in. You get a written plan and the full price before anything starts, whether or not it turns into work.
One reply, from me, within one business day.