Website materials: what to prepare before work starts

A website is built from the client's materials: texts, photos, logo, contacts. If they are missing at the start, work is put on pause, and the design has to be redone for the real content. Below is what is worth collecting before work on the website starts and what to do if something is missing.

Why prepare materials before work starts?

Design is built around content. The length of headings, the number of services, the photo format - this determines how the blocks look. If the design is made with placeholders and then the real texts arrive, the blocks break: a heading does not fit, a photo does not suit the format, there turn out to be more services than planned.

When the materials are collected, I design the website around them, and there are fewer edits at the finish.

What texts does a website need?

You do not need to provide finished texts: I help collect and edit them. But only you know the facts about your business:

Services - what you do, for whom and how your services differ.

About the company - who you are, who is on the team and how you differ from competitors.

Client questions - what people ask about before buying.

Terms of work - how ordering, payment, delivery or on-site visits work.

You can send voice messages or drafts - I will put the text together from them. I wrote about my view of AI-written texts in the article Can You Write Website Copy With AI.

What photos should you prepare?

Your own photos show the client your team, premises and work - what stock images do not have. What will come in handy:

Team - faces of the people the client talks to.

Premises or production - entrance, interior, workplaces.

Work and products - examples of what you do.

Phone photos will do if you shoot in good light. Send originals, not screenshots or forwarded images: compression lowers the quality. More details - in the article Website photos: your own or stock images.

What is needed for the logo and brand style?

It is better to send the logo in vector format - as an SVG or PDF file. If you only have an image, send it too, but at a large size it may look blurry.

If the company has brand colors and fonts, list them. If there is no logo, the website can be built with a text logo - the company name set in a neat font.

What contacts should you list on the website?

Contacts are what a client looks for when they are ready to get in touch. Collect them in a list:

Phone - the number that will be on the website and in the call button.

Address - if clients come to you, add landmarks.

Where to send requests - phone, email or a work chat.

Profile links - company pages worth showing on the website.

Why collect examples of websites you like?

Style is hard to describe in words. Send several links to websites you like and write what exactly you like: color, presentation, structure. Competitors' websites are useful too - they show what is worth doing differently.

For a small website, such a selection and a list of materials is enough instead of a full spec. More details - in the article What a website spec is and whether a small business needs one.

What access do you need to hand over for a website?

If you already have a domain and hosting, I will need access to them. If not, I will help register them in your name so the website belongs to you. What they are and whose name to register them in, I described in the article Domain and Hosting: What They Are and Whose Name They Go In.

Do not send passwords as plain text in a shared chat. After the website launches, change them.

How much does a website cost if the materials are already collected?

I fix the price before work starts: a landing page - from $190, a multipage website - from $490, a complex project - on request. Ready materials do not change the price, but the work goes on without stops to look for what is missing. The article Landing page or multipage website: what your business needs will help you decide what to choose.

If you like, send what you already have - I will look and tell you what is missing.