So you’ve decided to hire a web designer to create professionally website for your business. It’s going to save you loads of time (and headaches) trying to figure out yourself, but knowing what information to give your website designer to actually create it, isn’t always clear, which can lead to endless back and forth and a lot of frustration.
Having your website designed should be an exciting and enjoyable prospect, and of course, you want the website of your dreams at the end of the process – but to have that, your web designer needs to have all the relevant information to create your site.
Your website designer will often set up an initial consultation call to find out more about your business and what you’re looking for out of your website, but knowing on what information your website designer needs from you beforehand, will make the whole process smoother and more enjoyable.
What information your website designer needs from you
Here is a quick check of the basic information your website designer will need from you before they start designing your site. Some of the things will be information you already have, but if you don’t let your website designer know so they can either help support you with it, or make recommendations of other people who can.
Business basics
Seems really obvious, but knowing all the basic information of your business, are usually the vital bits of information that gets missed from a website.
- Business name
- Contact information including email addresses, telephone number and address
- Domain name and hosting information (they will also need access to these to be able to set up your chosen website platform)
Business overview
Your website designer will need to have a good understanding of your business so that they can create a website that will work for you and what you want to achieve in your business. Be really clear on this, because if you don’t know, your web designer definitely won’t.
- Description what your business does
- Your mission statement
- Business goals (now and in the future)
- Who your ideal client is
- Your USP (unique selling point)
Branding assets
If you have your branding guidelines that would be ideal as this will help your web designer to craft a website that represents your brand aesthetically.
- Logo (ideally in .png format)
- Brand colours
- Fonts
- Illustrations/patterns/graphics
- Photography
Website goals and requirements
Your designer will need to know what you want your website to do, what pages you want to include, and any specific features it needs to have, so your website designer can make sure your website meets your goals and can make any recommendations if necessary.
- What pages you need
- Menu structure
- Features like, online shop, lead magnets, enquiry/booking forms, etc.
Website copy
Copy is king when it comes to your website, and your designer will need to design your website based around your copy. If you need help with your copywriting, your website designer may be able to help with this, or suggest a professional copywriter.
- Elevator pitch
- Copy for all website pages including home, about, services/product descriptions, contact page etc.
- Any blogs you want pre-uploaded to your website
Business legal documents
Many people don’t realise that a privacy policy is not a website document, but a legal business document. You should have one regardless of whether you have a website or not. Unfortunately, most web designers won’t provide a privacy policy for you (unless they’re legally trained), so you need to make sure you have sought advice from a legal professional for all your legal documentation. The ICO have some great resources on privacy policies and what is required for businesses and websites
- Privacy policy
- Cookie policy
- Terms and conditions
- Disclaimers
SEO and Marketing
Letting your web designer know what other marketing you’re doing is really helpful, so that your website can work alongside that. Also, if you have done any work on SEO, keywords research etc. so that this can be included. If you haven’t done any SEO work, then your web designer should be able to help.
- Keyword Research
- Keywords/phrases for each page
- Social media links
- Any upcoming campaigns/focus
Each website designer will have their own checklist and requirements they need from you, depending on the website platform they’re going to use, your needs as a business owner, and the level of support they are providing as the web designer.
There may be more requests along the way, but this checklist on what information your website designer needs from you, will give you a basic outline of what’s required, and allow you to be prepared during your consultation calls.
If you’d like more information on the web design processes here at Cariad Creative, please feel free to contact me or book a discovery call on the WordPress web design page.
