Most website projects that go over budget or time were not planned properly. An hour of planning saves weeks of back-and-forth.
1. Goals
- What should the website do? Enquiries, sales, bookings, trust?
- How will you measure success?
2. Audience
Who visits, what they need to know and what convinces them. Build a profile with our customer persona generator.
3. Pages
List every page: home, services (one per service), about, contact, portfolio, blog, FAQs, legal pages, location pages.
4. Content
- Who writes the text?
- Which photos and videos exist, and what needs shooting?
- Reviews, case studies and certificates to include.
5. Features
Forms, WhatsApp button, booking, payments, online store, blog, multilingual, chat.
6. Technical
- Platform: WordPress, Shopify or custom. Read WordPress vs Shopify vs custom.
- Domain and hosting, in your name.
- Analytics and tracking.
7. Budget and timeline
Estimate with our website cost calculator, and include ongoing costs: hosting, maintenance, content.
8. Ownership
Agree that the domain, hosting, code and content belong to you. Read what you should own.
Want the full picture? This article is part of Business websites: the complete guide, our in-depth guide with everything in one place.
