Website projects do not run late because design is hard. They run late because on week six somebody needs the price list, the staff photos, and the login for a Google account that belonged to a manager who left in 2021.
You can remove most of that risk before anyone starts. Here is the list.
Accounts and access
Find these first. They take the longest and they are the least interesting, which is why they get left.
- Domain registrar. Where your web address is registered, and a login you can actually use.
- Current hosting. Provider, login, and whether anyone else is paying for it.
- Google Business Profile. Which account manages it. If it is an ex-employee’s personal address, start the recovery now, because it takes weeks.
- Analytics and Search Console. If they exist. If they do not, say so, it is quicker than looking.
- Email. Who runs your mail, and whether it is tied to the same domain. This matters at launch, because moving a site can break mail if nobody plans for it.
- Social accounts you want linked from the site.
- Anything the site connects to. A booking tool, a payment processor, a scheduling system.
The pattern to watch for is a personal account. Every business has at least one thing running through an individual’s login. Find yours now while that person still takes your call.
Words
This is the part that decides your timeline.
A service list. Not marketing language. What you sell, what is included, and what you do not do. The “do not do” is more useful than it sounds, because it stops the wrong calls.
Prices, or an honest position on them. You do not have to publish numbers. You do have to decide, because “call for pricing” and “from 250 dollars” produce different visitors.
Your service area. Named towns and counties, not a radius on a map.
Hours, including the awkward ones. Holidays, seasonal changes, whether the phone rings after five.
How you got here. Two paragraphs. When you started, why, what you are known for. This ends up doing more work than any other page besides your main service.
Staff names and roles, if you want people on the site. This decision is worth making early because it changes the photography.
Pictures
Start this before anything else, because it depends on weather, schedules, and people being available, none of which you control.
The most useful set for a local business:
- The building or the van, from outside, on a clear day.
- Two or three of work in progress. Real jobs, real hands.
- Finished work, if what you do leaves something to look at.
- Your team. Even phone portraits against a plain wall beat stock.
- Anything a customer sees on arrival: the counter, the waiting area, the entrance.
A half day with a photographer costs less than most people expect and outlasts two redesigns. If that is not in budget, a recent phone in good light on an overcast day gets you further than you think. Overcast is the trick. Midday sun is what makes amateur photos look amateur.
Decisions
Three of them, and none require a meeting.
Who approves. One person. Others can have opinions; one person says go. Committees are how a two day review becomes three weeks.
What the site is for. Phone calls, forms, bookings, or applications. Sites built for everything are built for nothing.
What must not break. A page that ranks. A form that feeds a system. A link on a printed flyer. Say these out loud in week one so nobody has to guess in launch week.
The things people forget
- Your legal business name and address as they appear on official filings, which is not always what is on your sign.
- Certifications and license numbers you are allowed to display.
- Insurance details if your trade expects them.
- Any franchise or association rules about how your name and logo can be used.
- Existing print material. Cards, trucks, signage. The site should look related to what a customer already saw.
A realistic order
This week: find the logins. Start the Google Business Profile recovery if it needs one.
Next week: write the service list and the service area. Book the photography.
Week three: the two paragraphs about the business. Prices decision.
Ongoing: collect anything a customer asks you often. Those questions are your best pages and nobody ever writes them down.
None of this needs a designer. All of it makes the design better, and most of it makes your business easier to explain whether you build a site or not.
