What to Send Your Web Designer Before Day One
Website projects rarely stall on design. They stall waiting for a logo file, or a list of services, or somebody to decide what the business actually does. The build takes a day; the waiting takes six weeks.
Here is what to have ready.
Genuinely needed before starting
- What you sell, in a list. Not polished copy — a list. Five bullet points is plenty. Everything else follows from this.
- Who it is for. One sentence. "Homeowners doing a renovation" is enough to make a hundred design decisions.
- The one thing a visitor should do. Call, message, book, buy. Pick one primary action. Sites with four equal priorities have none.
- Contact details. The number and email you actually want used, in the format you want them shown.
- Two or three sites you like. Any industry. Say briefly what you like about each — the reason matters more than the example.
Helpful, but can follow later
- Photographs of your work. Real ones beat stock every time, but the site can launch with placeholders and be swapped later.
- Your logo in the highest quality you have. A vector file is ideal; a large image is workable; a screenshot from a business card is a rebuild.
- Reviews and testimonials. Add them as they arrive rather than delaying launch.
- Domain and hosting logins — needed at launch, not at the start.
The trap: waiting until everything is perfect. A live site with placeholder photos generates enquiries. A perfect site still in a folder generates nothing. Launch, then improve.
What nobody should need from you
You are not expected to arrive with finished copy, a sitemap, or an opinion about fonts. Writing the first draft and sourcing imagery is the designer's job — that is a large part of what you are paying for. If someone hands you a blank content template and waits, the project is going to take months.
The five-minute version
If you send nothing but this, a competent builder can start:
- Business name and what it does
- Five services or products
- Phone, email, area or market served
- The one action you want visitors to take
- Two sites you like
That is it. Everything else is refinement, and refinement is easier against something real than against a blank page. We write the first-draft copy and source imagery ourselves, then build the site before you pay anything — from R2,500, once-off.
Recent work
Every one of these was designed in full before the business paid anything.
Do not have any of this ready? Still fine.
We build it first — you only pay when you love it. Every quote is tailored to your project.
⚡ Get My Instant QuoteBuilding something bigger — a mobile app, a CRM or custom software? Those are scoped and quoted per project.
Frequently asked questions
What do I need to prepare before a website is built?
A list of what you sell, one sentence on who it is for, the single action you want visitors to take, your contact details, and two or three sites you like with a note on why.
Do I need to write the content for my own website?
You should not have to. Writing first-draft copy and sourcing imagery is normally part of the build. Being handed a blank template to fill in is the most common reason projects take months.
Should I wait until I have professional photos before launching?
No. Launch with placeholders and swap in real photographs later. A live site with imperfect images produces enquiries; a perfect site that is not live produces none.