Practical guides
What to prepare before building a website
A useful brief defines the outcome before design begins. You do not need to choose a technology stack: start with your customers, their next action and your constraints.
1. Choose the main visitor action
Booking a session, requesting a price, buying a product and taking a short quiz are different journeys. Pick the primary action and rank the others. “Visitors should understand the sessions and contact me to agree a time” is more useful than “we need a modern website”.
In Angela Ulanova’s project, pages explain practice, formats and prices; scheduling continues in a personal conversation. This is different from an automated booking calendar, which needs its own agreed scope.
2. List pages and source material
For each page, identify a customer question, the answer and the next step. A service page usually needs the offer, audience, scope, pricing approach, examples and a contact route. A catalogue also needs categories, product records and attributes.
- Copy: what is ready, what needs writing and who checks the facts.
- Photos and video: original files, publication permission and captions.
- Brand assets: existing identity or a separate branding task.
- Testimonials and outcomes: approved customer statements and verifiable data.
- Languages: which pages need translation and who approves it.
3. Define what happens after an enquiry
Name the recipient, response owner and fallback if sending fails. For CRM integration, specify the system and workflow. For payments, describe the products, currencies and provider. Share credentials separately during setup, not in the brief.
Acceptance should include actual receipt of an enquiry, not just a success message. Payment flows should be tested using the provider’s available test environment.
4. Agree on constraints and scope
State a target date, budget range, content readiness and the person approving milestones. Pages, templates, languages and integrations affect the quote. The pricing page explains starting prices and deliverables; the proposal records the final scope.
5. Define acceptance checks
- Readable layouts and working navigation on agreed screen sizes.
- Enquiries reach the recipient; failures offer another contact route.
- Pages have stable addresses, headings and crawlable text.
- Agreed analytics and cookie choices work.
- Files, access and update instructions are handed over.
For 30 days after launch, we fix defects in our delivered work within the agreed scope at no extra charge. New features and ongoing maintenance are quoted separately.
A brief you can copy
Our product: …
Our customer: …
Main website action: …
Required pages: …
Ready copy and media: …
Languages and integrations: …
Target date and budget: …
Approval owner: …
Mark unanswered questions for discussion. We reply within one business day.