What to give your web designer (and what you can skip)
A practical checklist: what a designer needs from you, how to take photos that work, what you can leave out, and how long it all takes.
By Gary Blake · Bath IT, Radstock
Guides
WordPress
Give your web designer five things and the work can start: your logo, some good photos, a few lines about each service, your contact details and opening hours, and access to your domain. Everything else helps, but none of it should hold you up. Here's the full checklist, with what matters and what you can safely skip.
The checklist
Gather what you can. Gaps are normal, and a good designer will help you fill them.
Your logo: the best version you have. The original file from whoever designed it is ideal, but a clear image will do to start.
Photos: of your work, your premises, your team or your products. Real photos beat stock images.
The words for each page, or bullet points. You know your business. The designer can turn notes into copy.
Services and prices: what you do, who it's for, and what it costs if you publish prices.
Opening hours, including seasonal or bank holiday changes.
Contact details: phone, email, address, and how you'd like people to get in touch.
Examples of sites you like: two or three, and what you like about each. Sites you dislike help too.
Your domain login, or the name of the company you bought the domain from. It's needed to point your address at the new site.
Google Business Profile access, so your site and your Google listing match.
Social media links for the accounts you actually use.
Photos: your phone is fine
Modern phones take good photos. What makes a photo look amateur is usually the light and the framing, not the camera. A few tips:
Shoot in daylight, near a window or outside, with the flash off.
Hold the phone level and step back. Leave space around the subject.
Wipe the lens first. It sounds obvious, and it makes a real difference.
Tidy the background. Clutter pulls the eye away from your work.
Take some landscape shots for the top of the page, and several of each subject so there's a choice.
Send the original files, not screenshots or images saved from social media, which are compressed.
If your photos aren't good enough, a good designer will say so. Better to know now than to build a site around blurry pictures.
The words: bullet points are enough
This is where most people stall. You don't need polished copy. For each service, jot down what it is, who it's for, why yours is good and roughly what it costs. Add the questions customers ask you most, with your answers. That's the raw material for a good page, and for a questions section that helps with Google too.
Keep it short. A page that answers the question quickly does better than a long one that doesn't.
What you can skip
These often hold people up, and you don't need any of them to start:
A brand guide, colour codes or chosen fonts. Your logo and a couple of colours you like are enough.
A full site map. Start with the pages customers need: what you do, prices, about you and how to get in touch.
Professional photography, unless your own photos really aren't usable. Start with good phone shots and upgrade later.
Hosting. If your designer hosts the site, there's nothing for you to set up.
Decisions about platforms and plugins. That's the designer's job.
Perfect words. They can be changed once the site is live.
How long it takes
With the checklist done, a small business site usually takes two to four weeks. Most of the delay in any web project is waiting for content, not building. The quickest way to speed things up is to send what you have, even if it's incomplete, and let the designer tell you what's missing.
Still choosing who to use? Our guides to what a business website costs and Wix, Squarespace or a web designer can help, and hosting and maintenance costs covers what happens after launch.
The easy first step
You don't need the whole checklist to see what your site could look like. Send us your current website, or just your business name and a few photos, and we'll build a free mockup of your homepage. If you like it, we'll ask for the rest.
Our sites start at £495 plus £100 a year, with no contract, and you can edit them yourself. See every price on our prices page, what each site includes on our websites page, and what the yearly plans cover on hosting and maintenance.
Quick answers
Not sure what you've got is enough?
Send us what you have. We'll build a free mockup of your homepage and tell you what, if anything, is missing.