Business Website Planning Checklist: What to Prepare Before a Build

A useful website brief explains what customers need to know and what your team needs the website to do. Before discussing colours or animations, write down the main customer decision the site should support: requesting a quote, booking a conversation, or choosing a service.

Use this checklist to prepare for a new business website or a redesign.

1. Define the customer and the next action

Describe who the site serves, what brings them to it, and what usually prevents them from enquiring. A customer comparing several providers needs different information from an existing client looking for support.

Choose one primary action for each important page. A service page might lead to a quote request; a project page might lead to a related service. Avoid asking every visitor to make the same commitment immediately.

2. Outline the pages around real questions

Start with a homepage, service pages, relevant work examples, and a clear contact or booking route. Add other pages when they answer a specific customer need.

For each service page, prepare:

• Who the service is for and the problem it addresses.
• What the engagement includes and what needs separate scoping.
• How the process works and what the customer needs to provide.
• Examples you have permission to share.
• Answers to questions that come up before a sale.

Give each page a distinct purpose. Repeating the same text across many pages makes it harder for visitors to understand the differences.

3. Collect content and assign an owner

Gather the original logo files, usable photographs, approved service descriptions, and contact details. Identify which claims need evidence or customer permission. Label concepts as concepts so visitors can distinguish them from delivered client work.

Assign one person to approve content and another to supply missing material if needed. A list of pages with an owner and review status is often enough to keep the work moving.

4. Plan what happens after an enquiry

Write down where a form submission goes, who responds, and how the enquiry is tracked. Ask only for information needed to take the next step.

If the website connects to a CRM, agree the field mapping and duplicate-contact rules. Test the confirmation message, the notification to your team, and the record created in the destination system. A successful form animation alone does not prove delivery.

5. Agree launch checks and ongoing ownership

Review the main pages on a phone and a desktop. Check navigation, form labels, image loading, contact details, and the booking journey. Include titles, descriptions, canonical URLs, and a sitemap in the technical handover.

For a redesign, list old page addresses and map changed URLs to their replacements. Decide who will maintain content and monitor enquiries after launch. Our website performance guide explains how to investigate loading problems.

Turn the checklist into a project brief

You do not need every detail settled before the first conversation. Bring the current site, the main customer action, the pages you expect to need, and the tools the website must connect to.

Explore our website design and development service or book a project call to discuss the scope.