What to send your web designer before they start

The design and the build are the predictable parts. What holds projects up, nearly every time, is waiting on material from the client — not because anyone is disorganised, but because nobody told them what would be needed until it was needed.

So here it is up front. Gather these and a build that might have taken two months takes two weeks.

Words

• A few sentences on what you do and who you do it for — plain language, as if explaining to a neighbour
• Your list of services, and roughly what each one involves
• Prices, or a starting-from figure, if you are willing to publish them
• The story of the business: when it started, why, anything you are proud of
• The questions customers ask you on the phone over and over — these become your FAQ and they are worth more than any marketing copy

Do not try to make it sound like a website. Write it badly and let your designer tidy it. Getting the facts down is the hard part; the polish is not.

Pictures

• Photos of your actual work — before and after shots if you have them
• A photo of you, or the team. People buy from people and this consistently outperforms stock photography
• Your logo, ideally as the original file from whoever designed it, not a screenshot
• Any brand colours or fonts you already use, on signage, a van or a menu

Phone photos are fine — better than fine, usually, because they look real. Send the originals rather than versions that have been through WhatsApp, which strips a lot of the quality out.

Logins and admin

• Who registered your domain name, and the login if you have it
• Access to your current website, if there is one
• Your Google Business Profile login
• The email address enquiries should go to

The domain one catches people out constantly. It is often registered by whoever built the last site, sometimes in their name rather than yours, and tracking it down can take weeks. Start that early — and if it turns out it is not in your name, get it moved. It should always be yours.

Two or three sites you like

They do not need to be in your industry. Send links and say what you liked about each — "clean", "the photos are big", "it explains prices clearly". That tells a designer more in five minutes than an hour of questions.

Sites you dislike are just as useful, and often more specific.

What you do not need

You do not need to know what pages you want, how it should be laid out, or anything technical. That is the job you are paying for. Bring the raw material and let the designer shape it.