Published: · Updated: · 2 min read
Most website projects are delayed not by technical difficulty but by waiting for material. This checklist is so you already have the answers at the first meeting that make price and timeline accurate — and so “we will send the text later” never becomes necessary once design starts.
Start with the business goal
Write down why you need the site and the primary action: a call, enquiry, booking or purchase. One clear goal makes design and content decisions easier — from button placement to page order. If there are several goals, rank them.
Describe your audience
Identify who makes the decision, the information they need and what stops them from contacting you — price, timing, trust, an unclear process. Instead of general phrases, use the last ten real questions customers asked you by phone or messenger. Those questions often become the FAQ section directly.
Draft the page list
Home, services, about, FAQ and contact are a useful starting point. A service deserves a separate page when it has a distinct audience, purpose and enough original information — it helps in Google too, because each page answers a separate search topic. Very similar offers share a page. List the languages as well: each one means a full translation.
Collect real materials
- Logo in vector or high-resolution format, brand colours and fonts if they exist
- Service descriptions — even rough, in your own words
- Contact details: phone, email, address, hours, social profiles
- Photos you have the right to publish (your own or licensed)
- Testimonials and projects — only genuine and approved for publication
The material need not be perfect — structure is planned far better on real text than on placeholder copy.
List features and integrations
Describe forms, calendars, payments, catalogues, languages and content-management needs. Note any software the site must exchange information with — CRM, accounting, couriers, banks. Each integration affects price and timing, and third-party processes (such as bank approval) should start in parallel. Separate what belongs in the first version from what can be added later.
Assign responsibilities and access
Agree who writes copy, who approves design (ideally one person), who owns the domain and who maintains the site after launch. If you have an existing site or domain, prepare access: registrar account, hosting, the old admin panel. The domain must always be in your name — see domains and hosting in Georgia. These decisions directly affect timing and price: how long a website takes and how much a website costs.