15 Things To Do Before Starting Your Website
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There's nothing better than starting your own business. It's fresh, it's new, and you'll never feel more motivated to get your name out there. So, to get started super-fast, new business owners will likely set up social media accounts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok).
And while that’s an awesome way to showcase your expertise and personality, what you really need is a website. But first, there are a few things to do before starting your website build.
When working with new clients, I make sure they’re well-prepared before we begin. So, whether you’re building the site yourself or working with a web designer (hello👋), I’ve compiled a list of fifteen things you need to do before starting your website:
1. Understand the goal of your website
Think about what your site needs to do to be successful.
Are you trying to:
Improve brand awareness?
Increase leads and sales?
Drive traffic from specific customers or industries?
You also need to think about how your customers and how they’ll feel and act when they land on your page.
So, ask yourself:
Who is your target audience?
What issues are they facing?
How do you solve their problems?
Are you fixing their pain points with physical or digital products or services?
How do you want to sound (corporate, funny, compassionate)?
What action do you want them to take (purchase a product, book a call, email, etc.)?
By understanding the goal of your website before you start, you’ll find the process a lot more fun 🥳.
2. Research your competitors
To understand what makes your competitors successful, you need to research what others in your industry are doing:
What are their websites like?
What content are they producing you could improve on?
How do they sound and make their audience feel?
Knowing your competitors will help your designer create something that’s uniquely you and attracts the customers you’re trying to win.
3. Make sure your branding pops
Branding is crucial to your business's visibility, credibility and marketing. It’s more than just your logo. It’s also your:
Colour palette
Fonts
Elements (like the confetti and sprinkles you’ll find on my website and Instagram)
Photography style
It shows your personality, draws in your ideal customers and makes your business stand out. A solid brand identity will ensure everything you put out in the world is consistent right from the get go!
4. Think about what pages your site needs
What pages do you need to include for your website to do its job? Is this enough:
Home
About
Services
Products/Shop
Contact
Or does it need more?
Depending on your biz, you might want to include a blog, portfolio or testimonials.
Tip: Your navigation bar should have no more than 7 links otherwise it’ll look cluttered. If you need more, you can use a drop-down menu for pages that fall under one category, like mine circled below:
5. Write well-thought-out copy
Sure, design is key, but so is your written content. Your copy needs to clearly outline:
Who you are
What you do
Why you’re the right person for the job
The action you want people to take
Your content needs to sound like you, on your website and across your social media and marketing. If writing isn’t your thing, I’ve got a great network of copywriters who I work closely with that I can recommend. Just ask!
6. Consider what additional features you need
Most websites include additional features, like:
Social media feeds (which and why?)
Pop ups (for marketing and discounts)
Booking systems (Calendly, Bookwhen)
Newsletter sign-ups
FAQs (to avoid loads of enquiry emails)
Event listings
These can increase leads and improve sales, making it easy for your audience to sign up, book or find out answers that might just win you their custom.
7. Include brand photography
People buy from people, so include on-brand photographs of you that match the style of your website and the tone of your written content. If you’re in Brighton and are looking for gorgeous headshots, I cannot recommend the incredibly talented photographer 📸, Lauren Psyk highly enough.
And if you have photos of yourself holding a device, I can input a design onto the screen for you. To find out more, take a little look at my Digital Add-ons page.
8. Don’t forget supporting images
Supporting images, such as stock images, icons and illustrations can be found on websites like:
Pexels (mood shots)
Unsplash (high-quality images)
Envato Elements (different mediums)
Mocha Stock (inclusive, multicultural images)
Flaticon (yep, this is for icons 😄)
These will tie your branding together and create consistency across your website and marketing. I usually include the research and purchase of up to 5 premium stock photos in my web packages, so let me know what images you’d need.
9. Choose a domain name
Check that the domain name you want is available, and if it is, sign up and register it with Squarespace, as you get a domain free for a year when you sign up for an annual plan.
If you have one already, I can move this to the preferred platform so you can keep everything in one place!
Check out my blog “How to Choose the Right Domain Name for Your Website” for some help with this topic.
10. Budget the set-up costs
There’s so much to think about when setting up your new website, including:
Web hosting - from £17/mo
Domains - from £16/yr
Email - from £5/mo
Professional Photos
Branding design
Copywriting
Web design
Knowing the full cost at the start means you can prevent your budget from running out mid-project. And to make things even easier, you can get 20% off your first year plus lots of freebies when you work with Squarespace and me.
11. Budget your running costs
Not only do you need to factor in the above, but you also need to budget for:
Ongoing website maintenance
Yearly hosting fees
Yearly domain fees
It’s so important to be aware of the costs you’ll incur going forward. Nobody likes nasty surprises! 😱
12. Email marketing
Your messaging and offer need to entice people to sign up for your newsletter. The content needs to be interesting enough to keep sign-ups from unsubscribing.
And then there’s the newsletter platform.
Do you choose:
Or something else? They’re all different, with a range of free and paid-for features, so research which one is right for your audience.
13. Check your social media links
If you’ve set these up already, make sure your social media handles match your biz name or website URL. You don’t want to confuse your audience with handles that don’t connect to your name or branding in any way.
If they don’t match, change them, and direct any sign-ups to your new account from your old ones (don’t just shut them down, or you’ll lose your current followers).
14. Add your website launch to your marketing strategy
Build anticipation for your launch by including it in your marketing strategy. Create a countdown on social media, and announce it on the day to get a crazy amount of people flocking to your website.
And encourage visitors to share it, even if they’re not your ideal customer; chances are somebody in their network is.
15. Choose the right web designer
I’d love that web designer to be me, of course, but you must research and pick the right one for you. The right designer will walk you through the process, deal with the design and tech of setting up your website and make the whole project a breeze.
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There you have it, fifteen super-handy things to do before starting your website. Yes, it’s a lot to take in, but if you’re considering working with a web designer, getting these must-haves in place will make the project run much more smoothly.
Until next time
ready for a new website?
If you’ve got all the above in place (or need a hand with a few), you’re ready to work with me!
Take a little look at my services and process pages, and if I’m the right fit for your project, book a call and let’s have a chat.
