Most website projects that disappoint do not fail in design or development. They fail at the start, when nobody wrote down what the website was actually for. Before you ask anyone for a quote, spend an hour answering these seven questions.
1. What should a visitor do?
Pick one primary action, such as request a quote, book a session or call. Every page should make that action obvious. Secondary actions are fine, but a website that tries to do everything usually does nothing well.
2. Who are you talking to?
List your two or three most valuable customer types and the questions each one asks before buying. Those questions become your page structure.
3. What happens after someone submits a form?
Who receives it, how quickly do they respond, and where is it recorded? A beautiful form that lands in an unread inbox is worse than no form at all.
4. What content do you already have?
Photos, service descriptions, project examples and approved testimonials take longer to gather than most people expect. Start collecting them now. Real content beats placeholder text every time.
5. Who will update it?
If you plan to publish news, add products or change prices, you need an editing workflow that suits the person doing it. Say so up front so it is part of the scope.
6. What must it connect to?
Payments, booking calendars, email marketing, an ERP or a CRM? Integrations shape the budget and timeline more than page count does.
7. How will you measure success?
Decide on two or three numbers, such as enquiries per month, booking requests or calls from the site, and make sure they can be tracked from launch day.
The payoff
With these answers, any serious developer can give you a clearer, more accurate quotation, and you can compare proposals like for like. If you would like help working through them, tell us about your project.