Planning a Website: 7 Steps and a Brief Template

Planning a website comes down to seven decisions made before anyone designs a page: what the site is for, who it's for, which pages it needs, what goes on them, how people will find it, how it will be built, and what it will cost. Get those right and the website design follows.

This guide walks through each step, then gives you a website brief template you can hand to any web designer, and a short checklist for launch day.

Step 1: Decide What the Website Is For

A website strategy starts with the one thing you most want visitors to do. For most small businesses that is an enquiry: a phone call, a quote request or a booking. For others it is a sale, or simply looking credible when a customer checks your online presence after a referral.

Write the main goal down in one sentence. Every later decision gets tested against it, and it tells you what the call-to-action on each page should be. A site that tries to do five things equally usually does none of them well.

Step 2: Know Who It's For

Next, picture the people you want to reach. Your target audience is rarely everyone. It is usually a few types of customer, each with a different question in mind when they land on your site.

You don't need detailed user personas. A short list is enough: who they are, what problem brought them to you, and what they need to know before they get in touch. Then think through their customer journeys, from the search they typed to the moment they pick up the phone. Each step should have a page that answers it.

Step 3: Plan the Pages and Website Structure

With the goal and the audience clear, you can plan the website structure. Sketch a simple sitemap, the website architecture in its plainest form: a list of pages and how they connect. For most small businesses it looks something like this:

• Home, which says what you do, where, and for whom

• One page for each main service, so each can answer its own questions and be found for its own searches

• About, covering who you are and why a customer should trust you

• Reviews or case studies

• Contact, with every way to reach you

The navigation menu follows from the sitemap, and on a small site it shapes most of the user experience. Keep it short, use the words your customers would use, and make sure nothing important is more than a click or two from the home page. Our guide to why web design matters covers how structure affects whether visitors stay.

How Many Pages Does a Small Business Website Need?

Fewer than most people expect. A brochure website of 4-6 pages covers most small service businesses well, provided each page has a clear job. Add pages when there is a real service or question to answer, not to make the site look bigger.

Step 4: Gather Your Content

Content is what slows most website projects down, so start collecting it early. When we start a build, the things we ask clients for first are:

• High quality images of your work, your team and your premises, which do more for trust than stock images

• Websites you like, and what you like about them

• The competitors you come up against

• A list of the services you offer

Gather your trust signals as well: reviews, accreditations, awards you have genuinely won, and examples of past work. Visitors look for proof and credibility before they get in touch.

Then decide who writes the copy. Some businesses want to write their own, and some would rather hand it over. We do both: we can write the copy for you and optimise it for search from day one, or build the site around copy you already have.

Step 5: Plan How People Will Find It

A website nobody finds can't do its job, so plan for search before the design starts. List the searches your customers make, such as the service plus your town, and give each main one its own page with a clear title and heading.

If you serve a local area, local search matters most. Our local SEO checklist covers the basics, and if an existing site isn't showing up, our guide to why a website ranks poorly explains the usual causes.

Step 6: Choose How It Will Be Built

Your website build decides what the site can do, what it costs to run, and how easy it is to change as your business needs change.

Website Builder, Bespoke Site or Managed Platform

A website builder is quick and cheap to start, but you build and maintain it yourself within the limits of its templates. A bespoke site is designed around your business and costs more upfront. Our comparison of a bespoke website and a website builder sets out when each makes sense, and our guide to custom CMS options covers the system behind the site. If you're unsure who does what, see web design vs web development.

Domain Name and Hosting

Register your domain name in your own business's name, not your web designer's, and keep the login details yourself. Then ask who will host the site, who patches it, and what happens if you leave. On our platform you own your content, your data, your domain and your brand assets, and leaving includes a free full static export of your site.

Step 7: Set a Budget and Timeline

Budget for both the build and the running costs. A cheap build with expensive upkeep, or a builder subscription that grows with every feature you add, can cost more over a few years than a higher upfront price.

For reference, our brochure websites of 4-6 pages are £2,500 + VAT, and a CMS business site of 10 or more pages starts at £4,500 + VAT. Platform plans start at £95 a month on a 12-month minimum term. Our guide to how much a website costs explains what drives the price, and our pricing page sets out what each plan includes.

For the timeline, work back from any date that matters, such as a launch, a busy season or a new premises opening. Most delays come from waiting for content and sign-off, so the earlier Step 4 starts, the better.

How to Write a Website Brief

A website brief is a short document that tells a web designer what you need. A good one gets you accurate quotes, because every designer is pricing the same thing. It doesn't need to be long. Copy this template and fill in each line:

• About your business: what you do, where, and how long you have been doing it

• The main goal: the one thing the site must do, from Step 1

• Your customers: who they are and what they need to know, from Step 2

• Pages: your draft sitemap, from Step 3

• Your services: the full list, with the ones that matter most marked

• Content you have: photos, logo, existing copy, reviews, and whether you need the copy written

• Features: anything beyond pages, such as online bookings, payments or a quote form

• Websites you like: two or three, with a line on what you like about each

• Competitors: who you come up against, and what you think of their websites

• Budget: a range for the build and for monthly costs

• Deadline: and the reason for it

• Sign-off: who in your business makes the final decisions

If you're not sure about some of these, say so. A good web designer will help you fill the gaps rather than guess.

Before You Launch: A Short Checklist

Whoever builds the site, check these before it goes live:

• Every form sends to the right inbox, and you have tested each one

• The responsive design works: every page is easy to use on a phone, not just on a desktop

• Each page has its own title and meta description

• Old page addresses redirect to the new ones if you are replacing a site, so you keep what you have built up in search. Our guide to keeping your rankings through a redesign covers this

• Analytics is set up, so you can see where visitors come from. It is included as standard on every site we build

• Your Google Business Profile and social media profiles link to the new site

Planning a Website: Common Questions

Ready to plan yours? Book a free consultation and we'll talk it through with you.