Planning Guide

The Website Content Checklist: What to Prepare Before Your Build Starts

The single biggest cause of website launch delays isn't the developer — it's waiting for text, photos, and logins from the client. Have this list ready on day one, and your site can genuinely launch in a week or two.

Published July 2026 5 min read

1. Brand Assets

Logo files

Ideally the original vector file (SVG, AI, or EPS) or the largest PNG you have — preferably on a transparent background. A logo screenshot from Facebook won't print well at any size.

Brand colours

If you have exact colour codes, send them. If not, your developer can pull them from the logo — just say so.

Existing materials

Business cards, brochures, or old website — anything that shows how your brand currently looks helps keep things consistent.

2. Text for Each Page

You don't need polished copy — developers and copywriters can refine it. You need the raw facts, in a document, per page:

Home page

One sentence on what you do and for whom. Your top 3 services. What makes you different (honestly — 'reliable and professional' is what everyone says).

About page

How the business started, who runs it, years of experience, qualifications and registrations. A photo of the team or owner doubles trust.

Services

A list of every service, each with 2–3 sentences: what it is, who it's for, roughly what it costs (ranges are fine — pages with pricing convert better).

Contact details

Phone, WhatsApp, email, physical address (if customers visit), trading hours, and every area you serve — suburb by suburb if you're a local service business.

3. Photos

Your real work

Before/after shots, completed projects, your products. Real photos outperform stock photos on trust and conversions — even phone photos in good light.

Your people

A team photo or a portrait of the owner. Customers buy from people, especially in service industries.

Where stock photos are fine

Background and decorative images. Your developer can source licensed stock — just don't use it for 'your' work or 'your' team.

4. Access & Practicalities

Domain login

If you already own a domain, the login for your registrar (or at least the registrar's name). If you don't own one yet, decide on the name — your developer can register it in your name.

Existing website access

Rebuilding an existing site? Hosting and CMS logins let your developer preserve what's working and redirect old URLs properly, so you don't lose Google rankings.

Social profiles

Links to your Facebook, Instagram, and Google Business Profile so they can be connected to the site.

Email preference

Where should contact-form enquiries go? One inbox or several? Do you want WhatsApp notifications too?

5. Nice-to-Haves That Lift Conversions

Testimonials

2–3 sentences from happy customers, with a name and company. Screenshot WhatsApp praise if that's what you have — it can be tidied up.

Numbers

Years in business, jobs completed, clients served, areas covered. Specifics beat adjectives.

Certifications

Trade registrations, industry body memberships, insurance. Especially important for trades and professional services.

Frequent questions

The 5 questions customers always ask you — they make a great FAQ section and win long-tail Google searches.

Don't Let Perfect Delay Launch

The most common trap: holding the whole project for one missing photo or an About page you keep meaning to rewrite. Launch with good-enough content and improve it after — a live website earning enquiries beats a perfect one stuck at 90% for two months.

Content Ready? Let's Build

With your content prepared on day one, we can take a standard small business website from deposit to launch in 1–3 weeks — often faster.

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