Prepare a page list, straightforward notes about your services, usable original photographs and a clear record of what is approved. Rough service notes are enough for the first conversation; identify who can confirm the facts and fill the gaps.
For a business commissioning a website in Formby, Freshfield or L37, organise the material around the customer tasks you have agreed. Our web-design service starts with the work the website needs to support; the material below helps turn that scope into usable pages.
Map the content to pages customers will use
Start with the questions a prospective customer needs answered. Which service suits the job? What does it include? Can they see relevant work? How do they arrange the next step? Give each proposed page a purpose before collecting paragraphs and photographs for it.
Here is an illustrative content map for a service business:
| Page | Material to prepare |
|---|---|
| Main service page | Work offered, suitability, important exclusions, relevant photographs and how a quote begins. |
| About the business | Who provides the work, their actual role, approved portrait and verifiable background. |
| Project example | The original need, your contribution, permitted images and a factual description of the result. |
| Contact | Working contact details, genuine coverage, useful initial questions and who receives enquiries. |
Add booking or product material when the business needs it. A salon must supply enough service information to select the right appointment; a shop needs structured product details and an agreed collection or delivery process. The salon website guide and shop website brief cover those different journeys.
For restaurant content, our restaurant menu guide sets out the editable text, serving arrangements and approved food information to supply.
For a class programme, prepare the level, included dates, venue and joining arrangement. The class and workshop website brief shows how to organise those details around a participant’s decision.
For holiday-let content, the property-page brief covers sleeping arrangements, room connections and private or shared facilities.
Give the designer raw service knowledge
Write notes as if you were explaining the work to a customer who has never hired you. Name the job, describe what is normally included and record the questions you ask before accepting it. Short, specific answers are easier to develop than a paragraph of promotional adjectives.
For each priority service, explain who it suits, what the customer needs to supply, any meaningful limits and how the work is arranged. If an assessment or visit is necessary before quoting, say so. Record genuine service coverage and whether customers can visit your premises or need an appointment.
Include the questions people actually ask your business, using an anonymised summary rather than copies of private conversations. A repeated question about preparation, access or the first appointment can reveal information the service page needs.
Mark uncertain details for confirmation. A designer should not have to guess whether a service includes materials, whether a qualification is current or whether a promised response is achievable. Agree whether the project includes copywriting, editing supplied text or simply placing approved copy.
Supply photographs that can survive the layout
Keep original image files alongside a smaller shortlist. A picture copied from a messaging app or captured from a social-media post may have lost detail; the original gives the designer more room to crop it for different screens. Include an overall view and a useful detail where both explain the work.
Name each shortlisted file and add a sentence explaining what it shows, which service it belongs to and any cropping restriction. If a person’s face or an important fitting must remain visible, say so before a wide banner is designed around the image.
Record who supplied the photograph and what use is permitted. GOV.UK’s copyright guidance explains that original photography and writing receive protection automatically. Having a file in your downloads folder does not establish that you can publish it.
Keep image rights and customer privacy as separate checks. A permitted photograph can still reveal a private address, paperwork or something a customer did not expect to appear online. Give the designer a publishable selection, with any necessary edits identified, rather than an unfiltered client folder.
Separate a factual gap from a writing job
Use a simple status beside each page: source material missing, ready to draft, awaiting approval or approved for the build. Add the name of the person responsible for the next action. A page marked “nearly done” gives nobody a reliable instruction.
If the designer is writing the copy, approve the underlying facts before reviewing tone. If you are supplying finished copy, agree how it will be checked for length, headings and consistency with the rest of the site. Keep one clearly identified current version so old wording does not return during revisions.
Our website-copy review guide covers unsupported claims and awkward flow, including AI-assisted drafts. Use it when checking the first complete draft.
Review one representative page before filling the site
Choose a page containing the things the design will need to handle: a longer service explanation, real photographs, a customer question and the relevant enquiry or booking route. Review it with the actual content, not placeholder sentences.
Check what happens when a heading wraps, a portrait needs a different crop on a phone or a service needs more explanation than expected. Resolve those decisions before the same layout is applied to every page.
Agree how feedback will be collected. One person should consolidate factual corrections and design comments into an actionable response. Where two people disagree about a service, settle the business fact before asking the designer to publish either version.
Agree what must be ready for launch
Identify the pages essential to serving customers and the material that can follow later. A project gallery can grow after launch, but a service page still needs enough accurate information to support its enquiry route. Do not publish empty sections or invented examples to make a menu look complete.
Give changeable details an owner: staff profiles, opening arrangements, service availability, product information and booking links. Include the editing tasks you expect to manage yourself in the handover discussion.
Keep account access separate from the content pack. List the systems involved and who controls them; agree a suitable access method when it is needed. Do not put passwords into a document that will circulate for copy approval.
For an initial website project enquiry, send your existing website if you have one, the pages or customer tasks you need, and a summary of the content already available. Flag the gaps.
