A New Company Website: What to Consider Beforehand

A new company website is a small project with a big impact. It can bring in new customers for years, or gather dust online because the wrong things were sorted out beforehand. The difference rarely comes down to the programming, but to what happens before, in the preparation.

The good news: you don't need to be a tech expert. You just need to answer a few questions for yourself. These seven points are the checklist I go through together with my clients at the start of every project.

1. What should the website achieve?

Before it's about colours or fonts comes the goal. Should people call? Fill out a form? Come into the shop? A website that wants to do everything at once often achieves nothing properly. A clear main goal gives the whole project a direction.

2. Who do you want to reach?

A site for young families sounds and looks different from one for business clients. Think about who your ideal customers are and what they are looking for. The clearer the picture, the more precisely the content and tone can be tailored to them.

3. What content do you have, and what is missing?

In my experience, content is the most common reason why projects stall. Take an honest inventory early on:

• Text: What can you supply yourself, and where do you need support?
• Images: Are there good, genuine photos? Your own shots almost always beat stock images.
• Logo and colours: Is there a visual identity the site should stick to?

Sorting this out early saves you weeks of delay later.

4. Which pages do you actually need?

Not every company needs twenty subpages. Often a few well-made ones are enough: Home, Services, About, Contact. Better a few pages that have something to say than many that just fill gaps. This structure is at the same time the framework for the later navigation.

5. Have you thought about mobile and findability?

The majority of your visitors come via mobile. The site has to work just as well there as on a computer, that's a must today, not a nice-to-have. And it should be built from the start so that Google understands it. More on this in the articles about local visibility and loading time.

6. Who will maintain the site later?

A website isn't finished when it goes live. Opening hours change, new offers come along. Clarify beforehand: do you want to adjust small things yourself, or would you rather someone took care of it? Both are fine, but it should be a conscious decision.

7. Budget and timeframe, realistically considered

A clear budget is not a taboo, it helps. It steers the decisions in a sensible direction instead of causing surprises at the end. The same goes for the timeframe: good work takes a little time, and honest planning protects both sides from stress. You'll find some guidance on prices in the article about the cost of a website.

Well prepared is half built

You don't have to have a ready answer to every question before the first conversation, quite the opposite, we clarify a lot of it together. But anyone who lets these seven points run through their mind once comes into the project with clear ideas. And that is exactly what makes the difference between a website that merely exists and one that really works.

If you like, we can go through the list together in a no-obligation conversation, and you'll come away with an idea of what your website can achieve and what the path there requires.