SiteSmith

Website content checklist: everything to gather before you start

SiteSmith · · 5 min read

Before anyone builds or rebuilds your website, gather the content: your logo, photos, the words about your services, your area, your hours, your reviews and the logins to your accounts. With those in one folder, a new site can come together quickly. Without them, projects stall for weeks while everyone waits for "that photo" or "the password". This checklist covers everything, with notes on what good looks like for each item.

How to use this checklist

Make one folder on your computer or phone called "Website". Put everything below into it as you find it. You do not need every item to start; the ones marked "essential" are the minimum. If you already have a website, much of this exists there and can be reused.

1. Business basics (essential)

  • Business name exactly as you want it shown, and your legal name if different (for the copyright line).
  • Phone number customers should call. Just one main number, unless you need a separate emergency line.
  • Email address for enquiries. Ideally on your own domain.
  • Street address, if customers come to you. If you work at customers' homes, your service area instead.
  • Hours, including seasonal changes and holiday closures you always keep.
  • A two-sentence description: what you do, where, and one concrete reason to choose you. Writing your business description in two sentences shows how.

Check that these match your Google Business Profile word for word.

2. Logo and brand

  • Your logo in the best file you have. Ask your sign maker or printer for the original file if you only have a blurry copy. A PNG with a transparent background or an SVG file is ideal.
  • Your colors, if you have set ones. The color codes from your sign maker or printer, or just a photo of your truck or sign.
  • Your fonts, only if you have a specific one you care about.

No logo yet? That is fine. Your business name in a clean font works until you have one.

3. Photos (essential: at least a few)

  • You or your team, at work or in front of your shop, truck or studio.
  • Your work: finished jobs, before-and-after pairs, products, dishes, rooms.
  • Your place: storefront, sign, interior, parking or entrance, if customers visit.
  • Your vehicle, if your trucks are how people recognize you.

Gather the largest, original versions, not copies from Facebook or text messages, which are often shrunk. If you have hundreds, pick your best twenty. Make sure you have the right to use each one; photos from a supplier, a previous employer or a customer may need permission. How to collect photos for your website redesign has tips for sorting them.

4. Services (essential)

For each service:

  • The name customers use for it.
  • A few lines on what it involves and who it is for.
  • What is included, and what is not.
  • Price, starting price or how you quote.
  • Questions customers ask about it.
  • A photo or two of that service.

Rank your services by how much you want more of that work. Your best ones go first on the site.

5. Service area

  • The towns, counties or zip codes you cover.
  • Any limits: "within 25 miles of downtown", "no islands", "trip charge beyond X".
  • The towns you most want work in, if any.

6. About you

  • Who runs the business, with a photo.
  • How long you have been in business and how long in the trade.
  • How you started, in a few sentences.
  • Team members you want to introduce, with their permission and photos.

7. Proof and trust

  • Reviews you want to show: copied from Google, Yelp or Facebook with the reviewer's first name and town, or with permission for anything more.
  • License numbers and the issuing board.
  • Insurance details you are willing to mention.
  • Certifications, awards and memberships, with logos if allowed.
  • A guarantee or promise, if you have one.

8. Answers to common questions

  • The ten questions you hear most on the phone, with your usual answers.

These become a questions page, or parts of your service pages.

9. Forms and booking

  • What you want to ask on the contact form. Keep it short: name, phone or email, what they need.
  • Where form messages should go: which email address, read by whom.
  • Your booking link, if you use an online booking tool.
  • Payment links, gift card links or financing details, if any.

10. Accounts and logins (essential if you have an existing site)

This is the step that delays more projects than any other.

  • Domain registrar: where your domain is registered and the login. How to find where your domain is registered shows how to look it up.
  • Current website or hosting account login.
  • Email provider: who runs your business email, so nothing breaks when the website changes.
  • Google Business Profile login.
  • Social media accounts you want linked.

Store passwords somewhere safe, like a password manager, not in a text file in the shared folder.

11. Your current website, if you have one

  • A list of every page on it, from the menu and the footer.
  • Which pages get the most visits, if you know.
  • What you want to keep, change and drop.
  • Old addresses printed on flyers, cards or vehicles, so they keep working.
  • Privacy policy, if you collect any information through forms. Many owners use a simple one and have their attorney review it.
  • Terms, if you sell or book online.
  • Accessibility statement, if you choose to publish one.

What to do this week

  • Create the "Website" folder.
  • Fill in section 1 and check it against your Google Business Profile.
  • Pick your twenty best photos and drop the originals in.
  • Write two or three lines for each of your top five services.
  • Find your domain login and confirm it works.

If you already have a website, much of this checklist is on it. You can see your site rebuilt first from what is already there, and use this list only for what is missing.

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