New Website Checklist: What to Have Ready Before You Hire a Designer
A new website checklist for Florida service businesses: the goals, words, photos, logins and decisions to gather before you hire a designer.
In short
- Write down what the new website must do, who it is for and how you will know it works
- Gather logins, logo, photos, reviews and licenses before the first meeting
- Decide your budget and who signs off, so questions get answers in a day
A new website project goes faster, costs less and turns out better when you show up prepared. This new website checklist covers what Florida service business owners should gather before hiring a designer.
You don’t need everything on day one. But the more you have ready, the sooner your site goes live and starts bringing in calls.
Start with the goal
Before you think about colors or layouts, answer three questions:
- What should the site do? Bring in calls, quote requests, booked appointments or all three?
- Who is it for? Describe your best customers. Homeowners or businesses? Which neighborhoods?
- How will you know it works? A number of calls or quote requests a month is a good start.
These answers shape every page. A site built to book AC repairs looks different from one built to win commercial cleaning contracts.
Your services and service areas
List every service you offer, then mark the ones you want more of. The jobs with the best margins should get their own pages and the most attention.
Next, list the towns and areas you serve, and how far you’ll drive. If you want to show up in Brandon, Clearwater or Wesley Chapel, the site needs to say so clearly. Our guide to service area pages explains how to do it without thin, copied pages.
What would a new website cost you?
Move a slider, tick what you need, and see a fixed-price range in under a minute. Nothing is sent unless you choose to send it.
Proof that builds trust
Customers want to know you’re real, qualified and good at the work. Gather:
- Reviews. Your Google review link, plus your best reviews from any site.
- Licenses and insurance. License numbers and what you carry.
- Years in business and the number of jobs or clients you’ve served.
- Awards, memberships and certifications from manufacturers or trade groups.
- Short stories from real jobs, with the customer’s OK.
Our guide to using Google reviews on your website shows where they work best.
Photos and your logo
Real photos beat stock photos almost every time. Customers want to see your team, your trucks and your finished work.
- Take photos in good light, holding the phone sideways.
- Get a few of the team, a few of the work and a few of the work in progress.
- Find your logo files. The original files from whoever designed it are best.
If you don’t have good photos yet, start taking them now. A month of job photos is enough to fill most service pages.
Logins and accounts
Missing logins hold up more launches than anything else. Find these before the project starts:
- Your domain registrar login.
- Your current website or hosting login, if you have one.
- Your Google Business Profile and Search Console access.
- Any booking, payment or email tools you want the site to connect to.
If any of these are in someone else’s name, fix that first. Our guide to who owns your website explains how.
Make one shared folder
Put your photos, logo, reviews, licenses and notes in one folder you can share with your designer. It saves dozens of emails and keeps the project moving.
Decisions to make early
A few decisions shape the whole project:
- Budget. Know your range. Our estimator shows what a site with your pages and features would cost.
- Who signs off. One person who can approve each stage keeps the project on schedule.
- Must-have features. Online booking, a quote form, Spanish pages or a payment link each change the plan.
- Deadline. If the season matters, like summer for AC or spring for lawn care, say so at the start.
What your designer should bring
You bring the business knowledge. A good designer brings the rest: a page plan, the writing or help with it, the design, speed and accessibility checks, forwarding for your old page addresses, and a plan for tracking calls and forms. Our guide on how long a website takes to build shows how the work usually breaks down.
When you’re ready, tell us about your project. This checklist is the same one we walk through on our first call.
Questions about preparing for a new website
Do I need professional photos for my website?
Not always. Clear, well-lit phone photos of your real team and real work often do better than polished stock photos. Professional photos help most on the homepage and About page.
Do I have to write the words for my website myself?
Not if your designer writes them. Many service businesses prefer a short interview, where the designer asks questions and writes the pages for you to review.
What if I don’t have a logo yet?
You can launch with a simple text logo and add a designed one later. Just make sure the name, colors and phone number match your Google Business Profile and your trucks.
How much should I budget for a new website?
It depends on the number of pages, who writes them and the features you need. Our guide to website costs for Tampa small businesses breaks down typical ranges.