What to prepare before building a business website

You decide to build a website, open a website builder or start talking to a freelancer—and the questions begin. What should you say about your business? Which photos should you use? Do you need a logo and all your headlines ready first?

Before building a website, prepare a clear offer, a list of services and prices, genuine examples of your work, and a way to get in touch. Gather everything in one document and folder. For a simple page, you usually don't need finished marketing copy or a detailed technical specification.

The point of preparation isn't to plan every last detail. It's to separate facts from preferences so your website represents your business accurately, rather than just looking finished. The checklist below works whether you're building it yourself or handing things over to a designer, developer or AI website builder.

1Decide who the website is for and what you want them to do

Start with your customer's situation, not your button colours. Who will open the page, what do they need, and why would they read your offer?

“A website for anyone who needs our services” is too broad. For a small workshop, a more useful description would be: “We help local homeowners repair their upholstered furniture instead of buying new pieces.”

Write down your answers to four questions:

• Who is your main customer: an individual, a business owner or someone working for a company?
• What specific problem do they need help with?
• Where do you work: at your premises, on-site, remotely or within certain areas?
• What should someone do on the website: call, send a message, submit photos, book an appointment or buy?

Choose one main action. You can keep other contact options, but they shouldn't compete with it for attention. If you can only give a price after an inspection, a “Buy” button won't make sense. Asking visitors to send photos for an initial estimate would be more useful.

Think about where visitors will come from, too. Someone referred by a friend may only need to check your work and contact details. Someone discovering you through search will need more explanation: who you are, what you do and how you work.

You don't need to sketch out every page at this stage. Just identify the website's first job and the information it must include. If you're unsure about the format, explore landing page vs website separately.

2Gather your offer, prices and terms of service

List the services you actually want to offer through the website. Don't copy your entire internal price list if half the entries only make sense to a specialist. Start with what customers usually come to you for.

For each main service, prepare a short summary:

• What the service is called in terms customers understand.
• Who it's for and when they might need it.
• What's included and what costs extra.
• What information you need to provide an estimate.
• Likely timeframes and what affects them.
• Any restrictions, minimum order or service area.

For example, explain what “bookkeeping services” covers: which types of businesses you support, whether they have employees, which transactions are included and how they share documents. This gives people a reason to get in touch rather than making them ask about everything from scratch.

How to prepare your pricing

If you charge a fixed price, state the amount, the pricing unit and what's included. If you quote individually, list the factors that affect the cost. These might include floor area, furniture condition, the volume of paperwork or the number of people in a photo shoot.

“From…” pricing is only useful when it's clear what the starting price covers. Don't choose a low figure just to make a headline more appealing. Visitors should understand whether the offer applies to their needs.

If you're not ready to publish prices, prepare an explanation of how you calculate them. For example: “Send us measurements and photos for an initial estimate. We'll agree on the final price once you've chosen the material.” Only say this if it reflects how you actually work.

Questions worth noting in advance

Think back to recent customer conversations. Do people ask about deposits, delivery, rescheduling, materials or revisions? These questions are often more useful on a website than a long company history.

Don't promise terms you haven't agreed on yet. “We'll reply within five minutes”, “always in stock” and “no job too difficult” are commitments in a customer's eyes. A clear, measured statement is better than a bold promise you can't keep.

3Prepare photos, work examples and information about your business

You don't need to commission a major photo shoot for your first website. But genuine materials help show what you actually do. Gather them before you start so the design doesn't have to rely entirely on random images.

Create a folder with clearly labelled sections:

• About the business: your name, a short description, and details of the specialist or team.
• Photos: your work, process, premises, equipment or products.
• Examples: a few completed jobs, with an explanation of the task and the work involved.
• Credentials and feedback: reviews, qualifications, licences or certificates relevant to the service.
• Branding: your logo, brand colours and fonts, if you already have them.

Keep the original photo files, not just smaller versions forwarded through a messaging app. Name files by their contents: “armchair-after-reupholstery”, “courtyard-entrance”, “consultation-room”. This makes it easier to find the right image and avoid mixing up projects.

Add some context to each example: what was needed, what you did and any constraints. “Replaced the upholstery and seat filling; left the wooden armrests unchanged” explains more than “Another one of our projects”.

Check publication rights. Having a photo in a message thread doesn't mean you can publish it on your website. Make sure you have the necessary permissions for images, reviews, client logos and personal information. Take particular care with portraits and photos of children.

If a review only exists in a private message, agree on whether you can publish it and how to credit the author. Don't add a surname, job title or company name without permission.

If you don't have materials yet, describe your experience, process and terms honestly. Don't invent reviews, projects or years of experience. An AI-generated illustration must not be presented as a photo of a completed job. And not having a logo usually won't stop you from starting with a neatly styled business name.

Build a draft in OAZEE. Your first website is free.

Describe your business and main services. OAZEE will create a website with copy and design, and you can check it against how your business actually works before publishing.

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4Confirm contact details, enquiry handling and required information

A website can explain your service in detail, but enquiries will get lost if no one monitors them. Before creating a form, decide who will handle incoming requests and what happens after someone clicks the button.

Prepare working contact details:

• A phone number you can take calls on.
• An email address you check regularly.
• A link to your preferred messaging app, if you use one for orders.
• Your address and directions, if customers visit your premises.
• Business hours and any limits on when people can contact you.

For a mobile service, stating your actual service area is enough. Don't list your home address as an office if you don't see customers there. If you work by appointment only, make that clear upfront too.

What to ask in a form

Choose the information you need to take the next step. A callback request usually doesn't require a date of birth or full postal address. A description and photos may help with an initial repair estimate, but only if your chosen tool supports sending them.

Plan what people will see after submitting: confirmation that you've received their enquiry, an explanation of the next step and an alternative way to contact you. Don't promise a specific response time unless you can meet it. Explain your process clearly.

Which documents to check

Required information depends on your country, business activity, payment methods and the data you collect. Find out in advance which business details, seller or service provider information, privacy documents and consent mechanisms you need.

If you add analytics, advertising tools, forms or online payments, account for their associated requirements. Don't copy a data privacy policy from another website: it may describe entirely different processes. Have a qualified professional review your documents if necessary.

When publishing through a third-party service, don't give a contractor the main password to your personal email account. Where possible, grant separate access with the appropriate permissions. Keep control of the website owner's account and its recovery options.

5Create a short brief instead of a lengthy technical specification

Now bring the information together in one document. For a simple page, a practical summary is enough: what the business does, who it helps, what the website needs to show and what visitors should do.

This brief is useful however you build the website. A contractor will have fewer repeat questions, and an AI tool will get specific facts instead of “make it look nice”.

You can use this outline:

Business and name: what we do and what we're called. Customer: who comes to us and what they need. Location: where we work. Main services: what we offer and on what terms. Pricing: fixed amounts or how we calculate quotes. Trust: genuine work examples and credentials we can show. Website goal: the action we want visitors to take. Contacts: where enquiries should go. Restrictions: what must not be promised or published.

Record design preferences separately. Instead of “modern and premium”, it's more useful to write: “Light background, large readable text, an emphasis on photos of our work, no complex animation.” If you have example websites, explain exactly what you like: the order of information, how services are presented or easy-to-find contact details. There's no need to copy someone else's text or design.

Flag unknown details rather than filling them in with guesses. If a price hasn't been approved yet, say so in the working document. If a photo needs permission before publication, mark it. Make sure these internal notes don't accidentally appear on the finished page.

When working with AI, explicitly tell it not to invent reviews, addresses, guarantees, awards, prices or years of experience. Even then, check the entire draft yourself: a plausible sentence isn't necessarily true of your business.

With OAZEE, you describe your business and the service creates a website with copy and design. Your first website is free to create and publish. A custom domain and additional pages are available on the paid Start, Pro and Business plans; see pricing for details.

You don't need to buy a domain just to start preparing your materials. You can make that decision separately once you've settled on a name and how you'll publish. Read more in custom domain or free subdomain.

6A hypothetical example: a furniture repair workshop

Imagine a small local workshop. The owner wants a website to share with people who come through referrals. The main action is to receive furniture photos for an initial estimate, rather than take payment straight away.

First, the owner gathers the facts. The workshop replaces upholstery on sofas and armchairs, takes jobs within the city and arranges travel beyond it separately. Prices depend on the furniture's condition, the extent of the repair and the fabric chosen.

What preparation looks like in practice

Offer: local upholstered furniture repair and reupholstery. For an initial estimate, customers send a photo of the whole item and close-ups of the damage.

Materials: photos of several completed jobs, with permission to publish them. Each pair of photos has a description of what was replaced and which parts were retained.

Terms: prices are calculated after discussing the job; delivery and on-site visits are arranged separately. The owner doesn't give a fixed turnaround time for every order because it depends on materials and workload.

Contact: a business phone number and an agreed way to send photos. The owner handles incoming enquiries and checks messages during business hours.

What's not ready yet: a brand logo and photos of the whole team. These can be added later, rather than replaced with fabricated staff images.

This brief is enough to plan the page sections: offer, services, examples, the estimate process, frequently asked questions and contact details. There's no need to invent content just because a template has an empty space.

This is a hypothetical example, not a case study with measured results. Preparation doesn't guarantee enquiries, but it helps prevent specific mistakes: unsupported promises, other people's photos and unclear terms.

7What to prepare today and what can wait

Separate what you need for a first draft from what you can decide later. Otherwise, preparation can turn into endless font choices while the service description remains unclear.

The essentials before building a website

• Describe your main customer and what they need.
• Choose one primary action for the website.
• List your main services, prices or how you calculate quotes.
• Confirm your service area, hours and restrictions.
• Gather genuine photos and captions for work examples.
• Check permissions to publish your materials.
• Prepare working contact details and assign responsibility for enquiries.
• Find out which information and documents you are required to provide.
• Bring the facts together in one brief and flag anything that still needs checking.

A comprehensive brand guide, complex animation, a detailed company history and dozens of secondary pages can usually wait. You don't need perfect marketing copy in advance: accurate source information comes first.

Don't postpone checking contact details, key terms or whether you can legally publish your materials. If you can't give a price yet, you at least need to explain honestly how it's calculated. If you're not ready to accept online payments, don't make them part of the promised customer journey.

Give the brief to someone who knows little about your business. Ask them to explain what you offer, who it's for and how to get in touch. If their answers don't match your intentions, clarify the document before working on the design.

8Frequently asked questions

Do I need to write all the copy before building the website?

No. Prepare the facts: services, terms, what sets you apart, contact details and answers to common questions. You can use those to draft copy yourself, work with a professional or use AI. You still need to check the finished text for services and promises you don't actually offer.

Can I start without a logo or professional photos?

Yes. A neatly styled business name and your own good-quality photos, which you have the right to publish, are enough for a first version. If you don't have photos yet, focus on clearly explaining your work. Don't present stock images or AI illustrations as real projects.

Do I need a detailed technical document?

For a simple informational page, a short brief is often enough. An online store, customer account area, complex booking system or integrations will need more detailed requirements. Describe not just the appearance but also the workflows: what visitors do, what data is passed on and who receives it.

What should I prepare if my business has just launched?

Describe your actual offer, process, qualifications and contact options. You can show your own demonstration work if you clearly label it as such. Don't invent clients, reviews or a company history. Clear terms are a better response to a small portfolio than fabricated proof.

When can I move from preparation to building the website?

When your offer, main action, contact details and terms are clear. You can add other materials as they become available. Build a draft first, then check it on your phone, verify the facts and test the available contact methods. For the step-by-step process, see how to create a website with AI.

Got your brief ready? Your first website is free.

Add the key facts about your business to OAZEE and get a website draft. Check your offer, materials and contact details before publishing.

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