Six things block a build: a vector logo, real photographs, a plain list of your services, your business details, three sites you like, and access to your domain and hosting. Everything else can follow. Send them in one folder before day one and you remove the most common cause of a late website.
Every published checklist for this is a list of nouns. Logo, photos, content, branding. The trouble is that a designer already knows they need your logo. What delays projects is the version of the logo you send, and whether the thing you called content was ready or was a promise.
So this one is written the other way round. For each item: the format that is actually usable, and what happens to your timeline when it is missing.
The six things that block the build
| Item | The form that works | What happens without it |
|---|---|---|
| Your logo | A vector file: SVG, AI, EPS or PDF. Plus a version that works on a dark background. | A logo pulled from your old site is low resolution. It will look soft on phones and cannot be resized. |
| Photographs | Originals from the camera or phone, not ones downloaded from Facebook. Named so it is obvious what each shows. | The single most common reason a site launches with stock photos of somebody else’s business. |
| Your services | A plain list. One line each, in the words your customers use, with prices or a range if you publish them. | Nothing can be structured. Page layout, navigation and the quote form all depend on this list. |
| Business details | Exact trading name, address, phone, email, hours, service area, company number if you have one. | These go into your listings and your structured data, so a mismatch here quietly costs you local visibility. |
| Three sites you like | Three URLs and one sentence each on what you like about them. Not a mood board. | Replaced by a week of design exploration and a round of revisions nobody needed. |
| Domain and hosting access | Registrar and host names, and whichever account holds them, in your own name. | Chasing credentials is the most common way a launch date slips at the very end. |
That is the whole blocking set. Testimonials, team bios, case studies and blog posts are all nice, and none of them stop a build starting.
Could a stranger build the first draft of your site from the folder you are about to send, without asking you a single question? If not, the gaps in that folder are your timeline.
How to lay the folder out
Structure matters more than volume. A shared folder, one link, organised like this, and a designer can start the same day.
your-business-website/
01-logo/ vector logo, dark version, favicon if you have one
02-photos/ originals, named: team-sam.jpg, van-exterior.jpg
03-copy/ services.txt, about.txt, anything already written
04-details.txt name, address, phone, email, hours, service area
05-examples.txt three URLs and why you like each
06-access.txt registrar and host names, who holds the accountThere is one thing deliberately missing from that list. Passwords.
How should I share passwords?
Not in a document and not in an email, both of which sit there readable forever and get forwarded to people you did not choose.
- Better: add them as a user. Most hosts, registrars, Analytics and Search Console let you invite somebody by email with their own login. You keep ownership and can remove access in one click when the project ends.
- If you must send a password, use a password manager’s share feature, or a one time secret link that expires after it is opened.
- Turn on two factor authentication on the domain registrar before you give anyone anything. It is the account that matters most.
If you only fix one thing on this page, make it the photos. Not the logo, not the copy. The photos.
Real pictures of the actual people and the actual work are the single biggest difference between a site that looks like a business and a site that looks like a template. I have watched owners spend three weeks agonising over the wording of a headline and then send me four blurry photos from a wedding in 2019. An afternoon with a phone camera, outdoors, in daylight, is worth more than the headline.
What if I do not have any photos?
This stops more builds than anything else on the list, and the fix is an afternoon with the phone in your pocket. Modern phone cameras are better than most of the stock photography they would replace. What matters is light and subject, not the equipment.
| Shot | Why it earns its place | How to get it right |
|---|---|---|
| You, or the team, outdoors | The single most used image on the whole site | Overcast day or open shade. Never midday sun, and never a flash indoors. |
| Someone working | Shows the service rather than describing it | Mid task, hands visible, taken from slightly to the side rather than behind. |
| Van, shopfront or workshop | Proves you are a real business at a real address | Straight on, from far enough back to fit it all in, in daylight. |
| Before and after | The most persuasive thing you can put on a services page | Same angle, same distance, both times. Set a reminder to take the after shot. |
| Tools, materials or detail | Fills space between sections without stock imagery | Close up, near a window. These are the easiest shots on the list. |
| One happy customer, with permission | Pairs with a testimonial and doubles its effect | Ask on the day, get it in writing, keep it simple. |
Four practical notes. Shoot landscape, not portrait, because websites are wider than they are tall. Clean the lens first, since a pocket smears it and that alone ruins more photos than bad light. Take five of each shot rather than one. And send the originals rather than anything that has been through a messaging app, which compresses them heavily.
A slightly imperfect photograph of your actual business beats a flawless stock photo of someone else’s, every time. Buyers can tell the difference instantly, even when they could not say why.
The copy you owe, and the copy you do not
This is the item most likely to be assumed rather than agreed, and the assumption always runs the same way: you assumed the designer would write it, they assumed you would supply it. Settle it before the quote is signed.
| Page | Usually written by | What is needed from you |
|---|---|---|
| Services | You, or you and a writer together | Only you know what you actually do and decline. 20 minutes of talking, recorded. |
| About | You, roughly. Tidied by a writer. | How you started and why. Three paragraphs of honest rough notes beat polished copy from a stranger. |
| Home | A writer, from the above | Nothing, if the two above exist. |
| Legal pages | A template, reviewed by you | Your company details and how you handle data. |
| Blog or guides | Whoever you agreed, in writing | Nothing at launch. This is the item most often assumed and least often scoped. |
A shortcut that works: record yourself explaining your services out loud, as if to a customer on the phone, and send the recording. It is faster than writing, and the words are better, because they are the ones you actually use.
What good enough looks like
Perfect content that arrives in six weeks is worse than decent content that arrives on Monday. A website is not a printed brochure, and every page can be improved after launch.
- Missing a photo of one team member? Launch with five, add the sixth later.
- Not sure about your prices? Publish a range, or the starting point. Something is far more useful to a customer than nothing.
- About page not perfect? Nobody has ever chosen a plumber on the strength of an About page. Ship it and move on.
- One service still being decided? Leave it out. Adding a page later is a small job.
The reason this list is short is that the long versions cause the delay they are meant to prevent.
Hand someone a 40 item content questionnaire and they will put it in a drawer and feel guilty about it for a month. That month is not design time or build time, it is just silence. Six things in one folder gets sent on a Tuesday evening, and the whole project moves.
Common questions
What do I need to give my web designer before they start?
A vector logo, real photographs, a plain list of your services, your exact business details, three sites you like with a reason each, and access to your domain and hosting. Everything else can follow after the build has started.
Do I need to write all the content myself?
No, but you have to supply the raw material for your services and your story, because nobody else knows them. Agree in writing who writes what before you sign, since this is the most commonly assumed item in a quote.
What format should my logo be in?
A vector file: SVG, AI, EPS or PDF. Those scale to any size without blurring. A PNG or JPEG copied from your old website will look soft on modern screens and cannot be enlarged.
Is it safe to email my hosting password to a designer?
Better not to. Add them as a user on the account instead, so they have their own login and you can revoke it later. If you must send a password, use a password manager’s share function or a link that expires once opened.
Can we start without all the photos?
Usually yes. A build can begin with placeholders as long as the services list and business details are final, because those decide the structure. Photos can be dropped in right up to launch day.
Before you brief anyone
See how a machine reads the site you have now. It tells you what the new one has to fix. Nine checks, ten seconds, no email.