What to Prepare Before You Build a Website: A Simple Checklist

Almost every delay in a website build comes from the same place — not the design, not the development, but waiting on content. A page can't go live with a logo that hasn't been sent yet or service descriptions that are still "being worked on." Here's what to have ready before you start, so your site goes live on schedule instead of stalling in your inbox.

Your logo and brand basics

If you have a logo, send the actual file — not a screenshot of it, the original image (PNG, SVG, or similar) at the highest resolution you have. If you don't have one yet, that's fine too; describe your business in a sentence or two and any colours you'd want to use, and it can be worked in from there.

Your core business details

• Business name exactly as you want it to appear
• Phone number and email address you actually check
• Physical address, if customers need to find you in person
• Operating hours
• Any registration details you want listed (for trust — not required)

What you actually do

This is the part people underestimate. You don't need polished marketing copy — a plain, honest description of your services or products in your own words is far more useful than nothing, and it's much easier to sharpen existing text than to write it from a blank page. If you offer multiple services, a short list of each one with a sentence of explanation is enough to start from.

Photos

Real photos of your actual work, product, or space beat stock imagery every time — customers trust what looks real. Phone photos are genuinely fine as long as they're in focus and well-lit; you don't need a professional shoot to get started. If you're building an online store, product photos matter even more — try to get a few angles of each item against a clean, consistent background.

Social media and any existing accounts

Links to your Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok, so they can be linked from your new site. If you already have a Google Business Profile, that's worth mentioning too, since it's often what people check before deciding whether to visit or call.

A domain name preference

Have an idea of what you'd want your website address to be — usually your business name, e.g. yourbusiness.co.za. It's fine if your first choice is already taken; having a second option ready avoids a back-and-forth once the build has already started.

Why this actually matters

None of this needs to be perfect — a rough version of each item is enough to start, and it can be refined along the way. The point is having something for each item rather than nothing, since a build that's waiting on missing content is the single biggest reason a website doesn't go live on time. With everything above ready, a One Page or Multi Page site can realistically be live in 2 days — most of that timeline is the build itself, not back-and-forth collecting information.

Once you've got the above together, the rest is a short form — get started here and choose the package that fits your business.