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Entrepreneur's Guide: How to Prepare for Website Development
How to prepare for a website project?
Imagine entering an elegant office. Everything looks great, including the logo, colors, and furniture. However, nobody knows what you do, where you are, or how to contact you. Customers visit, look around, nod their heads, and leave.
A poorly designed website works the exact same way. Is it pretty? Maybe. Therefore, it remains useless without proper preparation. Prepare well before you start creating your company website.
At PTM Soft, we work with companies from many industries. We support small manufactories and developed B2B corporations. Consequently, we always repeat one rule. A good website always starts with a strategy. Below you will find a guide through the most important stages.
1. Start with your goal. What do you expect from the website?
A beauty salon owner we worked with came to us with a specific vision. She wanted a “pretty website”. However, our conversation revealed that she cared most about online bookings. She did not need just aesthetics or a blog. She wanted clients to book appointments easily and quickly.
This was a turning point. We could design everything to lead to one single button: “book now”.
Start with this exact question: what is my website for? Should it generate inquiries or build a mailing list? Does it validate your brand, or maybe sell products?
The more precisely you answer this question, the better you will design everything else.
2. Define your target audience
A few months ago, we designed a website for an office cleaning company. The owner initially wanted everything to be “pretty and elegant”. However, a conversation with his clients, office managers, revealed that speed, security, and references mattered more than design.
We changed the messaging. We focused on specifics: numbers, recommendations, and project photos. The result was an increased number of inquiries in the very first week after launch.
Your customers may have completely different needs than you think. Create personas and describe sample clients, their problems, and the language they use.
The website should speak to them, not to you.
3. Plan your website structure
Imagine a road without signs. You look for Poznań, but you end up in Gdańsk. Frustrating, right?
A user feels the exact same way on a website without a well-planned structure.
One of our clients, a consulting firm, previously had a website where everything was on a single page. There was zero division and zero logic. Customers did not know what the company did, what services it offered, or how to contact it.
We rebuilt the layout: home page, services, about us, reviews, and contact. We added clear buttons. Phones and emails started ringing immediately.
A website structure is a navigation system, not a maze. Take care of it at the beginning.
4. Take care of content and graphic materials
We once worked with a car repair shop that sent us texts copied from another website. The content had no company name, no character, and no emotion.
We proposed a change. The owner told us his story about how he started, how he repaired his first engine, and how he trains young mechanics today. We added authentic photos of the workshop and the team.
The result? The website started to build trust. Customers wrote directly: “we came because you look like a reliable person.”
Content sells. Do not copy. Tell a story. Be yourself. Take a few photos or record a short video. If you have no ideas, we will help you find them.
5. Choose a domain and hosting wisely
A training company owner had a great offer but a domain name consisting of five words and two hyphens. Customers misspelled the address, could not remember it, and the website loaded slowly.
We suggested a new name that was shorter, simpler, and without special characters. Additionally, we moved the website to a faster hosting service.
The domain is the foundation. Hosting is the engine. Do not cut corners in these areas.
6. Do you want to edit the website yourself?
Many clients come to us for help because their old website was “held hostage” by an agency. Every change required a fee. Every blog post was delayed.
We change that. We work with WordPress, which allows entrepreneurs to manage content independently. Want to add a new service? Need to change opening hours? Want to publish an article? You can do everything yourself without coding or frustration.
This truly gives you freedom. And we show you how to do it.
7. Create a budget plan and a timeline
One client wanted a website “for yesterday”. He had no materials, no plan, and no goal. After three weeks of frustration, we went back to the beginning.
We started with a piece of paper and a list of questions:
- What do you want to achieve?
- What do we have available?
- When does it need to be ready?
Only then did the project move forward. As a result, we created a website that works and did not cost more than necessary.
Planning saves time and money. Establish your goals, budget, scope of cooperation, and realistic deadlines.
8. Test the website before launching
We once tested a website for a children’s clothing store. The owner thought it was perfect because it had beautiful colors and nice photos. However, when we showed it to a few mothers from our test group, they all struggled to find the sizes and the shopping cart.
We improved the layout by adding clearer buttons and product descriptions. As a result, sales suddenly took off.
Your customers think differently than you do. Ask for their opinion before you launch the website. Even the simplest UX tests can work wonders.
Summary: Plan first, pixels second
Designing a great website does not start with graphics. Instead, it begins with strategy.
If you carefully plan your goals, target audience, content, structure, and materials, your website will actually work. As a result, it will attract visitors and boost your sales.
At PTM Soft, we guide our clients through this process step by step. We ask questions, listen, and advise. Therefore, we always design with the final result in mind.
Read more: How Front-end and Back-end Work Together