Website planning worksheet — Walk Out With A Website

Most websites go wrong before a single page is designed. The owner buys a domain, opens a builder and starts dragging boxes around — and only then tries to work out what the site is for. This worksheet flips the order: thirty minutes of writing here saves weeks of rebuilding later.

Answer every question in plain words, as if you were telling a friend about the business. One or two sentences each is enough. Where you're not sure, write your best guess and mark it — guesses you can see are easy to fix later.

The order to decide things in — each step answers the next one

Decide who it's for, then the one action, then the pages — in that order. Everything else follows.

Who it is for

A website that tries to speak to everyone persuades no one. Pick the single customer you most want more of and write for them. You can still serve everyone else — you just stop designing for them.

Describe the one customer you most want to reach in a single sentence: who they are, roughly how old, where they live or work, and what they care about.
Write the exact problem they're trying to solve when they land on your site — in the words they'd use to search for it, not the words you use internally.
Note where they'll come from: a Google search, social media, a flyer, a recommendation. Each source expects a different first page.
List the two or three questions they always ask before buying. Each one deserves an answer on the site before they have to contact you.

What you want them to do

One page, one job. If a page has three competing buttons it has none. Decide the main action for the whole site first, then let every page push towards it.

Pick one main action: book, buy, call, enquire or subscribe. Write it down — this is the button on your homepage, twice.
Pick one backup action for people who aren't ready yet, such as joining an email list or downloading a price guide.
Decide how you'll know it worked: a booking in the calendar, an email, a phone call, an order. If you can't measure it, you can't improve it.
Write the phone number, booking link or checkout this action leads to. Check you actually own and monitor it.

Pages you actually need

Start small and finish. Five excellent pages beat fifteen abandoned ones, and you can always add more after launch.

Home — the shop window. Headline, proof, and the main action.
The one page that closes the sale: services, menu, shop or booking. Give this page more care than all the others combined.
About — with a real photo, a real name and why you do this. People buy from people, especially locally.
Contact — with the ways you genuinely answer. Don't list a contact form nobody reads.
Anything legally required: privacy policy, terms, refunds. Boring, but cheaper than the alternative.

What you already have

Gathering assets is the step that stalls most builds. Do it now, before you start, and the build itself becomes a weekend job.

Logo files (the original, not a screenshot), photographs of you, your work and your premises, existing copy, reviews and testimonials.
Domain name — whether you own it, where it's registered, and the login. Check the renewal date while you're there.
Accounts you already pay for that the site can reuse: email, booking tools, payment accounts, social profiles.
Brand details: the colours and fonts you already use, and any phrases customers repeat back to you.

Budget and deadline

Write real numbers. 'As cheap as possible' and 'whenever' are how projects drift for six months and launch tired.

One-off budget for the build itself, and a monthly figure for hosting, tools and email.
A real deadline with a reason attached: a season, an event, a lease signing, a product launch.
Who does the work — you with a builder, you with help, or someone else entirely. All three are valid; pretending otherwise isn't.

Worked example

A filled-in example: an electrician in Leeds

Customer: Homeowners in north Leeds, 35–65, who need an electrician they can trust inside the house.
Problem: 'My fuse box keeps tripping and I don't know who to trust.' They search 'electrician roundhay' on their phone.
Main action: Call or WhatsApp. Backup: request a callback. Measured by phone calls logged each week.
Pages: Home, Services (with prices from), About with a photo, Reviews, Contact. Privacy page in the footer.
Assets: Van photos, 40 Google reviews to quote, domain owned at the same registrar for years.
Budget: under £1,000 to build, under £40 a month to run. Deadline: before the winter call-out season.

Turn the answers into a plan

The Architect takes these answers and returns a recommended stack, a sitemap and a launch checklist.

Start your free blueprint

Carry on with

Homepage master prompt

About 20 minutes

Local search checklist

About 45 minutes

Shop launch checklist

About 40 minutes