You know your website needs to catch up with your business. Maybe your services have changed, your work has grown, or you find yourself explaining things on sales calls that your website should already make clear. You’re ready to do something about it, but then comes the question: what do you actually need to have ready before hiring a website designer?
Good news: you do not need a perfectly written website, a folder of polished brand assets, and every technical decision made before you reach out. You do need a clear starting point. The more you understand about your business and what the website needs to accomplish, the easier it is to make thoughtful decisions together.
Here’s what I would focus on before a small business website redesign, what you can gather as you go, and what your designer should help you work through.
Start with these three business decisions
Before you choose colors or start rewriting your homepage, take a step back and think about how your business works today. These three answers will shape the rest of the project.
1. Get clear on the services you want to sell now
Your current website may describe the business you had three years ago. Make a list of the services or offers you want people to inquire about today, including anything you plan to retire, combine, or introduce soon. You do not need final website copy yet. You just need to know which parts of your business the new site should support.
For each main service, jot down who it is for, what problem it helps solve, and what someone needs to understand before they contact you. If you have several offers, note which one you would most like to be known for. That gives us a much better starting point than trying to give every service equal space on the homepage.
2. Map what happens when someone is ready to work with you
What do you want a potential client to do after visiting your website? Book a call? Complete an inquiry form? Schedule an appointment? Purchase something directly? Then think about what happens after that first step.
It helps to know where people commonly get stuck. Do they need to see pricing before they inquire? Do they ask the same questions on every call? Do they need to view examples of your work or understand your process before they feel comfortable reaching out? Your answers can shape the pages, calls to action, and tools your new website needs.
3. Know why the right clients choose you
You do not need to arrive with a clever tagline or a perfectly worded “unique selling proposition.” Tell your designer what clients appreciate about working with you, what you do differently, and which kinds of projects are the best fit. Reviews, emails from happy clients, and notes from sales calls can help you spot patterns.
If you have been in business for a while, this is especially important. Your experience and the quality of your work may have grown considerably since your last website was built. The new site should help visitors see that, instead of leaving you to explain it all yourself.
Gather the materials you already have
Once you have a sense of the business decisions above, make a simple collection of useful materials. This is not a request to create everything from scratch before you contact a designer. It is a way to see what exists, what needs updating, and what may be missing.
- Your current website: Note the pages you want to keep, the information that is out of date, and anything visitors say they have trouble finding.
- Service information: Collect descriptions, packages, pricing or starting rates you share with prospects, and frequently asked questions.
- Proof of your work: Gather testimonials, reviews, project examples, results you can substantiate, credentials, press mentions, or other details that help people trust you.
- Photos and brand materials: Find your logo files, existing brand guidelines, portraits, team photos, and images of your work. Make a note of anything you no longer want to use.
- Tools your website needs to connect with: List your scheduler, email platform, payment system, forms, client portal, or other tools that are important to the way you work.
- Access and ownership details: Find out who manages your domain, hosting, and current website. You do not need to send passwords in an inquiry, but it helps to know who has access when the project begins.
Do not worry if some of these items are missing. A useful discovery conversation can identify what needs to be created, what can be reused, and what is not necessary for your new site.
Think about what is working before you replace it
A redesign is an opportunity to improve your website, but it is also worth paying attention to what your current site already does well. Which pages bring in inquiries? Which articles answer questions that clients actually ask? Are there service pages or resources people regularly mention when they contact you?
Bring those observations to your designer. If you have access to Google Search Console or website analytics, that information can be useful too. You do not have to interpret every report on your own; the point is to avoid throwing away a useful page simply because its design feels dated.
If you are still deciding how much needs to change, read my guide to choosing between a website refresh and a full redesign.
Set a realistic timeline for decisions and feedback
One of the biggest surprises in a website project is that the design itself is only part of the schedule. Content, photography, approvals, and decisions about your services all need time. If several people in your business will review the website, decide early who has final approval and how you will collect their feedback.
My website design process includes guidance for organizing your content before the focused four-week design and build begins. You do not need to show up with every paragraph written, but content preparation is part of what helps the build move smoothly. If you are planning around an event, a busy season, or a business launch, share that date in your first conversation so we can talk about a realistic schedule. For a closer look, see how long a small business website redesign can take.
What you do not need to figure out alone
Preparing for a redesign does not mean doing the designer’s job before the project starts. You do not need to decide exactly how many sections belong on your homepage, choose a WordPress layout, write a headline that says everything perfectly, or know which tools should handle every part of your customer journey.
Your job is to bring your knowledge of your business, your clients, and your goals. A strategic designer should help translate that knowledge into a website structure, content priorities, design direction, and clear next steps. That is why I start with questions about what your business needs the site to do, rather than asking you to pick a design and hoping everything else fits inside it.
A quick website redesign preparation checklist
If you want a manageable place to begin, answer these questions in a document or notebook. Short, imperfect answers are completely fine.
- What has changed in your business since the current site was built?
- Which services or offers do you most want the new site to support?
- Who are the clients you want more of?
- What should a visitor do when they are ready to take the next step?
- What do clients ask before they decide to work with you?
- What pages, testimonials, or examples from the current site should you keep?
- Who will provide content and give final feedback?
- Is there a date you are working toward, and why does it matter?
You do not need perfect answers to every question before reaching out. If you can describe what feels out of date and what you want your website to help your business do next, that is enough to start a productive conversation.
Ready to talk about your website?
If your business has grown beyond what your current site communicates, I would love to hear what is changing and what you want the next version to do better. We can talk through where you are now, what needs to be prepared, and whether a custom redesign is the right next step. Book a discovery call with JennyB Designs.
