What to send your web developer before work starts (so the site launches in days, not months)
Advice · October 18, 2026 · 3 min read
The number one reason websites take months is not the developer. It is content that never arrives. Here is the exact list I send clients on day one.
I can build a four-page business website in about three working days. The clock, though, starts when I have your content. In my experience the gap between "let's do it" and "here is the text for the about page" is where most websites go to die. So this is the list I send on day one. Copy it, tick it off, and your site will be live before the month ends.
1. Your logo, in the biggest file you have
A PNG with a transparent background or an SVG is ideal. A photo of your shop board works in a pinch; I can redraw a simple one. Don't send a WhatsApp-compressed thumbnail; it will look blurry on a laptop.
2. One paragraph per page, in your own words
You don't need to write well. You need to tell me what you want a customer to know. For a clinic: who the doctors are, what you treat, your timings, how to book. For a coaching centre: courses, batch timings, results, fees if you show them. Voice notes are fine. I turn notes into page text; you approve it.
The pages most businesses need:
- Home: what you do, for whom, and the one thing you want visitors to do (call, WhatsApp, visit).
- About: your story in five sentences, and a photo of you or the team. Real photos beat stock photos every time.
- Services or Products: one short block per service, with a price or "from" price if you are comfortable showing it.
- Contact: address, phone, WhatsApp number, email, timings, Google Maps pin.
3. Photos
Ten to twenty photos of your place, your work and your people, taken in daylight on a decent phone, landscape orientation. Not screenshots, not downloaded images. If you have none, tell me; a two-hour photo session with a local photographer is the best money you will spend on the site.
4. Contact details, exactly as you want them shown
- The phone number that should ring (and whether it is also on WhatsApp)
- The email you actually check
- Your business name spelled the way it is on your board and your Google listing
- Your address and the Google Maps link
Consistency matters for Google. The same name, address and phone number should appear on the site, on Google Maps and on Justdial.
5. Domain and existing accounts
If you already own a domain, I need access to wherever it is registered (GoDaddy, Hostinger, BigRock), or at least the ability to change its DNS. If you have an old site, the login to its hosting, so nothing is lost in the move. If you have none of this, I register the domain in your name with your email, and you keep the login.
6. Three websites you like
They don't have to be from your industry. "I like how this one looks on my phone" or "this one feels premium" tells me more than any brief.
7. The small things people forget
- Your GST number if invoices or the footer need it
- Social media links
- Payment details for the site if you take online payments (UPI ID, Razorpay account)
- Any certificates, awards or affiliations worth showing
- The name of the person who will approve pages (one person, not a committee)
What happens next
Once this is in, I share a first version within two or three days, you send changes in one or two rounds, and the site goes live. The remaining payment is due before handover, after which you get every login and own the site outright. The process in full is on the services page.
If you are reading this and thinking "I have none of this ready", that is normal. Send what you have, and we'll fill the gaps together in a thirty-minute call or over chai in Meerut.
Tags: checklist, website content, launch, small business