How to Prepare for a Website Build or Redesign

Timelines stretch when assets aren’t ready, decisions take longer than expected, or key information surfaces mid-build instead of at the start. A little preparation upfront goes a long way toward keeping things on track and getting your site live on time.

Here’s what to have ready — and what to think through — before your website project kicks off.

Have Your Brand Assets Ready

Nothing slows a build down like waiting on a logo file. Before your project kicks off, gather:

Logo files. You want vector files — ideally an SVG or AI file — in full color, reversed (white), and any alternate versions you use. A JPG pulled from your old website is not a usable logo file.

Brand colors. Hex codes if you have them. If you don’t know your hex codes, your designer can pull them from an existing file — but have something to reference.

Fonts. If you have brand fonts, know what they are. If you’re licensed through Adobe Fonts or Google Fonts, have that information ready.

Photography. Professional photos of your team, your location, or your work make a significant difference in how a site looks and feels. If you don’t have them, budget time and money to get them — or plan to use stock photography as a placeholder.

Decide on Your Pages

You don’t need to have every page mapped out in detail, but you should have a general sense of the site structure before the project starts. A typical small business site includes:

• Homepage
• Services or Products
• About
• Contact

Depending on your business, you might also need a portfolio or case studies section, a blog, a careers page, a resources library, or location-specific pages. Think through what your customers need to find — and what you need them to do — and let that drive the page list.

Prepare Your Content

This is where most projects hit their biggest delays. Content — the words on your pages — takes longer to produce than most people expect, and it’s almost always the last thing clients think about.

If you’re writing your own copy, start early. Like, before the project kicks off early. Web copy isn’t the same as writing a brochure or a social post. It needs to be clear, structured, and written with your customer in mind — not your own perspective.

If you’re working with a copywriter, get that engagement started in parallel with the design phase. Waiting until the site is built to think about words means delays at the worst possible time.

At minimum, have a rough draft of your homepage and services copy ready before your kickoff call. It doesn’t need to be perfect — it just needs to exist.

Know Who Makes Decisions

On the agency side, there’s usually one point of contact managing your project. On your side, there should be too.

Projects with multiple decision-makers and no clear approval process slow down fast. If every revision needs to go through three people who aren’t always available, timelines slip. Before the project starts, decide who has final say — and make sure that person is available and responsive throughout the build.

Think Through Your Integrations

Does your site need to connect to anything? Common integrations include:

• Contact forms that integrate into email marketing platforms
• Scheduling tools like Calendly
• E-commerce and payment processing
• Third-party booking or reservation systems

The earlier you identify these, the better. Some integrations are simple. Others require credentials, API keys, or platform-specific setup that takes time to sort out. Don’t wait until launch week to figure out that your booking system needs three days of configuration.

Have Your Domain Information Ready

If you already own your domain, know where it’s registered and make sure you have login access. DNS updates can take 24–48 hours to propagate, so this isn’t something to sort out at the last minute.

If you have email running through your domain — Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or similar — there are additional DNS records that need to be handled carefully during the transition.

Get this information together early and let your agency know upfront so nothing gets missed.

How Five Towers Guides You Through It

We walk every client through a discovery and strategy phase at the start of every project — specifically to work through the questions above together. You don’t need to have everything figured out before you call us.

The projects that go best are the ones where the client is engaged and the agency is communicative. We hold up our end — and we’ll always tell you what we need from yours.

Our builds start at $4,000. If you’re thinking about a new site or a redesign and want to talk through what preparation looks like for your specific situation, book a free call. We’ll help you figure out where to start.