Starting a Website Project? Here's What Actually Matters

We've run a lot of website projects. Some went smoothly, some taught us hard lessons. The difference almost always comes down to what happens before any code gets written.

If you're about to start a website project, whether it's a new build or a redesign, here are the things that actually matter, drawn from what we've seen go right and wrong across projects for startups, government, and not-for-profits.

Get clear on what the site needs to do

This sounds obvious, but it's the step that gets rushed the most. "We need a new website" isn't a brief. What does the site need to achieve? Who's it for? What should someone do after they visit?

The answers to these questions shape everything: the structure, the design, the technology, even the budget. Skipping this step is how you end up with a site that looks nice but doesn't actually help your business.

We've seen projects go off track because the goals were vague from the start. "Improve our online presence" means different things to different stakeholders. Getting specific early, even if it feels premature, saves a lot of rework later. A clear goal like "help potential clients understand our services and contact us" gives everyone something concrete to design towards.

Know your audience before you design anything

Your website isn't for you. It's for the people who'll use it. That might be potential customers, donors, members, or the general public. The more you understand about them, the better decisions you'll make about everything from navigation to tone of voice.

We always start by asking: who are the main types of people visiting this site, and what are they trying to accomplish? If you can't answer that clearly, it's worth spending time on it before moving forward.

When we worked on the National Legal Aid project, the audience included people in crisis situations who needed information quickly, often in languages other than English. That understanding shaped every decision, from the information architecture to the reading level of the content to the multilingual support. A different audience would have led to a completely different site.

Content first, design second

One of the most common mistakes we see is designing a site before the content exists. You end up with beautiful layouts filled with placeholder text, and when the real content goes in, nothing fits properly. Headlines are too long, sections are too short, and the whole thing feels forced.

You don't need every word finalised before design starts, but you should know what pages you need, what the key messages are, and roughly how much content each section will have. This gives your designer and developer something real to work with.

If writing content feels overwhelming, start with an outline. What are the main things you want to communicate? What questions do your customers ask most often? What do your competitors say that you could say better? Even rough answers to these questions are more useful than lorem ipsum.

Pick the right technology for the job

There's no single "best" technology for building websites. WordPress is great for content-heavy sites managed by non-technical teams. A headless CMS with a modern framework suits projects where performance and flexibility are priorities. A custom-built application might be the right call for something with complex functionality.

The right choice depends on your specific needs, who's maintaining the site, and what your budget looks like. Be wary of anyone who recommends the same technology for every project. If a studio only builds in one platform, they'll recommend that platform regardless of whether it's the best fit for you.

Budget for the ongoing costs

A website isn't a one-off expense. There's hosting, domain registration, SSL certificates, CMS subscriptions, and maintenance. Content needs updating. Security patches need applying. Analytics need monitoring.

Make sure you understand what the ongoing costs look like before you commit to a platform or approach. A site that's cheap to build but expensive to maintain isn't really cheap. We've seen organisations get caught out by this, especially with WordPress sites where plugin licences, security monitoring, and managed hosting add up to more than they expected.

Ask your development partner to lay out the full cost picture, not just the build cost. Any good partner will be upfront about this.

Common mistakes we see

• Trying to say everything on the homepage. Your homepage should communicate who you are, what you do, and what the visitor should do next. Everything else can live on inner pages. Overloaded homepages overwhelm visitors and increase bounce rates.
• Ignoring mobile. More than half of web traffic comes from phones. Your site needs to work well on small screens, not just technically function but actually be pleasant to use. Test on real devices, not just by resizing your browser.
• Skipping SEO fundamentals. Page titles, meta descriptions, heading structure, page speed. These basics matter more than any clever SEO trick. Get them right from the start rather than trying to retrofit them later.
• Launching without testing. Test your forms. Test your site on different browsers and devices. Have someone outside your team try to complete the main tasks. Fresh eyes catch things that the team has gone blind to.
• Not planning for content updates. If your team can't easily update the site after launch, it'll go stale quickly. Make sure whoever is responsible for content has the tools and the knowledge to keep things current.

What to look for in a development partner

If you're hiring a studio or freelancer, look for people who ask good questions before they start talking about solutions. Anyone who jumps straight to a proposal without understanding your business is guessing.

Ask to see previous work that's similar to what you need. Ask about their process. Ask what happens after launch, because the relationship shouldn't end when the site goes live. And make sure you feel comfortable communicating with them, because a website project involves a lot of back and forth. You can browse our case studies to see how we approach different kinds of projects.

If you're thinking about starting a project and want to talk through your options, get in touch. We're always happy to have that conversation.