What to have ready before you ask anyone for a website quote

Two enquiries arrive the same morning. One says "I need a website, how much?" The other says "I run a physio practice, I get ten calls a day asking for prices, I want people to book online, here is my current site and three I like." The second person gets a sharper quote, a faster build and a site that does the job. The difference is twenty minutes at the kitchen table.

None of what follows needs technical knowledge. All of it changes what you end up with.

What the site is for

Not "to have a website". One job, in one sentence. More calls from people searching on Google. Fewer calls asking the same questions. Online bookings. Thirty products sold. Looking credible enough for a €2,000 commission. Pick the main one, because it decides the structure of the whole site, and tell us the second one too. If you are not sure the site has a job at all, the three questions in this post settle it in a minute.

Who is going to visit

Describe your typical customer the way you would describe them to a friend. Age, roughly. Local or from abroad. On a phone during a lunch break or at a desk with time to compare. Which language they would rather read. "locals in their thirties who found me on Instagram" and "retired couples from the Netherlands planning a summer holiday" need very different sites.

What you already have

A domain name, and who it is registered with. A current site, if there is one, and what you dislike about it. A logo and brand colours, even rough ones. Access to your Google Business Profile, as a manager; nobody needs your password. Photos, with an honest opinion of their quality. Text you have already written, even if it is a Word document from 2019. Starting from your material always beats starting from a blank page.

Three sites you like, and why

They do not have to be in your industry. Say what you like about each one: the colours, the calm, the big photos, the booking button that is always in view. This saves more time than anything else on the list, because it tells us what "nice" means to you before anything gets built. It also protects you from the default look every tool produces when nobody says otherwise.

Your pages, roughly

Write down the pages you think you need, one sentence each. For most small businesses it is five or six: home, services or products, about, prices or how it works, contact, maybe a gallery. If you cannot decide whether something is a page or a section, say so. Over-long lists are a good sign. Cutting is the easy part.

Who writes the words, who takes the pictures

This question delays more websites than any technical problem. The build is finished and then the site waits months for the text. Decide now: will you write it yourself, or does it need to be written from a conversation with you? Either works, as long as it is decided. Are the photos good enough, or does someone need an afternoon with a camera? A site with great design and placeholder text goes live on nobody's schedule.

Budget and date

Tell us the range you have in mind and whether there is a date it has to be live by. Neither is embarrassing. A clear number lets us say plainly what fits inside it and what does not, instead of guessing in both directions. A date lets us say yes or no before anyone has invested time. If you want to know what separates a cheap quote from a proper one, this post is the one to read first.

Before the first call
○ The one job the site must do, in a sentence:
○ Who visits, in a sentence:
○ Domain name and where it's registered:
○ Current site, if any, and what I dislike about it:
○ Logo, colours, photos, old text, Google Business access:
○ Three sites I like, and why:
○ My pages, roughly:
○ Who writes the text, who takes the photos:
○ Budget range and a date, if there is one:

What happens next

You tell us what you do, in a short call or a few messages. You get a fixed quote, a price and a date in plain language, for free. We build and you watch the site take shape, with two rounds of changes included. Then it goes live, we make sure Google can find it, and we stay around for whatever comes next. The better the list above, the shorter the first step and the more accurate the second.