Checklist before you have a new website built

Having a new website built goes faster and better when you line up a number of things beforehand. Much of the delay in web projects comes from missing copy, photos that still have to be taken or a domain name for which nobody has the login details. This checklist helps you come to the table prepared.

Goal and audience

Start with the question of what the website needs to deliver. The most common goals for an SME are:

quote requests or appointments
online sales
job applications
trust among customers who already got to know you another way

Choose one main goal and at most one or two secondary goals. That goal determines the structure of every page.

Then describe who the site is for. Who is your typical customer, what question do they have when they visit your site and what do they need to know before they get in touch? Consumers and businesses look for different information. Write it down in a few sentences per audience.

Supplying content

Content is the work that is most often underestimated. Prepare the following in advance:

a list of your services or products with a short description of each
who each service is for and what the customer gains from it
how you work: the steps from first contact to delivery
the questions customers ask you most often, with your answers
proof: references, accreditations, certificates, reviews
practical details: address, opening hours, service area, VAT number

If you write the copy yourself, agree on a date by which it will be ready. If you have it written, set aside time for a conversation in which the writer gets to know your business.

Photos and imagery

Your own imagery makes the difference between a site that looks like every other one and a site that shows your business. Think of photos of your team, your workshop or office, your work at customers' premises and your products.

Plan a photo shoot before the build starts. That way the design can take your real images into account. For existing photos, check whether you have the rights to use them. If you have a brand identity, supply the logo in vector format, the colour codes and the typefaces.

Domain name and email

Check who manages your domain name. According to DNS Belgium, you always register a .be domain name through a registrar and only your registrar can change your contact details. Make sure the domain name is registered in the name of your company and that you have access to its management yourself. If it is in the name of a former web developer or an ex-employee, sort that out first.

Your email is often tied to the same domain name. When you move hosting, your email can be interrupted if the move is not well prepared. Make a list of all email addresses in use and ask your developer how the switch will work.

Legal: privacy, cookies and accessibility

Every SME website that processes personal data through a form, a newsletter or statistics falls under the GDPR. Provide at least:

a privacy statement that explains which data you collect, why and how long you keep it
a cookie banner that complies with the rules of the Data Protection Authority
a properly secured connection for your forms

The cookie checklist of the Data Protection Authority is concrete on this. Cookies that are not strictly necessary may only be placed after consent. Next to the button to accept everything, the same layer must have a button to refuse. Pre-ticked boxes are not allowed. Withdrawing consent must be as easy as giving it. The DPA considers a retention period of 6 months for cookie preferences reasonable in principle.

If you sell online to consumers, also take accessibility into account. According to the FPS Economy, since 28 June 2025 websites and apps among others must be usable for people with a visual, auditory or motor impairment. Micro-enterprises get five extra years.

Analytics and visibility

Agree beforehand on what you want to measure and how. At least the number of forms, clicks on your phone number and the pages through which visitors arrive. Also ask for access to the analytics environment in the name of your own company, so that your data is not lost if you later change developer.

More and more people put their questions to an AI service. According to the imec.digimeter 2025, the share of active users of generative AI in Flanders rose to 43 percent. Google states in its documentation on AI features that there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews: your page must be indexed and eligible for a regular search result.

For your new site that means:

important information as readable text on the page
a clear page per service with concrete answers to your customers' questions
structured data that matches what is on the page
an up to date business profile with the same name, address and phone number as on your site
for a new site: redirects from old addresses to the new pages

What you can do now

Write down the main goal and the audience of your website on one page.
Check who manages your domain name, your hosting and your analytics environment and make sure everything is in the name of your company.
Gather your copy, photos and brand identity files in one folder before you request a quote.

We build websites from Ghent for SMEs across Flanders. You can read more about our approach on our websites page. Would you like a thorough check of how your business appears in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google? Our sister agency hetgeobureau.be carries out the free AI analysis.