A new website usually starts with a feeling: the current one no longer reflects the business. The services have changed, the work is better than the portfolio suggests, or making a simple update has become a job in itself.
Before choosing layouts, it helps to decide what the new website needs to achieve. Website design and development work best when they start with your audience, your content and the next step you want someone to take.
I’m Neil Foulkes, a freelance website designer and WordPress developer working with businesses in Liverpool, the North West and across the UK. Here’s what I suggest thinking through before you commission a new site.
Start with the questions your customers ask
Your visitors arrive with a task. They might be comparing providers, checking whether you offer a particular service or looking for evidence that you understand their sector.
Write down the questions you hear in early conversations with prospective customers. What do they need to know before they enquire? What makes them hesitate? Which parts of your service are hardest to explain?
Those answers help shape the navigation, service pages and supporting content. For example, a business offering several specialist services may need a clear page for each, supported by relevant project examples. Putting everything into one long page can make it harder for visitors to find the detail that matters to them.
Understand what design and development each contribute
Website design brings together the structure, layout, typography, imagery and interactions. It determines how your business is presented and how people move through the content.
Development turns those decisions into a working website. It covers how pages are built, how content is managed and how features behave across different screen sizes.
The two need to be considered together. A striking project layout is more useful when you can add your next project without rebuilding the page. A clear enquiry route needs links and forms that work as expected on a phone as well as a desktop.
My website design and WordPress development service brings these decisions into one process, with a direct conversation between you and the person designing and building your site.
Plan the content before the layouts are final
A design needs real material to work with. Your services, project descriptions, photographs and contact information all affect how much space a page needs and what visitors notice first.
You don’t need every sentence finished before getting started, but it helps to gather:
- A clear description of your main services and who they are for.
- Selected projects, with your role and the work involved explained.
- Suitable photographs, screenshots or other supporting imagery.
- Customer questions and any genuine testimonials you have permission to use.
- The action you want visitors to take on each important page.
For a service business, the enquiry route deserves particular attention. “Contact us” may be enough in the navigation, but a relevant invitation within a service page gives someone a reason to get in touch.
Think about the website you will need to edit
Ask which content you will manage yourself. That might include adding projects, updating team details, publishing articles or changing service descriptions.
WordPress can provide editing controls for these tasks, but they need to be planned around the site. A useful handover should make the everyday jobs clear: where to edit, how to prepare images and what to check before publishing.
When reviewing a proposal, ask what is included in the build and which future changes would need development work. That avoids assuming every part of a bespoke layout will be freely adjustable.
Include search visibility in the brief
If customers search for your services, the website should explain those services clearly. Descriptive page headings, useful copy and links between related pages give visitors a more coherent route through the site.
For an existing website, make a record of the current URLs before changing the structure. Discuss which addresses will stay and how any replaced pages will be handled. A redesign should include a plan for existing content and links.
I also offer SEO support for reviewing search visibility and prioritising improvements. It is worth agreeing the scope early rather than assuming ongoing SEO is automatically included in a website build.
Agree what happens after launch
Launch should come with a clear handover and an agreed route for ongoing help. Confirm who manages the hosting, who looks after WordPress updates and how future requests will be handled.
You may want to manage content yourself while arranging WordPress hosting and support for the technical side. The right arrangement depends on your website and the time available within your business.
Planning a website for your business?
Whether you’re starting something new or replacing a website you’ve outgrown, I can help you work through the structure, design and development. You can explore my selected work or tell me about your website project.