As a website designer, it has been my experience that my clients are rarely prepared for the creation of their website. Nearly all of my clients ask me how fast I can have the website done, and I usually give them a flaky answer because the truth is, I really have no idea.

Typically, I get a phone call, an upfront payment and a demand that the website HAS to be done in no more than 4 weeks. I agree, start the website right away, create the design over the course of a couple of days, send it over for approval, and 3 months later I have yet to receive any content for the website from my client.

Since this is increasingly the case in my experience, I think it would be helpful for me to outline what information you should come to your website designer with so that the process can go as smoothly and quickly as possible:

1. Know how many pages your website will need and what will be on each page.

2. Know what special functions your website will need (i.e. email forms, content management, special scripts, photo galleries, etc.)

3. Prepare all of the text for your website pages in a word document and email it to your designer. We designers and programmers are not secretaries and do not like to spend hours re-typing your text into your website from a sheet of paper.

4. If your website needs e-commerce capabilities, make sure you have a list of your products to sell, photos of your products, prices for the products, descriptions and titles of products, and know what and how you want to charge for shipping, sales tax, etc.

5. Do not wait until the last minute to sign up for any services that you might need for your website, i.e. Paypal, or another credit card processing service. It can take days to process applications and it can cause delays in your website’s launch date.

Follow these rules, and you will not only make the process go a lot quicker, but you will also avoid spending more money than you were prepared to spend. I have had many clients who have doubled the cost of their website from the initial proposal just because they forgot they needed this page, or decided they wanted this function. It takes time to go back and make changes and re-work things, so if you come prepared from the start you will avoid extra charges for change requests.

Another tip: ASK QUESTIONS! Website designers and programmers do not expect you to understand everything about building a website. If you did, you wouldn’t need us. I am always glad to explain things to people, and I’m sure most designers would be. That way the client can make informed decisions about their website and the money they are spending.

I have come to realize that people underestimate the amount of work they will need to do to help create their website, the amount of decision making involved, and the time it will take for them to sit down and think about what the final product needs to be. So before you take the plunge, come prepared! That way your 5 page website won’t take 6 months to complete.