How to Order a Website for Your Business: A Step-by-Step Guide for First-Timers

If you've never ordered a website before, it's easy to feel lost: it's not clear where to start, who to reach out to, or how to tell whether the price or timeline you're being quoted is fair. Here's a straightforward, step-by-step plan with no jargon.

Step 1. Decide what job the website needs to do

Before you reach out to anyone, answer this for yourself: does the site need to take leads, showcase a portfolio, sell products online, or something else? This determines both the site's structure and who you should be looking for to build it.

Step 2. Prepare the basic materials in advance

• Description of your services or products — even a rough draft works, you can always refine it together with your developer.
• Logo and brand colors — if you already have them. If not, these can be created together with the website.
• Photos or work samples — real ones rather than stock photos, if at all possible.
• Contact info — where leads should go: Telegram, email, phone number.

Step 3. Choose who to order from

There are usually three options: a beginner freelancer, an independent studio (one person or a small team that runs the project start to finish), or a large agency. For a small business, an independent studio is often the sweet spot: the same personal contact with the person doing the work as with a freelancer, but with a more reliable process and accountability for the result.

Step 4. Ask direct questions before you start

• Exactly what's included in the price, and what's billed separately (domain, hosting)?
• How long will the work take, and what could affect the timeline?
• How many rounds of revisions are included?
• Who will you be in touch with during the project — the same person from start to finish?

Step 5. Agree on the structure before the design

Before moving on to how the site looks, it's worth locking down which pages or sections it will have, and in what order. This saves time for both sides — it's much easier to edit a text outline than to redo a finished design.

Step 6. Check the finished site before launch

Open the site on your phone and on a computer, check that the lead form actually sends messages, and that every link goes where it should. Only after that does it make sense to move on to publishing on your permanent domain.