Before you build a website: 12 things to prepare

Most website projects that run late don't run late because of design or code. They stall while someone waits for the texts, for a logo in a usable format, or for the password to a domain that a former employee registered years ago. We know, because we were the client first. Before we built websites for anyone else, we built one for our family's architecture practice and learned all of this the slow way.

This checklist is what we now ask every client for before we start. It has three parts: decisions only you can make, things you should own in your own name, and the tools worth connecting to the site. You don't need all twelve on the first day. Knowing which ones you have and which you don't is already half of a good brief.

Part 1: Decisions only you can make

1. One goal and one main action

Write one sentence: the site exists so that who can do what. For a dental practice it might be booking a checkup; for a manufacturer, requesting a quote; for a shop, a first order. Every page then earns its place by moving people toward that action, and anything that doesn't can go.

Add how you'll know it works: calls, form inquiries, Viber messages, orders. If you can count it, we can put it in a monthly report. If nobody can say what success looks like, the site ends up judged on taste, and taste is a poor way to run a business.

• The main action, in a few words.
• Who your best customers are and where they are.
• What they type into Google before they find you. Ask five customers; the answers are rarely what you expect.
• Two or three sites you like, and exactly what you like about each one.

2. Content: the page list and the texts

Start with a rough sitemap: one page per service or product group, plus About, Contact and whatever customers ask about every week. One service per page beats one page that lists everything, both for visitors and for search engines, because each page can answer one question well.

Then decide who writes. The facts have to come from you: what you offer, what it costs or roughly costs, how long it takes, where you work and what customers keep asking. We structure and polish the copy in every package, and full copywriting is available per page. What nobody should do is invent your experience. Visitors notice, and so does Google.

Decide on languages now as well. Every language adds pages, translations and its own set of URLs, so it changes both the structure and the price. Adding a language later is possible; planning it in from the start costs less.

3. Photos, logo and brand files

Real photos of your work, your team and your premises beat stock images almost everywhere. Phone photos taken in good daylight are often enough to start. Blurry photos copied from an old website are not.

• Your logo as a vector file (SVG, AI, EPS or PDF), not a screenshot.
• Brand colors and fonts, if you have them.
• Photos in the highest resolution you have, and the right to use them.
• Brochures, price lists and presentations. They often contain half of the copy already.

If you have nothing yet, say so early. A photographer needs a date, outdoor shots need daylight, and a logo takes time. Photography and branding are outside our packages, but we can plan the project around them.

Part 2: Things you should own

4. A domain in your name

The domain is your address on the internet. It should be registered to you or your company, in an account you control: not the agency's, not a former employee's, not a relative's who “knows computers.” A domain costs roughly €10–40 a year, so this isn't about money. It is about control, because whoever holds the domain decides where your website and your email go.

If you already have one, find the login to the registrar account before the project starts. For .rs domains that is a registrar accredited by RNIDS, for .hr a registrar authorized by CARNET, and for .com any registrar. If nobody knows the login, recovering it can take days, so start early.

When we build a site, the domain stays in your name from day one. We only need access to the DNS settings, or you add the records we send you.

5. Email on your own domain

An address like ana@yourcompany.com matches the name on your website, and it stays with the company when people change roles. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are the usual choices, both paid per user per month.

Ask whoever sets it up to add SPF, DKIM and DMARC records. They tell other mail servers that your messages are genuine, so your offers and invoices don't end up in spam. Set this up before launch, because the new site's contact form will send mail on your behalf too.

6. Legal pages and company details

A business website needs a privacy policy that says what you collect and why. An online shop also needs terms of sale, delivery and returns. In Serbia and Croatia, as in the rest of the EU, e-commerce law also asks for basic company details on the site: the registered name, address, registration and tax numbers, and an email address. Ours are in the footer of every page.

Get the texts from your lawyer or accountant, or adapt a reliable template with their help. We provide templates and put the pages in place, but we don't give legal advice. One practical detail: a site that sets no cookies and runs no ad pixels has far less to ask visitors for consent about. This one has no cookie banner for that reason.

Part 3: What to connect, and why

A website works best as the center of a small system. These are the six connections we set up most often, roughly in the order they pay off. In the Kvant Partner approach we set them up and connect them for you, and we tell you which ones aren't worth it for your business. Every account stays in your name.

7. Google Business Profile

For any business with a location or a service area, this is the free listing that shows up on Google Maps and in local results, with your hours, photos and reviews. For searches like “dentist near me,” people often see it before they see your website.

Create or claim it in your own Google account and verify it early. Verification can be done within minutes or can take a few days, sometimes longer. Keep the business name, address and phone number identical on the profile and on the site, word for word.

8. Google Search Console

Search Console is Google's free report on how your site appears in search: which queries show it, which pages get clicks and what is broken. It is the first place you see whether a new site is being indexed properly, and the first place a problem shows up.

We add it at launch and submit the sitemap. The property should belong to your Google account, with us added as a user, so the history stays with you. On a redesign, keep the existing property: months of data are worth more than a clean start.

9. Analytics you will actually read

Analytics tells you where visitors come from and what they do. GA4 is free and powerful, but it uses cookies, which usually means asking for consent. Cookieless tools such as Vercel Web Analytics count visits without identifying anyone. We use them on our own sites.

Whichever you choose, agree on a handful of numbers that matter: inquiries, calls, Viber and WhatsApp taps, orders. Everything else is background. It's also how we know our own results. On projektikuce.rs, our family practice's site, analytics shows exactly how many visitors came from Google and how many ChatGPT sent:

10. Viber, WhatsApp and social profiles

In Serbia and across the region, many customers would rather send a message than fill in a form or call. A Viber or WhatsApp button opens a chat with your number in one tap. Use a business number rather than a personal one, and agree on who answers and how fast. This is what it looks like on our site:

Treat social profiles the same way: the same business name, logo and link on every network you actually use. A profile whose last post is three years old does more harm than no profile at all. We connect the ones you keep and set up the preview image and text your links show when someone shares them.

11. Payments, if you sell online

If customers pay on the site, the payment gateway has the longest lead time of anything on this list. In Serbia, card payments usually run through your bank's merchant agreement with a provider such as AllSecure or NestPay. In Croatia, CorvusPay and WSPay are common. For international sales, Stripe. Cash on delivery is still popular in the region and needs no gateway at all. More on this on our e-commerce page.

Start the merchant application as soon as you decide to sell online. Banks review the business, the site and the terms of sale, and approval can take weeks. We integrate and test the gateway, but the contract is between you and the bank.

12. A CRM and a newsletter

Every inquiry should land in one place that someone checks daily, not in five inboxes. For a small business that can be a shared mailbox. Once several people sell, a CRM such as HubSpot, Pipedrive or Zoho keeps each lead, its source and the next step in one record.

A newsletter is worth it when you have something to say regularly and customers who buy more than once. Collect addresses only with clear consent, and connect the signup form directly to your newsletter tool, such as Brevo or Mailchimp, so nobody copies addresses by hand.

Who does what

What to start first

Some items take a day, others take weeks, and not because anyone is slow. If you are planning a site for next season, start these now:

1. The domain and the registrar login. Recovering a lost account or transferring a domain can take days.
2. The merchant agreement for card payments. Bank review can take weeks.
3. Google Business Profile verification. Usually quick, not always.
4. Photos. A photographer needs a date, and outdoor shots need good weather.
5. Texts. The single most common reason a launch date slips.

Everything else we can set up during the build, in parallel with design and code. The launch date goes into the contract either way; see our pricing for timelines by package.

Your checklist

Tick what you already have. Your ticks stay in this browser only. When you're done, you can email us the list as it stands, and we'll reply with what we would do next.

Why we ask for all of this

A classic agency takes the payment, delivers a website and leaves the rest to you. We work differently because we sat on your side of the table first. Our own site only started bringing in clients once it was connected to search, analytics and messaging, and once someone kept reading the numbers and writing the next article. That ongoing part is what we mean by a partner, and it is why an SEO plan exists at all.