Look, we need to have a heart-to-heart about web development. I’m tired of clients being shocked, shocked!, that building a website requires their input. “I didn’t realize how much you’d need from me!” Yeah, well, it’s your website. We’re not mind readers, and we’re definitely not building your digital presence based on vibes and wishful thinking.
So here’s the deal: this is your comprehensive guide to what we actually need from you when you hire us for web development, and what you can realistically expect in return. Consider this your reality check and roadmap rolled into one.
The Visionary Problem (And Why It’s Costing You Money)
We love working with visionaries. Really, we do. Your grand ideas and big-picture thinking are exactly why your business has potential. But here’s where things go sideways: having a vision without actionable direction is like hiring a contractor to build your dream house and then just pointing at the sky saying “make it beautiful.”
When every conversation is filled with theoretical frameworks and expansive possibilities. When I ask for specific copy for the homepage headline, I get a 20-minute explanation about market disruption and paradigm shifts. When I need to know what services to highlight on the services page, I get a dissertation on their business philosophy.
Here’s the thing: I ended up having to spend extra hours working just to extract actionable items from these philosophical discussions because nothing he provided could be directly implemented. And guess who’s paying for all that extra time? Hint: it’s not us.
The bottom line: Grand vision + zero actionable direction = expensive project that takes forever.
What We Actually Need From You (Be Specific or Pay More)
Let’s cut through the fluff and get to the nitty-gritty. When we ask for something, we’re not trying to make your life difficult. We’re trying to build exactly what you want without playing twenty questions.
Content That’s Actually Usable
Page Headlines and Titles: Not “something catchy about what we do,” but the actual words you want displayed. Write them out. “Expert Marketing Solutions for Growing Businesses” is actionable. “Something that captures our innovative approach” is not.
Body Copy: We need your actual service descriptions, your company story, your value propositions. In writing. Finalized. Not “just put something there for now, we’ll figure it out later.” Later never comes, and placeholder text looks unprofessional.
Contact Information: This should be obvious, but you’d be surprised. Full address, phone numbers, email addresses, business hours, social media handles, everything you want displayed, formatted exactly how you want it to appear.
Visual Direction That Makes Sense
Color Preferences: Give us hex codes or at least point to existing materials. “I like blue” isn’t helpful when there are roughly 50,000 shades of blue.
Logo and Branding Materials: High-resolution files in the formats we request. Not a screenshot from your Facebook page.
Inspiration Examples: Show us 3-5 websites you genuinely like. Tell us specifically what you like about them. “This layout feels clean” or “I love how they showcase their services” gives us something to work with.
Image Requirements: If you want specific types of photos, source them or tell us exactly what to look for. “Some nice pictures” translates to us spending billable hours hunting through stock photo libraries.
Functional Requirements
User Flow: How do you want visitors to move through your site? What’s the primary action you want them to take? Secondary actions? Map it out.
Forms and Features: What information do you need to collect? How should inquiries be handled? Do you need appointment booking, quote requests, newsletter signups?
Integration Needs: Email marketing platforms, CRMs, payment processors, social media feeds, tell us upfront what needs to connect to what.
The “Building It Yourself” Myth
Here’s a conversation I have way too often:
Client: “But I thought you were going to handle all of this!”
Us: “We are handling it. We’re building your entire website. But we need you to tell us what content you want on it.”
Client: “But that means I have to build it myself!”
No. No, it doesn’t. It means you have to participate in creating your own business presence. We handle all the technical stuff, the coding, the design implementation, the responsiveness, the optimization, the security, the hosting setup. But your content? Your messaging? Your business information? That comes from you.
Think of it like hiring an interior designer. They’ll handle space planning, furniture selection, color coordination, and implementation. But they still need to know if you prefer contemporary or traditional style, what your lifestyle looks like, and what your budget is. They’re not going to guess whether you want a home office or a playroom.
Timeline Reality Check
Week 1-2: Discovery and Planning
This is when we need most of your input. Content, visual direction, functional requirements, front-load this phase with everything we’ve outlined above. The more complete your input here, the smoother everything else goes.
Week 3-6: Design and Development
We’re heads-down building. You’ll see progress updates and have specific opportunities to review and provide feedback. But this isn’t the time to completely change direction or remember features you forgot to mention.
Week 7-8: Testing and Refinement
Final tweaks, bug fixes, and optimization. Minor content changes are fine. Major overhauls are not.
Week 9: Launch
Your site goes live. Congratulations, you have a professional web presence.
What Costs Extra (And Why)
We bill for inefficiency caused by unclear direction. Here’s what triggers additional charges:
Excessive Revision Cycles: If we’re on the fourth round of “that’s not quite what I had in mind” without getting clearer direction, that’s billable time.
Scope Creep: “Oh, I forgot we need an online store” halfway through development is a whole new project, not a small addition.
Emergency Rush Jobs: Suddenly needing everything done by next week because you have a trade show costs more than planned timeline development.
Hand-Holding: If we’re spending hours extracting basic information through multiple calls and emails, those are billable hours.
What You Can Expect From Us
Professional Execution: Clean code, responsive design, fast loading times, and SEO-friendly structure. We handle all the technical complexity so you don’t have to think about it.
Regular Communication: Project updates, milestone completions, and heads-up if we’re waiting on something from you.
Quality Testing: Your site works properly across devices and browsers before it goes live.
Training: We’ll show you how to update content, add blog posts, or make minor changes yourself.
Support: Post-launch technical support and maintenance options to keep everything running smoothly.
The Successful Client Formula
Our best projects happen when clients come prepared. They’ve thought through their content, gathered their materials, and can make decisions promptly. They understand that good web development is collaborative, not transactional.
These clients see their websites as investments in their business growth. They’re willing to put in the upfront work because they understand that clear direction early saves both time and money down the road.
Making This Work for Everyone
Here’s the deal: we want your project to succeed. When your website performs well, you’re happy, we look good, and everyone wins. But success requires effort from both sides.
You don’t need to become a web developer. You don’t need to understand coding or design principles. You just need to be clear about what you want and responsive when we need input.
We’ll handle everything else: the technical implementation, the design execution, the optimization, and the launch. But we need you to be an active participant in defining what “success” looks like for your specific business.
Think you’re ready to work together effectively? Great. Come prepared with clear direction, and we’ll build you something that actually moves your business forward. Because at the end of the day, that’s what both of us want.
