How I prepare content for a website.

To build your website, I require the following items to be supplied to me, as mentioned on my prices page:

• A company logo.

• A list of pages you want your website to include.

• Content for those pages.

I need these things to give you a quote. So, it is essential to prepare these items before a website build commences, and I am more than happy to help you do this via my 'Sitemap creation support' service, which you can find details about on my prices page.

However, if you have decided to go it alone and prepare these items yourself, I will describe to you now the process I took to create this website so that you know where to start.

Company logo.

At the very least, you will need a company logo. I will use this to inform me of the design I will create for your new website. If appropriate, I will expand upon this logo design with fonts, colours and additional assets. If you have a complete identity design and brand guide, even better! You can supply that to me, and I will handle the rest.

My logo design:

Just to let you know, I designed the logo and brand identity for this website. However, I am not currently providing brand identity design as a professional service. Having said all that, please don't hesitate to ask if you require any assistance with logo design. I'll do everything I can to help you.

A list of website pages and content.

I've combined these two items on the list because you will definitely find yourself working on them simultaneously. One will inform the other. Let me explain with a general example of how I usually create a list of pages and content for a website.

First, I make an initial guess on the website pages I think I will need, and then I write the page headings down as a simple list with bullet points.

Something like this:

• Home page
• About page
• Services page
• FAQ page
• Contact page

Then, I start writing my content on my word processor and title each document with the corresponding website page heading. As I continue writing and editing the content for each page, I consider breaking up longer written copy into smaller chunks and placing them on separate pages for better clarity.

My list now might start looking more like this:

• Home page
• About page
  • Staff page
  • Awards page
• Services page
  • Service No. 1 page
  • Service No. 2 page
  • Service No. 3 page
• FAQ page
• Contact page

As you can see, some pages have become sub-pages within a parent page; this is good, as I want to keep my main navigation consisting of as few links as possible. The smaller the main navigation, the better!

• First level (main navigation)
• First level (main navigation)
  • Second level (sub-page)
  • Second level (sub-page)
• First level (main navigation)
  • Second level (sub-page)
  • Second level (sub-page)
  • Second level (sub-page)
• First level (main navigation)
• First level (main navigation)

Also, sub-pages are best being at most one level deep. So that is parent > child but no deeper! In relation, Squarespace only offers the ability to put sub-pages as deep as one level. I believe this is intentional as, like me, they may feel any deeper than one level constitutes bad user interface design.

At the end of the process, I should have a list of pages, which is effectively a website site map of sorts and content for my website pages. A couple of things to finish off with.

Hiring a copywriter.

I wrote the copy for this website because I know my subject, but I won't know yours; I am not a professional copywriter. If you are uncomfortable writing copy for yourself, consider hiring a copywriter to help you.

However, like me, if you know your subject and are prepared to give it a shot, it can be very satisfying. Plus, there are lots of writing assistance tools, such as Grammarly and others out there, that can help. Go for it! You might surprise yourself.

My sitemap creation support service.

As mentioned earlier, If this all seems overwhelming, don't worry. I am here to help and offer a standalone service for doing just that. You can find out more about it on my prices page.

Summary.

However you get this done, once you have your company logo, list of website pages and content, I can quote and build your website. I can't wait, so get in touch and let us discuss how we can start today!