How to prepare website content before development starts
Half of all web development delays come from waiting on content from the client. Gather this minimum before the project starts and the timeline holds.
Why it matters
Designers and developers work with real content, not lorem ipsum placeholder text — otherwise the layout breaks once your actual copy goes in: headlines overflow, photos crop badly, blocks look empty. Fixes at that stage cost 2-3 times more than fixes at the mockup stage.
The rule is simple: content gets collected before design starts, not in parallel with development. If content isn't ready by the deadline, the timeline slips by exactly however long it took to gather it.
Copy by section
The minimum per page: a headline, a short meta description, the main body copy, and three to five bullet points of benefits or services. Don't write final copy right away — draft the key points, let the developer build with those, and polish the wording later without risking the schedule.
Separately collect: the company's legal name, footer details, an exact service list with prices or price ranges, business hours, and branch addresses.
Photos and visuals
Photos of the team, office, work process or finished projects — at least 15-20, high resolution (2000px+ on the long side). Stock photos work at launch, but only real shots of your business build recognition and trust.
The logo needs to exist as vector (SVG or AI), not just a PNG pulled from a competitor's site or a Word document — otherwise it will look blurry on large screens and in print materials.
Structure and priorities
Build a sitemap: the list of pages and what belongs on each one. Flag which pages are critical for launch and which can be added afterward — this lets the dev team start on what matters without waiting for the full set.
Write down the three main actions you want a visitor to take on each key page: submit a lead form, call, or message on Telegram. Without this the designer places buttons by intuition rather than by your sales funnel.
Who owns the collection
Assign one person on your side to own content — not the whole team, one person with direct access to the rest of the staff to gather data. Split responsibility is the most common client-caused cause of delay.
Set up a shared Google Drive folder structured by site section and share the link with the developer immediately, even half-filled: they'll start on what's ready while you finish the rest.