My web design process, step by step: from first call to launch

My web design process has eight steps, from the first conversation to the day your site goes live. You approve the visual identity and the page layouts before anything is built, then the finished site before launch, so nothing rests on a guess and the big decisions are settled while they are still cheap to change.

The aim behind every step is simple: I want my clients to look good. I want their prospects to be a little intimidated by the website, so that the business is taken seriously. It also cuts down on negotiation: if a prospect thinks you are not that respectable, they will not think you are worth that price.

Below, I go through each step: what happens, what I need from you and where you approve. If you are still choosing a platform or setting a budget, start with my guide to small business websites.

My web design process at a glance

Your part is heaviest at the start. After step 3, most of the work is mine.

Step 1: questions about your business, your offer and your clients

Every project starts with questions about the company: what it does, what it offers and which type of clients it prefers working with. The last question shapes everything else. A plumber in Leeds who wants contracts with letting agents needs a different site from one who lives on emergency call-outs: other pages, other photos, other words.

Then I advise, based on what you want, what you need and my experience. Two decisions usually come out of this first conversation.

Who will edit the site. This decides the platform. Owners who make their own changes get Squarespace, because they can edit it without the layout falling apart. Clients who would rather pay for changes, every month or now and then, can have a custom-coded site. My Squarespace vs WordPress comparison explains why I steer solo owners away from WordPress.

How focused the offer is. Of the five websites I have built for Pilotech’s founder, one did not work at all: it offered too many services and was too broad. The one that ranks sells very specific services. If your offer is broad, this is the moment to decide what the site leads with.

Step 2: a visual identity you approve before anything else

Once I have your answers, I have a rough idea of what the site needs. I browse a lot of design libraries for the visual identity, create one for your business and show it to you. If something is off, I edit it.

A visual identity is the set of colours, typefaces, logo and image style that makes a business recognisable at a glance. It comes first because it is what visitors judge first. In a study published in 2006, people rated the visual appeal of web pages shown for only 50 milliseconds, and those ratings closely matched the ones the same pages received when shown for 500 milliseconds (Lindgaard and colleagues, Behaviour & Information Technology). In other words, the look of a site is judged before a single word is read.

Photos come in at this stage too. I need your pictures: your work, your premises, your team. If you have none, I generate or buy them. What makes a prospect take a site seriously, from photos to proof, is the subject of how to make your website look professional.

Step 3: page layouts built around how your visitors decide

Then I do the same with design libraries, this time for the right UX templates: the layout of each page, meaning what sits where and in what order.

UX, short for user experience, is how easily a visitor finds what they came for and takes the next step, such as calling you or sending a form. For a service business, that comes down to practical choices: a phone number visitors can tap on a mobile, proof such as reviews or past projects near the contact form, and a page for each main service rather than one long list.

I show you the layouts and edit them if needed. Once you approve them along with the identity, the design is confirmed. Everything after this point is built on that approval, so this is the moment to look closely and say what bothers you.

Step 4: SEO research and copywriting

With the design confirmed, I focus on SEO research and copywriting, in that order. The words on each page should match what your future clients type into Google or ask an AI assistant, so the research comes before the writing.

I use AI deep research for two things: finding what people in your niche complain about the most, which gives the copy its angle, and spotting which keywords keep coming back. I then check those keywords in Semrush, along with what they cost in ads. The searches advertisers pay for show which keywords bring in business, and I target them with SEO rather than paying for every click. The method is in my guide to keyword research for small businesses.

Each service page is then written around the search it should rank for, and every page tells the visitor what to do next.

Step 5: building the site with AI, then editing until it is right

Then I bring everything together: the identity, the layouts and the copy. Since AI arrived, this part has completely changed and my delivery times have shrunk. I use AI to assemble the site and iterate on it, and I keep editing the copy and the pages until I am satisfied with both.

The time AI saves does not go into doing less. It sometimes lets me look for additional solutions for a client and build something more complete. AI drafts still need a firm edit, or they sound like everyone else’s: I explain how I edit them in my guide on how to make AI writing sound human.

On Squarespace, I usually add some custom code. Clients can call me for that part, and I keep it to additions that never get in the way of what they edit themselves.

Step 6: presenting the site and making your changes

I present the site to you and make changes based on what you say. Up to three rounds of changes are included. In practice, we never get to three, because you confirmed the design before I built anything.

Requests that come after you have confirmed the design, such as a new page or a feature nobody planned, are paid extras. That is what keeps the price fixed for everything we agreed.

Step 7: metadata and SEO articles, prepared before launch

Once you are happy with the site, I take care of the metadata and prepare some SEO articles in advance.

Metadata is what search engines and AI assistants read about a page beyond its visible text: the page title and the description that usually appear in search results, and the alt text that describes each image. I write it at this stage because it has to match the final pages. It matters more than people think: a Squarespace site I built for Pilotech ranks first or second on Google, with the metadata and the keywords done right, even though Squarespace gives less technical control than a custom-coded site. My on-page SEO checklist lists what to set on every page.

The articles are written before launch so the site goes live with more than its service pages: answers to the questions your clients ask, ready for Google to find.

Step 8: connecting the domain and going live

Last, I connect the website to its domain, or to all of its domains if you own several (the .co.uk and the .com, for example), and we publish.

Connecting a domain means adding a few DNS records at your registrar, the company where the domain is registered, such as Namecheap, Spaceship or OVH. For a Squarespace site with a domain registered elsewhere, the records look like this at the time of writing (October 2026):

Type    Host            Value
A       @               198.185.159.144
A       @               198.185.159.145
A       @               198.49.23.144
A       @               198.49.23.145
CNAME   www             ext-cust.squarespace.com
CNAME   [unique code]   verify.squarespace.com

Squarespace shows the exact values, including your unique code, in its domain settings. Its help page on third-party domains says the changes take 24 to 48 hours to apply, sometimes up to 72.

The only trap I have hit is a single dot. On OVH, a CNAME that points to a domain name must end with a dot (ext-cust.squarespace.com.), otherwise OVH adds your own domain to the end and the record breaks. My tutorial on how to connect an OVH domain to Squarespace shows each field, and my guide to DNS records explains every record type.

From your side, two things matter: access to the account where your domain is registered, and your MX records, which carry your email and should not be touched.

Once a site is live, I use Microsoft Clarity to see where visitors engage, what they came for and which areas make them leave, so I can tell whether the copy, a picture or the layout needs fixing. Since 31 October 2025, Clarity needs a consent signal for visitors in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland (Microsoft’s documentation), so it has to be connected to your cookie banner.

How long the web design process takes, and what slows it down

Building Pilotech’s website took about a month. Pilotech installs air conditioning, heat pumps and ventilation in Paris and the Île-de-France, and its first lead came three weeks after the site went live. One ranking came within a day or two, which is unusual: SEO normally takes much longer. The whole story is in my SEO case study.

AI has shortened my delivery times since. Whoever builds your site, what most often holds a project up is missing information: the answers to the first questions, the photos, access to the domain and your approvals. When they arrive on time, the project moves at the pace of the work.

As for the budget, every website project I take on has a fixed price, with payment options. What drives the cost of a site, whoever builds it, is in my guide to how much a website costs in the UK.

What to prepare before the first call with a web designer

Whoever designs your site, having these ready before the first call speeds up every step above:

1. Your offer: what you sell, and which services matter most.
2. Your preferred clients: who you want more of, and who you would rather not attract.
3. Who will edit the site after launch: you, someone on your team or a specialist.
4. Your photos of your work, your premises and your team, if you have them.
5. Your domain details: access to your registrar account, or the name of whoever holds it.
6. The legal details your site must show. A limited company’s website must display its registered name, registered number, registered office address and the part of the UK where it is registered (GOV.UK). If a form collects personal data, you also need a privacy notice. My guide to website legal notices covers sole traders and France as well.
7. One person who approves the identity, the layouts and the finished site.

If the budget is not there yet, you do not need me for a first website. The same steps work on your own, and my Squarespace tutorial takes you through the build, step by step.