9 Questions Your Website Designer Should Be Asking You When Preparing for a New Website
Author: Marc Hyde Date: December 14, 2024 Read Time: 9 Minutes
Building a website is more than just focusing on design or technical features. A strong website blends strategy, business goals, and user experience. A professional website developer should ask the right questions to ensure your site not only looks great, but functions as a powerful tool for growth.
Here are 9 essential questions your website designer should ask to help you create a strategic and effective website:
1. What’s the Ultimate Goal of the Website?
This is the most fundamental question. Without understanding the primary purpose of your website, a designer can’t align the design, features, and user experience with your business objectives. Are you looking to drive online sales, generate leads, provide information, or build brand awareness? A site built to sell products will have different needs than one designed to educate or serve as a portfolio.
The goal informs everything—from layout to functionality and content strategy. For instance, if your goal is to capture leads, your designer will want to ensure prominent placement for lead capture forms, engaging calls-to-action (CTAs), and seamless integration with your customer relationship management (CRM) system. Without clearly defined goals, the website might miss the mark in supporting your business.
Example:
When Underground Laugh Lounge approached me for a website, they knew exactly what they needed: a streamlined ticket system, e-commerce for merchandise, and ongoing support for show management and customer service. This clarity allowed us to design a site that both met their business objectives and provided an excellent customer experience.
2. What Are the Future Goals of the Website?
An experienced designer doesn’t just think about your immediate needs; they are also forward-thinking for your website. Maybe your current goal is lead generation, but in the future, you plan to launch e-commerce capabilities or build a membership platform. By understanding your long-term goals, your designer can create a flexible, scalable framework that grows with your business, saving you from the need to redesign the site in a year or two.
Additionally, understanding your future goals helps with decisions about the platform, integrations, and the overall structure of your website. For example, if you plan on integrating complex automations or adding advanced features like a blog or client portal, your designer will know how to set up the site to support those future expansions seamlessly.
Example:
Lisa, a food blogger, needed a site update while writing her new cookbook. We designed her site with a future cookbook shop in mind. When the cookbook was ready for sale, her site seamlessly integrated the shop, eliminating the need for a complete redesign later — saving Lisa a ton of time and money.
3. How Are You Currently Collecting and Managing Leads or Clients?
Understanding your current process for managing leads or clients is crucial because your website should support or even improve that process. Whether you’re using a CRM tool, Google Sheets, an email marketing platform, or manually tracking leads through email, your designer needs to know. This allows them to implement or integrate tools directly into your website to streamline and automate the workflow.
For example, if you use a CRM like HubSpot or Salesforce or email marketing software like MailChimp or Kit (formerly ConvertKit), your designer can create forms that automatically feed into your system. This not only reduces manual entry but also improves your ability to track and follow up on leads efficiently.
Example:
For instance, Mike Chapple, better known as Cert Mike, had one goal for his website: to sell more books. Mike uses WuFoo forms for contact requests, but his primary tool for managing leads and clients is MailChimp. What makes Mike’s process stand out is how he segments his email list into 12 certification preparation groups. When someone signs up, they are placed into the group that matches their certification needs, receiving emails tailored to their specific goals. This targeted communication allows Mike to speak directly to the needs of each customer, offering the exact course books that match their certification path—ultimately driving more engagement and sales.
4. How Are You Growing Your Email List?
Email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to engage with your audience, but it all starts with having a growing email list. A good designer will ask you how you’re currently collecting emails and where you’d like to see improvements.
Do you want pop-up forms, embedded sign-up boxes, or perhaps gated content to encourage sign-ups? If you’re already using an email marketing service like Mailchimp or ConvertKit, your designer can ensure that your website is optimized to grow your list and integrates seamlessly with your email marketing campaigns.
Example:
Laura, a gut health and lifestyle influencer, had zero email subscribers when we started. We created a landing page offering a free downloadable resource to attract sign-ups. Her email list has since grown to nearly 3,000 subscribers.
5. What Other Websites Do You Love? Do You Hate?
This question serves as a key insight into your aesthetic preferences and functional priorities. When you provide examples of websites you love, you’re giving your designer a clearer picture of your design style—whether you prefer sleek minimalism or vibrant, dynamic layouts. On the other hand, sharing what you dislike can be equally valuable, as it helps steer the design away from elements that won’t resonate with you or your audience.
This conversation can also spark discussion about features you might not have considered but are essential for your website. Maybe you love how easy it is to navigate one site, or maybe another website’s color scheme is exactly what you envision for your brand. These examples are starting points for your designer to bring your vision to life.
Note From Marc:
Honestly, this is probably THE most important question that I ask every single time. Let’s face it, when someone wants a new website, it’s often because they’ve seen a site that made them think, “Whoa, I want something like that!” And just like the advice that Benjamin Martin gave his son when it was time to fire at the Brits (Mel Gibson in “The Patriot”. . . in case you didn’t know), “Aim small, miss small.” When I, as your website designer, have a small, clear target, the chances of missing the mark drop dramatically. The more specific we can be with what you love (and hate!), the better your website will turn out.
6. What Automations Do You Want Your Website to Do for You?
Automation is a powerful way to streamline your business operations, and your website can play a significant role in this. Your designer should ask about automations you’re using or envision using in the future. Whether it’s sending automatic follow-up emails after someone fills out a form, scheduling blog posts, or even integrating with your billing system, your website can be a productivity tool, not just a static online presence.
Discussing automations early in the design process ensures that the necessary plugins, tools, or third-party services are integrated from the start. This could also influence the choice of platform—some content management systems (CMS) handle automations better than others.
Example:
For Mamma Mangia, we implemented two lead magnets: “7 Essential Italian Recipes” for blog posts and “Cutting Board Care Kit” for product pages, each driving targeted sign-ups. After purchases, customers receive an automated email asking for a review, which is submitted directly through the email and instantly published on the website, ensuring only verified reviews are displayed.
We also automated email segmentation—customers who buy are tagged as “customers,” while those downloading free resources are tagged as “leads.” This allows Mamma Mangia to send tailored promotions and updates to different groups, boosting engagement and conversions
7. When People Look for Your Services Online, What Do They Search For?
This question is critical for crafting a website that’s search engine optimized (SEO) from the ground up. A website that looks beautiful but doesn’t show up in search results won’t bring you the traffic you need. By asking what keywords or phrases your customers use when searching for your services, your designer can ensure the website is optimized for those terms.
A professional designer will collaborate with you to identify high-traffic keywords and incorporate them into your site’s content, URLs, and metadata. This way, you’re not just building a visually appealing site—you’re building one that ranks well on search engines and drives traffic.
Example:
Topping Dental Group wanted to grow their presence in Elkhart and Middlebury. By optimizing their Google My Business profile, adding local service pages, and creating keyword-rich blog content, we increased search result clicks by 3.8x and gained 106 new Google reviews.
8. What Is Something You’ve Always Wanted Your Website to Do That It Currently Doesn’t?
Sometimes, business owners have ideas or dreams about their website that seem out of reach. Maybe you’ve always wanted an interactive calendar, a client portal, or even custom analytics to track conversions. By asking this question, a great designer can explore creative solutions to meet these long held desires.
Even if it seems complex, many website features are more achievable than you might think with the right tools and platform. A forward-thinking designer will work with you to explore what’s possible within your budget and timeline.
Example
At Marquette Manor Baptist Church, we custom-developed a sermon media library that allows users to search 15 years of sermons with ease. We also built a secure member portal where staff can approve or deny access to directories and prayer lists, streamlining membership management.
This solution provided exactly what they needed—a custom, streamlined process to manage membership access securely. By working with me, Marquette Church brought their vision to life, proving that a tailored website can turn seemingly complex ideas into a seamless reality.
9. Do You Plan on Managing the Website Yourself, or Do You Want Ongoing Support?
One of the most important factors in building a website is understanding who will maintain it. If you plan to manage it yourself, your designer should focus on building a site that’s easy to update and navigate. This might mean using a drag-and-drop CMS like WordPress or Squarespace, where you can add new content, update images, and make changes with minimal technical knowledge.
On the other hand, if you’d rather have ongoing support, your designer can offer a maintenance package, ensuring your site remains updated, secure, and optimized while you focus on running your business. This also influences decisions on CMS choice, hosting, and ongoing costs.
Example
Lisa, who signed up for my WordPress Maintenance & Support Plan after her website launched, said it was the best decision. Knowing that her website was in expert hands gave her peace of mind, allowing her to focus on her business while I handle updates and support.
“I hired Marc Hyde Creative to design and engineer my new website several years ago and it was the best decision ever. I’m now on his maintenance plan and I sleep better at night knowing my website is taken care of by a real professional. Whenever I get an email or notification that could potentially take me all day to troubleshoot and hopefully fix, Marc is just one quick message away and I know with full confidence that he’ll take care of it (correctly!). If you’re on the fence about it, just think of it as an annual cost and see if that amount is worth 24/7 peace of mind for when those pesky little internet annoyances inevitably happen! If your business or brand relies on monetizing your site, you definitely want to ensure that someone can be there to help. Marc is basically my website/technical concierge that I can depend on 100%.”
Conclusion
A successful website is more than just a pretty design—it’s a strategic tool for growth. By asking the right questions, your website designer can help you create a site that not only looks great but supports your long-term business goals. Whether it’s future-proofing, automating processes, or boosting SEO, a well-planned website will pay off in the long run.
