What should I have ready
before we start?
Less than you think. Four things speed up any build: what you sell, who it is for, a few photos, and two or three sites you like. Everything else can be figured out together.
- Must have: what you sell
- Helpful: real photos
- Optional: sites you like
The details.
What is the one thing that slows every project down?
Missing words. Not design decisions, not code. The single biggest variable in how long a website takes is how fast the business can say, in plain sentences, what it does and who it serves.
You do not need polished copy. Three rough sentences about what you sell and why people pick you give a designer more to work with than a blank page and good taste.
Do I need photos before we start?
Real photos help more than anything else you can provide. Five to ten shots of your work, your place or yourself, taken on a phone, beat any stock library.
No photos is not a blocker. The design can lean on type, color and illustration, and photos can arrive mid-build. But if you have them, gather them first.
Should I buy the domain first?
If you know the name you want, yes: register it yourself, in your own account, so nobody else holds it. If you are not sure of the name, wait. Picking one is a short conversation and the right name is usually still available.
Either way, the domain should end up registered to you, in an account you control. That part is not negotiable.
What if I don't know what I want it to look like?
That is normal, and drawing it out of you is the designer's job. What helps: two or three sites you like, plus one sentence about why for each. I like how calm this feels is useful direction.
What does not help is a forty-page brand deck. Taste communicates better in examples than in documents.
What does Sitewhip need from me?
A short brief: what you sell, who buys it, what a new customer should do on the site, and whatever you already have, like a logo, photos or a current site. Most people answer it in about twenty minutes.
From there the process asks for your feedback at set points, roughly an hour per round. The build moves at the speed of those replies.