So your business is going places and  it’s time to to get a new website that supports and reflects this.

Below I have shared with you 40 or so questions that I ask new clients to answer before starting their WordPress website redesign.

Before you think pretty pictures, wizzy slider, fancy forms and making it mobile-friendly – please think about your marketing strategy.

Too often the design and functionality are thought about before the marketing planning is done – the danger of this is that you could end up with a stunningly beautiful website that no one actually ever sees  or doesn’t attract or convert the right audiences.

Thinking about your website with a marketing hat on will help you to establish goals and objectives for your website – what are you looking to achieve? Remember to set SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable Achievable Realistic and Timely).

After clear objectives have been set, the decisions about design, structure and navigation should then fall into place. Continually assess your decisions in relation to achieving your website’s marketing objectives.

Here are the questions that I give to clients prior to starting their WordPress website redesign – helping them to get the best out of their new website. It’s not exhaustive but people can feel overwhelmed if you send them 100s of questions that they have to answer in one go. Having the answers to these questions provides a great overview, opening up opportunities for further questions and discussion as required.

Hosting questions

1. Do you know who hosts the site and are you the main person in control of this? Do you have the logins and passwords for the site’s hosting?
2. Do you have the login information for the site’s CMS, are you currently the only administrator or are other people able to login and update etc?
3. Is the domain name registered to you?

Marketing questions

1. What types of marketing are you currently involved in?
2. Do you have a strapline?
3. What is your elevator pitch
4. Do you have a mission statement?
5. How would you briefly describe your service offering?
6. What differentiates your company and products/services from your competitors?
7. Are there any short-term or long-term objectives that need to be considered for the website?

Competitor questions

1. List a few (ideally 3) competitors that you’d consider benchmark companies?
2. What makes these stand out from the crowd?
3. What elements of these companies and/or their online activities would you like to emulate?

Search Overview

1. Based on what you know right now, what keywords or phrases would “you” use to search for your service offering?
2. What search terms are your competitors targeting?
3. Of the words you just listed, which ones would you like to target with the new website?
4. Do you have existing content that can support these keywords or phrases?
5. Does your existing website and content rank for these phrases?

Website Current State

1. What does your website currently do well?
2. What does your website currently do poorly?
3. Are there any aspects of your website that you love?
4. Are there any aspects of your website that you hate?
5. Is there anything on the current website that needs to be removed entirely?
6. Is there anything on the current website that must absolutely stay?

Website Future State

1. What is the most important factor of your new website?
2. What functional requirements are needed within the new website?
3. What visual elements are needed within the new website?
4. Are there any colour preferences for the new website?
5. What social media elements would you like integrated?
6. Do you have a proposed sitemap prepared?
7. Will you be blogging?
8. Is there anything that you would like to have included in the new website that you lack currently?

Clarification of content

Which of this content do you: a. want on your site and already have b. want on your site but needs creating c. do not need on your site.

• High resolution logo
• Content pages
• Blog posts
• Literature or brochures
• Presentations
• Case studies
• Press releases
• Videos or podcasts
• Images
• Testimonials
• Articles
• Events
• Team section
• Other marketing collateral

SEO Requirements

1. Do you need assistance with search engine optimisation (SEO)?
2. Do you have someone who can review desired keywords and match the keywords to your existing or future content?
3. Do you have someone who can review content for SEO best practices?
4. Do you have someone who can create unique meta titles and descriptions per page or blog post?
5. Are you familiar with popular SEO plugins and their configurations?
6. Do you have a Google Analytics account?
7. Do you have a Google Search Console ccount?

Project Constraints

1. What is your proposed date for kicking off your web design project?
2. What is your desired completion date?
3. What is your project budget?