What content you need to provide for a website build

en 7 min read

What content you need to provide for a website build

For a step 01 single-page landing at EUR 600 to 900, you provide one page of copy, your logo, one or two strong photos and the email address the form should send to. For a step 03 business website at EUR 1.500 to 3.500, that grows to copy for four to seven pages, photos for each service and the facts only you know, and that material is the part of the build that waits on you.

The design, the code, the CMS and the page structure are ours to produce, and we will tell you when a page is thin. What we cannot produce is knowledge of your business: what you do, who you turn away, what a customer wants to know before getting in touch.

The list every site needs

Whatever the step, these come from you.

What each step adds to the list

That list is the floor. Each step adds pages or features, and every page or feature needs words. The full description of each step is on packages.

StepPrice and timelineWhat you add
01 Single-page landingEUR 600 to 900, 1 to 2 weeksOne page of copy covering the offer, who it is for and what the form is for, plus one or two strong photos
02 Mini-siteEUR 900 to 1.500, 2 to 3 weeksCopy for 2 to 3 pages, a short about text, and the details the contact flow asks for
03 Business websiteEUR 1.500 to 3.500, 3 to 6 weeksCopy for 4 to 7 pages, a text and photos for each service page, team names and roles, the questions customers ask, and how bookings or enquiries should be handled
04 Advanced site or web appEUR 3.500 to 7.500, 6 to 12 weeksEverything above, plus the rules behind the features: who logs in, what the dashboard shows, which records the CRM or API holds, the emails the system sends, and product and payment details if you take payments
05 Custom SaaS platformFrom EUR 7.500, after discoverySettled in discovery: user roles, billing rules, admin rights, onboarding texts and any data you are bringing across

What moves the quote

Content changes the fixed quote in a few specific ways, and all of them are visible at scoping.

Content that arrives late moves something else: the calendar.

Why this is the part that waits on you

Design and code wait on decisions we can make ourselves. Content waits on decisions only you can make, and a page cannot be finished around a hole. A service page with no service description is a layout with nothing in it.

The week ranges on each step assume your words and photos arrive when the build needs them. If they arrive late, the pages that need them stop and wait, and launch moves with them. Nobody on our side can speed that up, because the missing piece is not ours to make.

Placeholder text makes it worse. It lets a design look finished while your real first paragraph may be far longer than the space drawn for it. Real copy, even rough copy, changes the design, and that change costs least while the design is still moving.

Approval waits on you too. Decide before the build who on your side can say yes to a page. If several people need to agree, name the one with the final word.

How to get it ready, in order

  1. Before scoping, gather what already exists: logo files, brochures, your current site, photos on your phone. A fixed quote always follows scoping, and it is more precise when we can see this.
  2. At scoping, agree the page list. That tells you how much copy you owe, for which pages, and which step you are in.
  3. Early in the build, send rough copy for each page. Bullet points are fine. We need the substance to design around, and polish can come later.
  4. Before launch, send final copy, final photos, legal text and domain access. Whatever is missing here is the gap between a finished site and a live one.

On a step 03 build that runs 3 to 6 weeks, getting your material in early is the part of that range you control. Design and engineering describes what happens on our side during those weeks.

When to spend less

If you cannot produce copy for seven pages, do not buy seven pages. A step 01 landing at EUR 600 to 900 needs one page of words, and one page you can fill beats seven waiting for text. Go live with that, write the rest while it runs, and come back when the content exists.

The same goes for photos. With no usable photos yet, a step 02 mini-site at EUR 900 to 1.500 with fewer image slots is a better buy than a business website padded with stock pictures of handshakes. Book the photographer first and the bigger site second.

And if nobody on your side has time to write or approve anything right now, do not hire us yet. Paying for a build that sits waiting for copy buys you nothing.

Questions buyers ask

Can you write the copy for us?

Yes, if we agree it at scoping, because it changes the scope and so the fixed quote. You still supply the raw material, through a call or written answers: what you do, for whom, and why someone should pick you. Nobody outside your business can write that part from scratch.

Can we launch with some pages missing?

Yes, if the missing pages are left out rather than filled with placeholder text. Five complete pages serve a visitor better than seven where two say "coming soon". A new page later is not a small fix, so it is quoted on its own rather than covered by Care.

What format should we send content in?

One shared document per page, with your headings marked, is the easiest to work from. Put photos in a shared folder at full size rather than pasting them into the document, because pasting can compress them.

Who owns the content we send?

You do, and the same goes for what we build with it. You own the code, the repository and the database, so your copy and photos never end up locked inside something you cannot take with you.

If your list is half ready and you want to know which step it fits, send us what you have.

Building something?

JP Studio designs and builds websites, storefronts and product interfaces.

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