What should a small organisation ask for when it commissions a website?

About your site

Your details label the brief. Nothing is sent anywhere until you press the button.

• I already own a domain name The address the site will live at, such as yourname.org.

What branding does your website need?

The look a visitor recognises when they see it again: your logo, your colours, your typefaces, and the name and line that sit under them.

• Use the brand you already have Your logo, colours and fonts, applied properly across the whole site. Included
• A logo, designed or sourced A new mark, or a licensed image made into one, in the formats a website and a printer both need. Add-on
• A colour palette and font pairing Colours and typefaces chosen to work together and to load fast, served from your own site so no visitor's details go to a font company. Add-on
• A name and tagline A name and a short line under it that says what you do. Harder than it looks, very subjective. Advanced
• A short brand guide One page saying which colours, fonts and logo versions to use where, so anyone who edits the site later keeps it consistent. Add-on

What sort of visual design should your website have?

How the site is laid out and how visitors move around it, beyond the basics of the brand. Every site is designed from scratch in plain HTML and CSS, which keeps it lean, lightweight and robust, or it comes with the design layer of the system which it is runs on (e.g. Wordpress), where there's usually a wide choice of well-constructed designs.

• Works on phones as well as desktops The layout adjusts to the size of any screen, from a phone to a desktop. Included
• Built without a page builder Built without a page builder that adds a lot of bloat, so the site stays fast, easy to edit and cheap to host. Page builders write code the way Vogons write poetry. Included
• A distinctive visual style A visual style of your own, such as a recurring image or colour scheme, that visitors remember. Add-on

Who should compose the text and information for your website?

Much of a website is text. A site should be written in a consistent voice (this is part of the brand). Pages are written not just to be read by people, but also to be found and quoted by search engines and AI answer tools, so that more people will read it.

• Your words, edited and laid out You supply the text; it is edited, given headings and laid out so it is easy to read and easy for search engines to rank. Included
• Copywriting from scratch The words written for you, based on a conversation about what you do. Add-on
• A consistent voice The same tone and style of wording on every page. Add-on
• Answer pages for search and AI tools A page for each real question people ask, which brings visitors from search engines and can be quoted by AI answer tools. Advanced
• A blog or news section A blog or news area set up so you can add to the site over time without a rebuild. Add-on

Where do your website's pictures come from?

The images, diagrams and social cards on the site. This site draws its charts as vector graphics, which stay sharp at any size and are very small files.

• Your own photos, optimised The pictures you already have, cropped, compressed and given proper alt text. Included
• Sourced or licensed imagery The right pictures found and properly licensed, when you do not have your own. Add-on
• Charts and diagrams drawn as graphics Data and processes drawn as vector graphics, which are small files and contain text that search engines can read. Add-on
• Custom illustration or a mascot A drawing made for your organisation only, like the whale on this site. Advanced
• A social share card The image and text that appear when your link is posted to LinkedIn, WhatsApp or a group chat. Without one, the platform picks an image and text itself. Add-on

What can your website do beyond showing pages?

Features beyond pages of information: taking bookings, signing people in, showing live data, connecting to your other systems. This is the digital toolmaking service. Anything with a login or a payment also needs a higher security level, chosen further down.

• Pages you can edit yourself A content management system such as WordPress, so your staff can change text and pictures without touching code. It uses a theme adapted to your brand, and makes the site slightly slower. Add-on
• A contact or enquiry form Messages from visitors reach you without your email address appearing on the page, where spammers collect addresses. Messages are filtered for spam and no data is sold. Add-on
• Newsletter sign-up A way to collect email addresses, wired to a mailing tool, with consent recorded as the law expects. Add-on
• Online bookings or appointments Visitors book a slot, a call or a place, against a calendar you control. Add-on
• Online payments or a shop Take money for products, tickets or donations. Taking payments needs the Hard security level. Advanced
• Team or member logins A private area behind a sign-in, for staff, members or subscribers, with different people seeing different things. Advanced
• A data dashboard Your numbers turned into something readable and current, drawn from a spreadsheet, a database or a live feed. Advanced
• Connects to your other systems The site connects to the tools you already use, such as a customer database, an accounts package or a calendar, so information is typed in only once. Advanced
• A one-off custom tool A small piece of software made for one job that no product covers: a calculator, a report builder, or a form that replaces somebody retyping data. The 79-point audit engine is one of these. Advanced

How fast should your website load?

Visitors leave slow sites. Most of a site's speed is decided when it is built, and is hard to add later.

• Built to load fast Compressed images and only the code the site needs. Included as standard. Included
• No unused code shipped to visitors Only the styling and scripts a page actually uses are sent to it. Included
• Content delivery network Copies of the site held near your visitors, so it loads quickly wherever they are. Add-on
• Real-visitor speed monitoring Track how fast the site actually feels to the people using it, month on month. Add-on

How does your website get found by Google and by AI answer tools?

Search engines and AI answer tools read your site too, and many people now ask an AI tool instead of searching. Both need the site to state plainly who you are and what you do.

• Search-engine basics Page titles, descriptions, a sitemap and a robots file, so search engines can find and list every page. Included
• Clean headings and descriptive links Link text that says where it goes, and headings in order, which helps both machines and people. Included
• Structured data A machine-readable summary of your organisation, included in the page's code but not shown to visitors, that search engines and AI tools read directly. Add-on
• A verifiable identity for AI answer engines Links from your site to your other profiles (LinkedIn, Companies House, the charity register), so an AI can confirm you are who you say and is likelier to cite you. Add-on
• Content written to be quoted Pages that answer the questions people ask, with worked examples an AI tool can quote word for word. This site uses the same method. Advanced

Does your website have to be accessible?

An accessible website can be used by people who rely on a screen reader, the keyboard alone, or magnified text. Making it accessible is a legal duty for anyone providing a service to the public, with extra duties for public-sector bodies.

How secure does your website need to be?

How hard the site is to tamper with, impersonate or misuse. A brochure site needs less protection than an online shop taking payments, so there are three levels to choose from.

What does UK privacy law require of your website?

What happens to a visitor's data from the moment a page opens. UK law (the UK GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, or PECR, which cover cookies) sets the minimum, and going further gives people a reason to trust you.

• No hidden tracking or advertising tags No code that sends details of your visitors to advertisers. This site has none. Included
• Fonts and assets served from your own site Fonts and files come from your own site, so a page does not send each visitor's IP address to Google. Included
• A privacy policy that fits the site Written for what your site actually does and the data it collects. Included
• Visitor data kept in the UK or EEA Hosting and services chosen so personal data stays in the UK or EEA, where the law protects it. Add-on
• Privacy-respecting analytics Visitor numbers from a tool that does not track individuals and needs no cookie banner. Add-on
• Cookie notice and controls Only needed if the site sets cookies that are not essential. If it does, the law requires it. Add-on
• ICO registration sorted Most organisations handling personal data must register with the Information Commissioner. Guidance on whether you need to, and help doing it. Add-on

How do you make your website low-carbon?

A website uses electricity whenever it is stored or visited. A lighter site on renewable power costs less to run and loads faster, so this seldom conflicts with the other choices.

• Green hosting Hosted on renewable power. This site uses a green co-operative host. Included
• Low-carbon pages The same small pages that load fast also produce less carbon per visit. One choice, two wins. Included
• A published sustainability declaration A carbon.txt file and a plain-English statement of your site's environmental choices. Add-on

Which pages make a visitor trust your website?

The pages a visitor, funder or customer looks for to check that your organisation is genuine. They cost little to add. Which pages apply depends on what kind of organisation you are, so start there.

• An About page with a real person on it Who you are and why you do this. Included
• A contact page with a direct way to reach you A real email address or phone number as well as any contact form. Included
• Email on your own domain An address such as you@yourname.org, set up and handed over. Add-on
• Legal registration shown Company or charity number and registered name in the footer, as the law requires once you are registered. Add-on
• Terms and conditions The rules for using the site or buying from it. Expected once the site sells anything. Add-on

What should you get when your website is handed over?

What you have when the build is finished: a website you own and understand.

• Every choice explained in plain English Why each decision was made, without jargon, so you can defend the site and change it later. Included
• You own everything Domain, hosting and accounts in your name, handed over. Nothing held hostage. Included
• Training to update it yourself A session walking you through the parts you will change, so you can make small changes yourself. Add-on
• Written documentation of the setup What runs where, and how to get into it, written down for whoever comes next. Add-on
• Ongoing maintenance and updates Someone keeping the site current, secure and working, if you would rather not think about it. Add-on