A website for a new business in Germany: what to prepare before development

Development goes more smoothly when the business can already explain its service. Start with your visitors' questions, not with choosing animations or the number of screens.

Gather the content

Describe the audience, tasks, scope of work and how working together begins. Prepare real contact details and verifiable information about the company. Do not fill trust sections with invented reviews, client logos or results.

Define what the visitor should do

Choose the main next step: getting in touch, booking an appointment or requesting a quote. Check what happens after the button is clicked and who receives the enquiry. Prepare legal texts and data processing requirements with a specialist, based on how the website actually works.

What materials the owner should prepare

Compile a list of services, a description of the audience and answers to recurring questions. For each service, you need the scope of work, limitations and a clear way to start working together. Prepare your own photos or materials you have confirmed the right to use. If you publish a portfolio, separate your team's role from the results of other contributors. Do not fill gaps with random figures, test contacts or reviews from fictitious clients. Agree any disputed commercial wording before development; otherwise it will differ between pages, the form and emails.

How to check the structure before design

List the visitor's main questions and match each one to a section or page. People should understand where to find the service description, what a package includes, information about the company and how to get in touch. Check the path of a visitor who lands directly on an inner page from a search engine: they also need context and a next step. Do not create separate pages just for different variants of the same keyword. If the content is the same, it is usually more useful to improve a single, self-contained answer and the internal links than to multiply identical text.

What to check before handing over to development

For key pages, agree on the goal, content and acceptance criteria. Specify who checks facts, prices and legal texts, and who is responsible for design and development. The form must keep the selected service and have a clear route for delivering the enquiry. On the test version, check error messages, success messages and what the team does after receiving an enquiry. Keep the public launch separate from design completion: real contact details, the site operator's information, connected services and search engine indexing must reflect the project's actual state.

How to write a brief for a page that can be checked

State the visitor's task, the source materials and the main action. For a service page, the result is not just a finished layout but also a clear description of the scope of work, agreed terms and a working path to an enquiry. Separately name the person who confirms the company's facts. The designer should not invent legal details, prices or the team's history. If material is still missing, mark the gap and the person responsible for filling it, rather than publishing a plausible placeholder as final text.

How to sign off the website before launch

Run through several scenarios: a visitor arrives on the home page, directly on a service page or from an article. In each case, check whether they understand the context and the next step. Then send an agreed test enquiry and have the designated team member confirm receipt. Check errors and feedback, not just a successful click. Assess the public domain, operator details and search engine settings separately from visual completion. A test version can look finished and still intentionally remain closed to indexing.

Next step

A website should reflect a working process for dealing with customers, not cover up missing agreements with attractive design.