4 Questions to Ask Before Building a Business Website

At least four things: who your audience is, what action you want the visitor to take, which keywords your clients search for, and what sets you apart.

The most common mistake I see is starting to talk about colors and design before there are answers to these questions. A beautiful website that doesn't answer the question "is this for me?" won't bring clients. A few hours of thinking before the project starts save changes after the website is already built.

A document that summarizes everything the website builder needs to know before starting work.

A good brief includes: who you are, who your audience is, what you offer, which colors and aesthetics fit the brand, what action you want visitors to take, and examples of websites you like. The more detailed the brief, the fewer surprises along the way and the more likely the result is what you wanted. I provide a questionnaire to every new client that helps build the brief.

A business-card website says "I exist"; a website that brings clients answers questions, ranks on Google, and guides visitors to get in touch.

The difference is mostly in the intention behind the build. A website built as a "business card" usually doesn't include SEO, doesn't consider the client's journey, and doesn't answer the questions the client asks before reaching out. A website that brings clients considers every page and asks: what does the client need to see here to decide to get in touch?

A detailed list of all the pages, features and requirements before you start building.

Without a spec, "I need a website" can mean many different things to two different people. A spec helps you get accurate price quotes, set realistic expectations, and prevent scope creep - changes that add work without agreement on cost. Projects that start without a spec usually end in disputes.

Not required, but a logo and color palette defined in advance help the builder give the website a consistent identity.

You can work with basic fonts and a palette and add a logo later. But I've seen quite a few projects stall midway because the logo wasn't ready. If you're already in the process, it's worth finishing the logo alongside the first planning stages, not after the website is already built.

Preferably yes, at least the home page and one main service page, because content that arrives later gets squeezed into a template that was built without it.

When the content exists in advance, the builder can design around it instead of guessing how many paragraphs there will be. It also gets the client thinking about their audience and messages before starting, which leads to a better website. The factor that slows projects down the most is content that doesn't arrive on time.

At minimum: home, about, services, contact. A blog is an important addition for SEO.

For businesses with one clear service, you can start with 3-4 pages and add content over time. For businesses with several services, a separate page for each service improves SEO and lets clients go straight to what they're looking for. A blog with 2-3 articles a month is the most effective tool for organic growth over time.

UX is user experience, and mapping it before the design is one of the things that most improves the result.

The central question in UX is: what is the shortest path from "I arrived at the website" to "I got in touch"? A website that looks amazing but where it's unclear where to find things, or where the CTA is buried at the bottom, won't bring clients. Before designing, you simply need to sketch the visitor's journey, and you can do it on paper before touching any code.

Yes, buy your domain early - it costs 30-80 shekels a year and secures your name.

A .co.il domain for Israeli businesses addressing a local audience, .com for businesses that intend to reach international audiences too. The domain is your address on the web for years to come. SEO built under this domain goes with it, so it's worth deciding early on a name that suits the long term and not just today.

In practice almost the same thing - a responsive website adapts itself to every screen size including mobile.

About 70% of browsing in Israel is on mobile, and Google has a mobile-first index, meaning it checks your mobile version before the desktop one. A website that looks good on a computer but isn't mobile-friendly will hurt your ranking and lose clients. Every website I build is responsive from day one.

A lead is a contact who expressed interest in your service, and your website should be aimed at generating them.

Website visits are a nice metric, but visits don't pay rent. A lead is someone who sent a WhatsApp message, filled out a form, or called. To generate leads, the website needs a clear CTA on every page and a simple, fast way to get in touch. In the world of conscious businesses, WhatsApp usually works better than complex forms.

Conversion rate is the percentage of visitors who got in touch; bounce rate is the percentage who left immediately without doing anything.

A high bounce rate (over 70%) usually means the page didn't answer what the visitor was looking for, or loaded too slowly. A low conversion rate means people arrive and stay but don't get in touch. The two problems are different and call for different solutions. A free tool like Google Search Console helps identify which pages are "failing".

Comparing two versions of an element on the website to see which converts better.

It's relevant when the website has enough traffic, usually over 500-1000 unique visitors a month. For small businesses just starting out, A/B testing won't give enough data. It's better to build correctly from the foundation following best practices, and run tests once the website already brings steady traffic.

SEO should be part of the build, not an add-on afterwards, because headings, meta descriptions and speed are built during the project.

A website built without basic SEO needs changes on every page after it goes live, which costs time and money. When I build, each of these is built from the ground up: H1 and H2 headings, meta description, URL structure, speed, Schema markup. The moment the website goes live it's already "SEO ready" and only needs ongoing content to push it forward.