Part 2 of 5
Plan Before You Build
The five decisions that determine whether the build takes a weekend or three frustrating months.
The most common way a first website fails is that someone opens a builder, picks a template, and starts filling in boxes. Three weeks later they have a site that looks acceptable and says nothing, because the template decided the structure and the structure decided the message.
Planning first is not bureaucracy. It is the difference between building once and rebuilding three times. This module produces a one-page plan you can hand to any builder, any developer, or any AI tool.
The five decisions
Answer these before you open anything
- 01
What the business does
In one sentence, in plain language, without industry vocabulary. If a friend outside your field cannot repeat it back, rewrite it.
- 02
Who it is for
Be specific enough that it excludes people. "Small businesses" is not a customer; "independent bookkeepers with more referrals than they can handle" is.
- 03
The main offer
The one thing you most want to sell. Not everything you can do — the thing that pays best, that you deliver best, or that opens the door to the rest.
- 04
The desired action
The single thing a visitor should do. Book, buy, enquire, subscribe. One only. Everything else on the site is secondary to this.
- 05
The proof you actually have
Real work, real outcomes, real credentials. List only what you can substantiate. Empty is fine — it tells you what to collect first.
The one-sentence test
Write: "I help [who] to [outcome] by [how]." If you cannot fill all three blanks without hedging, the website is not the problem yet — the offer is. Fix that first; it makes every page easier to write.
Your sitemap
A first website does not need many pages. More pages means more content to write, more to maintain, and more places for a visitor to wander away from the action. Start with four or five and add only when something genuinely needs its own page.
The standard first sitemap
- 01
Home
Does 80% of the work. Problem, outcome, proof, action. Most visitors will see only this page.
- 02
Services or Offer
What you sell, in detail, for people who need more before deciding.
- 03
About
Who you are and why you are credible. More visited than people expect — it is where trust gets checked.
- 04
Contact or Book
Where the action happens. Keep it free of distractions.
- 05
Work or Proof (optional)
Add only once you have real work to show. An empty portfolio page is worse than no portfolio page.
Planning the content
Write the words before you design anything. Design is supposed to present content — when you design first, you end up writing to fill boxes, and the message bends to fit a template someone else built for a different business.
- For each page, write the one job that page does in a single sentence.
- Write the headline first. If the headline is vague, the page will be too.
- Draft in a plain document with no formatting — it forces you to judge the words alone.
- Read every sentence and ask: would a competitor write this too? If yes, it is not saying anything.
- Cut anything that is true but does not help the visitor decide.
Writing to fill a box
A template has a three-column feature section, so the business invents three features. One is real, one is a restatement of the first, and one is "Great Communication". The visitor reads three things, believes one, and trusts the page slightly less than before they read it. The template caused that.
Exercise
Write the one-page plan
Produce the plan on a single page. It should be short enough to read in a minute and complete enough to build from.
- 01Answer all five decisions in one line each.
- 02Write your sitemap as a simple list.
- 03For each page, write its one-sentence job.
- 04Write the homepage headline. Rewrite it three times and keep the most specific version.
Website Planning Worksheet
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The five decisions
Structure
Content
Do this now
Send your one-sentence business description to someone outside your industry. Ask them to tell you what you do and who for. If they get it wrong, rewrite it before building anything.
Recap
- Planning first is the difference between building once and rebuilding three times.
- Five decisions: what, who, the offer, the action, the proof.
- Start with four or five pages — the homepage does most of the work.
- Write the words before the design, or the template will write them for you.