What content do I need before building a website? A page-by-page checklist
Gather the facts a visitor needs to decide (what you offer, for whom, where, at what price and how to get in touch), real photos, and some proof that others have used you. Put them in one document before the first build. Any builder, human or AI, produces a better first draft from your facts than from guesses, and you'll spend the editing time improving the site instead of replacing invented details.
Why content comes before design
When a site is built before the content exists, the gaps get filled with generic lines: "quality service", "tailored solutions", a stock photo of a handshake. Those placeholders survive launch more often than anyone intends. Google's guidance on helpful, people-first content asks whether a page offers original information and first-hand expertise, and only you have those. Gathering them first is the cheapest way to make the site specific.
The basics every site needs
- Business name exactly as customers know it, and a one-sentence description: who you help, with what, where.
- Contact details: the phone number and email address you actually answer, the address if people visit, and the area you serve if they don't.
- Opening hours or response times, including when you're closed.
- Logo in the best version you have, ideally a large PNG on a transparent background (Anticode accepts PNG, JPEG, GIF and WebP uploads, not SVG).
- Legal details you're required to show where you operate, such as a registered company number, and the basics of how you handle data for the privacy policy.
Page by page
| Page | Gather | Common gap |
|---|---|---|
| Home | The main thing you want visitors to do; your two or three strongest reasons to choose you | No clear single action |
| Services or products | Each item's name, who it's for, what's included, duration or size, price or range | Prices left out "for now" |
| About | How you started, who does the work, qualifications or memberships, a photo of the people | Only a mission statement |
| Work or portfolio | Five to ten best examples with a line each on the brief and the result | Too many weak examples |
| FAQ | The questions customers ask by phone and email, with your usual answers | Questions nobody asks |
| Contact or booking | What happens after someone gets in touch, and how fast | No expectations set |
| Policies | Refunds, cancellations, delivery times, guarantees | Copied from another business |
Photos and proof
Real photos do more for trust than any wording. Aim for a handful you're proud of: the people, the place, the work and the product. Take them in daylight, horizontally for wide sections and a few vertically for phones. Name the files descriptively before you upload them (treatment-room-window.jpg), and note one line about each, which helps both the builder and the alt text. The product photo guide covers shooting with a phone.
For proof, collect three to six short testimonials with the customer's permission and a name or initial, plus any facts that show you're established: years trading, notable clients you're allowed to name, memberships, reviews on a public platform you can link to. Never invent or paraphrase a testimonial into something the customer didn't say.
Put it all in one document
- Create one document with a heading per page from the table above.
- Paste in what exists: old leaflets, emails where you explained your services well, your social bios.
- Fill the gaps in your own words. Rough notes are fine; accuracy matters more than polish at this stage.
- Mark anything unconfirmed in capitals, such as a price you haven't settled, so it can't slip through.
- Gather photos in one folder, renamed and with the best few chosen.
- Write the brief from the top of the document: what the site is for, who it's for, and the one action that matters. Writing a website brief for AI shows how.
Using your content with Anticode
Start with a sentence or two about the business. Anticode's Architect replies, asks up to three questions where the answer changes the build, each with suggested answers, and shows a short plan of the name, kind, sections, look and features before you choose "Build it". If your facts already live on a page somewhere, such as an old site or a listing, include the link: links in the request are read once and summarised into the brief. Photos and videos you upload are used by app builds, the kind the model writes: the model sees the photos, and videos are placed by name. Pages laid out by the design engine use a curated Unsplash library instead; a hosted image address you put in a CMS image field shows only with that collection's entries, in its section and on its collection pages, so the hero, About and Team pictures stay library photos or initials.
After the build, check every fact against your document: names, prices, hours, phone numbers. The design gate blocks publishing pages with placeholder text, but it can't know whether a plausible-looking price is yours.
Questions people ask
Should I write the copy before or after the design?
Gather the facts first; final wording can be polished once you see the layout. Design built around real content holds up better than content squeezed into a finished design.
Can AI write my website content for me?
It can draft wording from your facts. It can't know your prices, your process or what customers say about you, so those must come from you.
How many photos do I need?
Fewer than you think: a strong one for the top of the home page, one of the people, and one or two per main service or product.