How to collect website content from clients without the usual delays
The build is rarely what delays a small website. The content is: the About text still being written, the photos on someone's phone, the prices waiting for a meeting. The cure is boring and reliable: send a fixed list on day one, attach a deadline and a consequence, decide who writes what, and move anything the client will keep changing into a place they can edit themselves after launch.
The content list, sent at kickoff
Send a written list the day the project starts, tailored to the agreed pages. A shared document or spreadsheet with a status column works better than an email the client will lose.
| Item | Who provides it | Notes for the client |
|---|---|---|
| Business facts: name, address, phone, email, hours | Client | Exactly as customers should see them |
| One paragraph on what you do and for whom | Client, or you from an interview | Plain words; we'll edit |
| Services or products with prices | Client | Name, short description, price or "from" price |
| Team names, roles and photos | Client | Only people happy to be shown |
| Photos of premises, work, products | Client | Recent, real, landscape where possible, largest size available |
| Logo | Client | The original file, not a screenshot |
| Reviews or testimonials | Client | Only with each person's permission |
| Legal details: registration numbers, regulator | Client | Where your industry requires them |
Deadlines that hold
- Put the content deadline in the proposal, with the build date that depends on it. Late content moves the launch, not your evenings.
- Offer a fallback for each item. If the About text isn't in by the deadline, you'll write a draft from a 20-minute call. If photos don't arrive, the site launches with fewer, not with stock images of strangers.
- Send one reminder halfway, listing only what's missing.
- Charge for writing if it isn't in the price. Copywriting is real work; quote it as an option at kickoff so nobody is surprised.
Getting it into the project
- Start the build from what you have. Anticode's Architect works from a sentence about the business, and if the client has an existing site or social page, give it the link: links are read once and summarised into the brief. The plan it shows (sections, pages, look) is a good check against your content list: every section needs something real in it.
- Upload the client's photos to the build. They're checked by their first bytes, stored under your account, and the model sees them, so it can put the shopfront in the opening section and the team photo on the About page. Videos are placed by name.
- Paste the client's words in, replacing the model's draft. Edit text directly on the page with the visual editor.
- Mark gaps visibly in your own list, not on the page. Anticode's design gate won't publish placeholder text, so a page with "text to come" won't go live by accident, but it's still better to know exactly what's outstanding.
Content the client will keep changing
Some content changes every week or month: a menu, a list of services and prices, upcoming events, team members, a portfolio. Don't bake these into the page design. Put them in CMS collections: a services collection with name, description, price and an image field, for example. Each entry can have its own page, and entries are edited in the dashboard as a form, without opening the builder.
That changes the content conversation too. Instead of chasing the full menu before launch, you agree the collection's fields, load the first few entries yourself, and show the client how to add the rest. To edit collections they need a seat in your workspace or the site in their own account; agree which in the contract.
What goes wrong
- Photos arrive as tiny attachments
- Ask for originals through a shared folder, or straight from the phone's camera roll at full size. Messaging apps often shrink them.
- Copy arrives as a 3,000-word essay
- Edit it to the length the section needs and send it back for approval. Don't publish what nobody has signed off.
- Content keeps changing after approval
- Changes after content sign-off are revisions; count them in your rounds.
- The client sends someone else's photos
- Ask where they came from. Only use images they own or have a licence for.
How you know the process worked
The launch date held, every section on the site has real content approved by the client, there are no stock photos pretending to be the team, and the client has already added or edited one collection entry by themselves before you hand over.
Limits
Anticode takes uploaded photos and videos, lets you edit text in place, and holds changing content in collections clients can edit. It doesn't chase clients for content, host a content-collection portal for people without a seat, or accept files through a published site's forms. See content to gather before building, letting clients update content and web design client onboarding.
Questions people ask
What content do I need from a client before building?
Business facts, a short description, services and prices, real photos, the logo, and any legal details their industry requires. Build the list from the agreed pages.
What if the client misses the content deadline?
Use the fallback you agreed: a draft written from a short call, or launch with fewer photos. Move the launch date if it depends on the missing content.
Can clients update their own menu or prices after launch?
Yes, if that content is in a CMS collection and they have a seat in the workspace or the site in their own account.