Web design: where to start when planning a new website

Where to start with a new website

The right starting point is your business goal, not the design. A website that is clear about who it serves and what it should achieve is far easier to design, write and measure. The same order works whether you are building your first site or redesigning an old one.

1. Set the goal. Decide the one or two actions that matter most: a phone call, a quote request, an online sale or a booking.
2. Define your audience. Note who your customers are, what they need to know before they buy and what they expect from businesses like yours.
3. Choose a domain name. Pick a short, memorable address and register it in your business’s name.
4. Choose a platform. Match the content management system (CMS) to what you sell and who will update the site.
5. Choose hosting. Pick a host that is fast, reliable and secure enough for your traffic.
6. Plan the content. List every page and who will supply the words, images and prices.
7. Agree the scope and roadmap. Put features, milestones and responsibilities in writing.
8. Plan for after launch. Decide who will handle updates, security, SEO and reporting.

If you are redesigning, start by reviewing what your current site does well. Check which pages bring in visitors and enquiries in Google Analytics 4 (GA4) so the new site keeps them.

How to choose a domain name

A good domain name is short, easy to spell, easy to say aloud and clearly connected to your brand. It is the address people type, print on vans and say on the phone, so avoid hyphens, unusual spellings and names that are close to a competitor’s.

For a business trading in Ireland, a .ie domain tells customers you are based here. Every .ie application is checked for a real connection with Ireland. A business can show this with one document such as a CRO or RBN number, an Irish VAT number or Revenue correspondence showing its VAT number. Irish companies with an active CRO number may be validated automatically.

If you plan to sell abroad, consider registering the .com (and .co.uk for Northern Ireland and Britain) at the same time to protect your brand. Register every domain in your business’s name, not your web designer’s, so you always control it.

Which platform should you use?

The platform, or CMS, is the software that runs your website and that you use to edit it. The first question is whether you sell products, services or both, because some platforms are built for online shops and others suit service and content sites better.

For most service businesses a flexible CMS such as WordPress is a good fit. Product businesses should compare dedicated e-commerce options. Our guide to which website platform to use compares WordPress and WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento (Adobe Commerce) and Drupal side by side.

Designing for your audience

Design your website for the people who will use it. They will judge your business by it, so it should look and read the way they expect a trustworthy company in your sector to look. A bright, playful site suits a children’s creche; a solicitor’s firm needs something calmer and more formal.

Good design combines your brand, your customers’ expectations and what is known to work. A useful first step is to collect examples of websites you like, from your own sector in Ireland and abroad, and note what you like about each one: layout, tone, photography or how easy it is to get in touch.

Design for phones first. Many customers will see your site on a mobile before anything else, so menus, buttons, forms and text need to work well on a small screen.

Accessibility

Make accessibility part of the design brief from the start. Since 28 June 2025 the European Accessibility Act has applied in Ireland, and e-commerce services must meet its accessibility requirements, with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) as the compliance authority.

Microenterprises providing services (fewer than 10 employees and an annual turnover or balance sheet total of no more than €2 million) are exempt. Even so, clear text, good colour contrast, descriptive links and forms that work with a keyboard make a site easier for every customer to use, and are much cheaper to build in than to add later.

How to choose website hosting

Hosting is the service that stores your website and delivers it to visitors, and it has a direct effect on speed, uptime and security. Look for a host with consistently high uptime, automatic backups you can restore quickly and servers fast enough for your traffic at its busiest.

Different sites need different set-ups: a brochure site for a local service business needs far less than a busy online shop. Our guide to website hosting explains the types of hosting and what to look for in a package.

How to keep your website secure

A secure website protects your customers’ data and your reputation. Four measures cover most of the risk.

SSL certificates

An SSL certificate (now technically TLS) encrypts the data passing between your website and each visitor’s browser, and it is what puts “https” at the start of your address. GDPR does not name SSL, but Article 32 requires appropriate technical and organisational security measures, and the Data Protection Commission lists encryption among them, describing it as essential when data is sent over a public network. SSL/TLS is the standard way to do that on a website. Browsers warn visitors about pages without it, and payment providers expect it.

Content delivery network and firewall

A content delivery network (CDN) is a network of servers around the world that stores copies of your site’s files and serves them from the location nearest each visitor, which makes pages load faster. Many CDNs also offer a web application firewall (WAF) and rate limiting, which filter malicious traffic and block repeated login attempts. Check whether these are included or an add-on.

Regular updates

Keep your CMS, theme, plugins and other software up to date. Attackers look for known vulnerabilities in outdated software, and updates are how those holes are closed. Agree who is responsible for updates and how often they happen before the site goes live.

Passwords and access

Use strong, unique passwords and two-factor authentication on every admin account. Give each person their own login with only the access they need, and remove accounts when people leave.

What content do you need for a new website?

Most of the content on a business website has to come from the business itself. Having it ready early is the single biggest thing you can do to keep a web project on schedule.

Basic content checklist

• Company logo, ideally as a vector file
• About us information and photos of your team or premises
• Service descriptions
• Product photos and descriptions
• Pricing information, if you publish prices
• Customer reviews and testimonials
• Frequently asked questions
• Delivery prices and returns policy, if you sell online
• Contact details, opening hours and address

Research what your customers need

Content works when it answers the questions your customers actually have. Talk to customers, note the questions your staff answer every week and look at what competitors cover well or leave out. Use what you learn to decide which pages you need and what each one must say. Our guide to SEO content strategies shows how to turn those questions into pages people find in Google.

How to run a web design project

A web project runs smoothly when both sides agree in writing what is being built, when, and who does what. Three things make the difference.

Project scope

The scope sets out what the website will do: its pages, features, integrations, timeline and budget. A clear scope lets everyone plan and prioritise, and it is your protection against scope creep, where small additions pile up until the project runs late or over budget.

Roadmap

Whichever agency or designer you work with, agree a roadmap with the key milestones, tasks and deadlines. It keeps the project on track, shows early when something is slipping and gives you a clear picture of what happens next.

Feedback

Plan feedback at set stages, such as the page plan, first designs and a test version of the site, rather than all at the end. Collect comments from everyone who needs a say in one place, and decide who has the final word. Testing the site with a few real customers before launch often catches problems nobody on the team noticed.

After launch

A website needs ongoing care after it goes live. Plan for software and security updates, content changes, search engine optimisation and regular reporting on what the site is achieving.

Set up GA4 and conversion tracking before launch so you can see where visitors come from and which pages lead to enquiries or sales. To grow traffic over time, our guide to the SEO process explains how search engine optimisation works step by step.

Frequently asked questions