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Useful before you decide

Website planning guides.
Costs, content and launch.

There is quite a lot to work out before buying a website, from what it should cost to what happens to your old pages. These guides help you think it through, with practical tools for comparing quotes, planning the content and getting ready to launch.

Explore the free toolsFind your starting point

Choose your route

What are you
working on?

Choose the decision in front of you. You can use an individual guide without working through the whole collection.

The guides explain decisions based on how we plan, build and launch websites. Any UpOnUp price or service detail refers to the current offer.

Website page layouts and research references arranged on a planning board.
Page structure, copy and image references.

Free website
planning tools.

Build a brief, compare costs or plan a move in your browser. You can take the output to any provider.

Website cost calculator

Compare changing charges and responsibilities from two written quotes. Download the figures, assumptions and questions still to ask.

Compare website costs

Website brief builder

Collect the business facts, pages and functions a designer needs. Keep a copy you can send to any provider.

Prepare your brief

Website move planner

Record old URLs and their planned destinations before a redesign. Keep useful pages accounted for.

Plan your URL changes

Provider comparison worksheet

Keep up to three proposals and their references beside the same questions. Save an editable record, then reopen it to add answers as providers reply over several days.

Compare your proposals

01 / Plan your website

Start with the job your website needs to do.

Decide what people need to do, which pages will help and what to put in the brief.

Choose the right build

What type of website does your business need?

Start with what visitors must do: enquire, book, buy or sign in. Map the required functions and copy a short brief before choosing a build.

Map your website requirements
Connect your booking journey

Add booking to your website: decide what customers can confirm

Separate an appointment request from a confirmed booking. Plan the provider handover, responsibilities and launch checks with a free editable sheet.

Plan your website booking handover
Plan the pages

What pages does a business website actually need?

Build a page map around real services, buyer questions and enquiry routes. Decide when a subject deserves its own page and when two answers belong together.

Plan your website pages
Prepare the brief

How to brief a web designer

A completed example, editable Word template and private browser builder to gather your priorities and send the same brief to any provider.

Build your website brief
Commission across markets

One English website or localized versions?

Separate audience language, regional offers and currency. Map the pages, approval owners and complete enquiry journey before adding another version.

Choose a manageable version plan
Understand the timing

How long does a business website take?

Separate the first review from approval and launch. See what starts our 48-hour first-review clock and what you can prepare to keep the project moving.

Understand the website timeline

02 / Compare your options

Know what you are buying and what to ask.

Give providers the same brief, compare their written answers and understand what stays yours.

Compare restaurant designs

Restaurant website examples: choose the ideas that fit

Compare Angelos and Asylum through menu, setting and group-booking decisions, then save a shortlist for your own restaurant.

Compare restaurant website examples
Plan landscaping pages

Landscaping website examples: show the work behind the garden

Compare three approaches to design, build and maintenance, explore Highland and download a practical project-page worksheet.

Explore landscaping website choices
Plan your bakery website

Bakery website examples: visits, enquiries and orders

Compare how bakeries handle different customer journeys, explore Buttr & Ember and download a brief for your own bakery.

Compare bakery website journeys
Request comparable commitments

A website RFP providers can actually answer

Download an editable RFP, requirements response sheet and launch responsibility matrix. Define acceptance, exclusions and ownership before comparing proposals.

Download the website RFP pack
Choose a provider

How to choose a web designer

Compare written replies to one brief, keeping version and proposal references together. Save a private editable record on your device and reopen it as the answers arrive.

Compare website proposals
Know the cost

What does a small business website actually cost?

Compare two quotes over 12, 24 or 36 paid monthly charges. Account for changing rates, annual bills and optional confirmed additional exit payments, with each provider’s responsibilities beside the figures.

Use the website cost calculator
Know what is yours

Who owns your website, domain and files?

Separate domain control, website files, copyright, third-party licences and hosting. Know what to ask before buying or changing providers.

Check ownership and handover

03 / Prepare your content

Give the pages something useful to say.

Gather the facts, explain the work and choose images that help someone understand your business.

Shape your homepage

What should a small business homepage include?

Plan the opening, service choices, evidence and next step. Explore Highland and Asylum examples and download a content outline.

Plan your homepage content
Write a useful service page

What belongs on a service page?

Explain the service, answer the questions that matter and help someone take the next step. See two UpOnUp examples and copy a worksheet for your own page.

Plan a service page
Explain your coverage

When does a service area need its own page?

Choose a useful coverage structure, explain real visit arrangements and plan location content that helps customers decide.

Plan genuine service area content
Tell the project story

Write a case study that helps someone choose you

Choose a relevant project, gather the evidence and explain the work. Use a downloadable interview sheet and a practical page outline.

Plan a useful project page
Choose useful images

What images does a small business website need?

Plan images around the questions a visitor needs answered, gather a practical shot list and check permission, context and accessibility before publication.

Plan your website images
Plan a useful enquiry

What should a quote request form ask?

Choose essential questions, leave room for unknown answers and explain the reply process. Work through an annotated home-service example.

Plan your quote request form
Prepare restaurant content

What should go on a restaurant website?

Plan menus, visit details, group occasions and updates, with Asylum and Angelos examples and a downloadable content outline.

Build a restaurant content pack

04 / Replace your website

Change what needs changing. Keep what works.

Inspect the existing site, protect your domain and email, and account for useful pages before launch.

Plan the move

A practical website redesign checklist

Inventory old pages, protect domain and email, test the replacement, and use a free browser-local worksheet to map URLs for launch.

Use the checklist and URL map
Change provider

How to change website provider without losing domain or email

Get a practical handover pack, learn which DNS and email details to preserve, and use a ready-to-send request before the old hosting ends.

Plan the provider handover
Plan a Wix replacement

Moving from Wix starts with three decisions

Separate the website, domain and email. Decide whether to improve the current site or commission a replacement, then retain the materials and working services.

Plan what to keep from Wix
Check a Squarespace export

Check what the content export actually retains

Check which pages, posts and files your export contains, then list the design and connected services you still need to move before ending the old arrangement.

Check your Squarespace content
Account for Webflow services

Exported code is not the whole operating website

Check what exported code includes and what happens to CMS content, forms, search and protected pages. Work through the services you will need to replace and test before launch.

Plan Webflow dependencies
Plan a WordPress replacement

Moving from WordPress: what stays, what changes?

Separate content exports, backups, design and connected services. Download a handover sheet before replacing a WordPress website.

Plan your WordPress handover
Check the launch

A website launch checklist you can actually run

Test the live enquiry route, domain, old links, missing pages and search access. Use a ten-point checklist based partly on issues found during this site’s launch.

Use the launch checklist

05 / Check search and enquiries

Find where the website needs attention.

Check whether people can find the site, understand its pages and get an enquiry through to a reply.

Check search foundations

What makes a business website ready for search?

Inspect the pages, links, crawl access and measurement behind an SEO-ready claim. See what a website build can cover and what needs ongoing search work.

Check search foundations
AI search visibility

Can Google, Bing and ChatGPT find your business?

Check whether search tools can reach your pages and understand what you do. Keep a record of where the business appears, which visits follow and whether anyone enquires.

Check your AI search visibility
Find the enquiry gap

Why is my website not getting enquiries?

Follow what happens from a relevant visit through to an enquiry and a reply. Use the private worksheet to record what you find and where the problem may be.

Diagnose missing enquiries

Ask about your project

Tell us what the website
needs to do.

If you are still unsure where to start, tell us what you have now and what you want people to be able to do. We can discuss whether the website offer fits or whether a particular feature needs a separate scope.

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