Website design client checklist: what to collect from a client

What should a website design client checklist hold?

A website design client checklist should hold every file, login and decision the build depends on, with the reason for each and the date it's due. Add the reason beside each item, so the client knows why it matters.

Content comes early in a build. One build partner, DeskTeam360, has the agency send the content and assets for a client site, unless its team is the one making them. For where that step falls among the others, see the website development process.

If the client's site runs on WordPress, ask them to add you as a user with a role that fits the work, so they never have to share their own login. WordPress.org's guide to roles describes these roles on a single site:

• An Administrator is "somebody who has access to all the administration features within a single site".
• An Editor can publish and manage posts, including posts written by other users.
• An Author can publish and manage their own posts.
• A Contributor writes and manages their own posts but can't publish them.
• A Subscriber can do no more than manage their profile.

Agree who keeps the Administrator role once the site is live. The written list of what the site must do is a separate document. For writing the requirements down, see the website requirements template.

The checklist can go out with the welcome note, early in onboarding. For the onboarding steps, see the client onboarding steps.

What goes on a web design client checklist before the build starts?

Before the build starts, a web design client checklist should go to the client with a due date on every item, and the items the work depends on should be back in your hands. Anything that can arrive later gets its own, later date.

Items to have back before work begins:

1. The name of the person who approves each stage.
2. The logo, brand colors and fonts.
3. The words for the first pages you'll build.
4. Logins for the host and any tools the site connects to.

Items that can follow, as long as each has a date:

• final photos and videos
• words for the later pages
• access to the domain account, needed before launch
• the privacy policy text, needed before launch

If a business site gathers personal details from visitors who live in California, the law says its operator "shall conspicuously post its privacy policy on its Web site". It counts as a breach only if the policy still isn't up 30 days after the operator is told.

Under the law, the duty falls on whoever owns the site, which is your client. In its words, the operator "does not include any third party that operates, hosts, or manages, but does not own, a Web site or online service on the owner’s behalf". Under the law, personal details include a person's first and last name, their email address and their phone number. So even a simple contact form that asks for a visitor's name and email gathers details the law covers.

A lawyer can tell your client how the rule fits their site. Put the policy text on the checklist with a due date before launch, and see the answer to What must a California client site post, and who answers for it?.

Collecting the content comes first, and checking it on the built site comes later. For checking the content before launch, see the website content checklist.

Nothing on this site is legal or tax advice.