What to know before you commission a website

Commissioning a website is a purchase most small businesses make once or twice in their life. Quotes taken without knowing what to ask cannot be compared: one says 8,000 ₺, another 45,000, and both of them say "website".

What follows are the things that should have answers before the price question comes up.

Whose name are the domain and hosting in

This is the one that causes the most trouble later. The domain and the server accounts should be opened in your name. A domain sitting in the builder's account turns into a bargaining chip when your paths separate.

If it is in your name, moving is easy: changing where it points is enough, and the domain does not even have to be transferred.

Have the invoices come to you as well. Not knowing who pays the annual renewal is the most common reason a site goes dark one morning.

Who is going to write the content

Most projects are held up not by code but by content: text, photographs, product lists.

Settle this at the start. If an empty file arrives with "fill this in", the job waits for months. If the other side writes the first drafts and has you correct them, it moves far faster — the knowledge that explains the work is already yours, but staring at a blank page is hard.

Will you be able to update it afterwards

A site without an admin panel starts going stale on day one. The phone number changes, prices change, a new service is added — and if each one means calling somebody, those changes simply do not get made.

The question to ask: do I need to know any code to add a post, change some text or upload a photo?

How does it look on a phone

Most visitors arrive on a phone. Ask whoever is quoting for a screenshot taken on a phone, not the desktop design.

What to look at: does the text spill over, are the buttons big enough to press with a finger, how long does the page keep you waiting.

What you get at handover

"The site is done" is not enough. At handover you should hold:

• The login details for the domain and server accounts
• The admin panel, and a walkthrough of how to use it
• Google Search Console set up — the only place you can see how your site

appears in search

• Visitor measurement
• If you had an old site, the redirects: old addresses have to reach the

new pages, or the ranking you already have in Google resets

There is no such thing as a ranking guarantee

If you get a quote that says "we will get you on the first page", ask what exactly is being guaranteed. There is nowhere you can buy a ranking.

Two things can be done: having the site technically right, and publishing regularly. Both affect ranking over time, and neither can be put on a calendar.

Ask the same question when buying a monthly "SEO package": what exactly will be done each month, and how will it be measured?

When you do not need a site

To be honest, for some businesses a site is not the first step.

If your customers look at a map and then call — a hairdresser, a car repair shop, a restaurant — a Google Business Profile can carry you on its own for a long time. It is free, it takes half an hour to set up, and it shows your hours and directions to everyone who searches.

A site earns its place where you have something to say: a range of products, references, a price bracket, a form.

How we work

I wrote what I do and what is included on the website page — what I do not do is there too.

A paragraph or two written to me about your business and what you want on the site is enough. If I think you do not need one, I will say that too.