Eight things to know before you commission a business website

"We need a new website" usually starts as a design wish: something more modern, faster, more "corporate". But a good business website is shaped by a few decisions made before the first sketch. Here are eight things we'd like you to know before you ask for a web design quote, with the decisions we made on our own site:

1. Purpose first

Who will visit the site, and what do you want them to do? For a restaurant that is seeing the menu and booking a table. For a factory it is asking for a quote; for a studio, seeing the work and sending an email. Once the purpose is clear, the number of pages, the menu and the design simplify themselves.

Our own site's purpose fits in one sentence: put the work first and make it easy to get in touch. That is why the homepage opens with a showreel and every page ends with our contact details.

2. Content comes before design

If the copy and images aren't ready, design turns into arranging empty boxes. Before you start, gather:

• What you want each page to say, in a few sentences.
• Real photographs, product images, video if you have it.
• Your logo and brand identity files.

3. Speed is a design decision

A slow site gets closed, however good it looks. Speed isn't a setting you add at the end; it's a decision made at the start. On our site:

• Every page is prerendered and served from the server nearest the visitor, on Cloudflare's network.
• Images come as AVIF and WebP in several widths, so the browser downloads only what it needs.
• Videos load and play only when they come near the screen.

4. What does "SEO-friendly" mean?

An SEO-friendly website is one search engines can load quickly, understand, and send people to at the right address in the right language. It isn't magic; it's a checklist:

• A title and description of its own for every page.
• Readable, lasting URLs (for example /en/work/creaphic-identity).
• A sitemap, and a robots.txt that shows crawlers the way.
• Structured data: code that tells machines a page is a project, an article or a business.
• A real 404 for pages that don't exist.
• Descriptive alternative text on images.

None of this guarantees rankings. It removes what stands between good content and being found.

5. Will it be multilingual?

If you expect customers, visitors or investors from abroad, consider a second language. Our site is in Turkish and English, and each language has its own addresses: Turkish at the root, English under /en; a case study lives at /isler/... in Turkish and /en/work/... in English. We tell search engines which page is the equivalent of which with hreflang tags. Writing real copy in each language, instead of an automatic translation plugin, makes a difference to readers and search engines alike.

6. Accessibility is for everyone

An accessible site is better not only for disabled visitors but for anyone browsing on a phone, in sunlight or on a slow connection. On our site:

• A "Skip to content" link at the top for keyboard users.
• Descriptive alternative text on images.
• Animations switch off for people who turn on reduce motion in their operating system.
• As in our motion principles: no sound that starts on its own, and a way to pause everything that moves.

7. The site should be yours

When you get a quote, ask:

• Whose name will the domain be registered in? It should be your account.
• Where will the site be hosted, and what does that cost each year?
• Who updates the content, and how?
• If you part ways with the agency, can you take the code and files with you?

8. Local visibility: being found by city

People often search for a service with a city name: "web design Ankara", "advertising agency İzmir", "logo Iğdır". If you're a local business:

• Create and verify a Google Business Profile.
• Write your business name, address and phone number the same way on the site, the profile and your social accounts.
• Say clearly on the site where you are and where you work.
• Answer common questions in short, plain sentences. Those answers help in search results and in the replies of AI assistants.

Web design from Iğdır

Creaphic is a creative studio from Iğdır, Türkiye. We design and build websites in-house, and work with businesses in Iğdır and, remotely, with brands everywhere. If you're thinking about a site, write a few sentences about its purpose to info@creaphic.com, or have a look at our work first.

The scope of our web work is on the web design and website development page; if you plan to use video on the site, our post on brand films may help.