Nobody at our company writes copy. Can the website builder write the text?

You can commission the writing, but you still have to supply the source information and own the final check. However good a copywriter is, they will not know your product specifications, service process, customers' frequent questions, or company history better than you do. In practice, the client fills in a content interview form or sits for an interview to hand over the facts, and the writer turns them into text suited to reading on a website. Watch two things. First, agree in advance whether copywriting is within the project scope, and for how many pages and revision rounds. Second, name one person responsible for confirming accuracy, especially for product specifications, pricing terms, and regulation-related wording, because the client bears the consequences if those are wrong.

Can we fill in content after launch and go live with placeholder text for now?

For some pages, yes, but not for the core pages. The home page, service or product pages, and the contact page are where visitors decide whether to trust you. Going live with placeholder text there makes the site look unfinished, and search engines may index the incomplete content. A more practical approach is to tier your pages: core pages must be finished before launch, while content that can grow over time, such as a blog, case studies, or an FAQ, launches with a small amount of complete content and keeps growing afterward. Never leave placeholder text like "content coming soon" or "Lorem ipsum" on a live site; that does more damage to first impressions than a missing page.

Can we move the content from our old website straight onto the new one?

You can use it as a starting point, but review it page by page before deciding. Old site content often has a few problems: information is out of date, text was written for the old layout and no longer fits, photos are too low in resolution, or some pages have not been visited in a long time. A redesign is a good moment to tidy up your content. List every page on the old site and mark each one keep, rewrite, or delete. Pay particular attention to pages that already get search traffic: if their URLs change, set up redirects so you do not lose the search rankings they have built up. For the details of a content inventory and URL redirects, handle them together with the planning approach for a website redesign project.

Website Content to Prepare Before a Build

On a website project schedule, design, front-end build, development, and testing are all laid out clearly. Then the designs are approved, yet the home page introduction still isn’t written, the product photos are “being shot next week,” and the team photo is waiting until everyone is in the office. In practice, it is common that website projects slip not because of technology but because of content: the client’s copy, images, and video don’t arrive, or arrive in formats that cannot be used directly.

Content preparation is easy to delay because it looks simple, but it involves several internal departments, requires a lot of decisions, and usually lands on people who are already busy. If you only start preparing when the developer is ready to put content in, it will stall.

What follows covers all the content a client needs to prepare before building a website: a page structure sheet, copy for each page, photos and licensing, video, multilingual content, and handoff formats and timing, with a content preparation checklist you can use as is.

Decide which pages the site needs first

The starting point for all content preparation is a page structure sheet, also called a sitemap. Without it, you don’t know what copy to write or which photos to take.

Fields a page structure sheet should include:

Page name and level: for example, “Services > Corporate Website Development.”
Page purpose: what this page should get visitors to do, such as understand a service, leave contact details, or download a catalog.
Main content: which blocks of information go on the page.
Content needed: what copy, photos, video, and file downloads are required.
Content owner: who inside the company is responsible for supplying it.
Handoff deadline: when it needs to reach the builder.

This sheet is best put together with the builder at project kickoff. It serves at once as the basis for design, the tracker for content, and the checklist for confirming at acceptance that every page is there. If you are also thinking about how content will be updated in the admin side, see How to Choose a CMS as well.

Preparing copy for each page

Copy is the content most often delayed, because it takes thought, needs internal approval, and usually has several people who want to review it.

Practical principles for preparing copy:

Write for reading on the web. Website visitors scan, so keep paragraphs short, put the key point first, and use subheadings and lists where they help. Don’t paste text straight from the company brochure or a proposal.
Fit the layout. Once the designs are approved, ask the builder roughly how many words each block can hold. A title that is too long wraps badly, and an introduction that is too short leaves the layout looking empty.
Get the facts right before polishing. Write product specifications, service process, and contact details accurately first, then work on style.
Keep terms consistent. Product names, service names, and the company name are written the same way across the whole site, including capitalization and punctuation style.
One person signs off. Every page’s copy needs a final check by someone with the authority to decide, so nobody says after launch that “this part can’t be worded like that.”

Copy that is often forgotten:

Form field labels, plus success and error messages after submission.
Legal pages such as the privacy policy, terms of use, and cookie notice. The client should confirm their content based on its own situation, and consult a legal professional when needed.
Company information, business hours, and contact details in the footer.
The search result title and description for each page (SEO title and description).
Guidance text on the 404 error page.

If the site will include a blog or knowledge articles, see the Brand Blog Content and SEO Guide for content strategy and search optimization.

Photos and images: mind both quality and licensing

Photos directly shape how polished a website feels, and they are also the content most likely to carry legal risk.

Photo sources and what to watch for:

Shoot your own. Product, premises, and team photos are best taken yourself; they show what things really look like. A phone is fine, but make sure there is good light, a clean background, and a level frame.
Hire a photographer. For key brand images and product shots, a professional photographer is recommended. Agree in the contract on how the photos may be used, including whether that covers the website, social media, print, and advertising.
Stock images. Check the license terms when you use stock photos; even free libraries have usage restrictions. Keep proof of license, and avoid using obviously generic stock photos to represent your own team or customers.
Images found online. Never use them unless you have confirmed the license. “I found it on the internet” does not mean you may use it.

When people appear in photos: if employees, customers, or event attendees appear, it is best to get their consent, especially when faces are clearly recognizable. You can also plan in advance whether photos are taken down when an employee leaves.

Basic requirements for handing over photos:

Provide the original files rather than forwarding them through a messaging app, which usually compresses image quality.
Name or organize them into folders by page, for example “Home_Hero_01.”
Note each photo’s intended use and license source.
Keep product photo backgrounds and angles consistent; the whole site looks more professional.

Images also need alternative text (alt text) so visitors using screen readers can understand them; see the Web Accessibility Guide for this.

Preparing video

Video is effective at showing a service process, how a product works, or the feel of a company, but it usually takes longer to prepare than photos.

What to confirm when preparing video:

Purpose: a home page background video, a product introduction, a how-to tutorial, or customer testimonials. Different purposes call for different lengths and styles.
How it is hosted: video is usually best uploaded to a video platform and embedded in the site rather than stored on the web server itself, so it doesn’t slow down page loading. Discuss this with the builder.
Captions: many people watch video with the sound off, so captions help understanding and also support accessibility.
Licensing: background music, and any images and fonts used in the video, all need confirmed licenses.
Cover image: prepare a clear cover image to serve as the preview before the video plays.

Be especially careful with background video: it affects loading speed and data usage on mobile. If it isn’t central to how the brand presents itself, a still image is often the safer choice.

Preparing content for a multilingual site

If the site has several language versions, the content workload grows noticeably, so plan early.

Key points for multilingual content:

Decide the translation scope. Will every page be translated, or only the core pages? Will every blog post have a version in each language?
Adapt, don’t translate literally. Other language versions should be adjusted to how local readers read, with product names, units of measure, date formats, and contact details all considered.
Text inside images. If an image contains text, prepare one version per language, or switch to web text overlaid on the image.
A proofreader. Each language needs someone who knows it to give the final check, ideally a native speaker.
Keeping updates in sync. When the primary language content is updated, the other versions need updating too, or the content falls out of step.

Multilingual sites also involve many technical architecture decisions; see the Multilingual Website Development Guide.

Handoff formats and timing

Once the content is ready, how it is handed over also affects efficiency.

Recommended handoff formats:

Copy: use a shared document or a word-processing file, divided by page, with each section labeled with the page block it belongs to. Avoid putting text inside images or slide decks, which forces the builder to retype it.
Images: original files in a cloud folder, named and sorted by page.
Brand assets: provide the logo as a vector file and a transparent-background file, along with brand color codes and font names.
File downloads: provide final versions of catalogs, forms, and manuals with clear file names.
Version control: when a piece of copy is revised several times, mark the version and date so the builder doesn’t use an old one.

Principles for timing:

Page structure sheet: finished at project kickoff.
Copy for core pages: a first draft delivered before design begins, so the design can be laid out around real content.
Photos and video: prepared alongside design approval; book any shoots early.
Content for other pages: all delivered before development is complete.
Final content check: leave full time for proofreading before launch.

Put content handoff deadlines into the project schedule and track them alongside the design and development milestones. If content is a week late, launch is very likely to slip too, because the builder cannot finish the final adjustments and testing without content. For other common reasons projects slip, see Why Software Projects Run Late.

Content preparation checklist (ready to use)

Copy the list below into your project management tool or a spreadsheet, and assign an owner and deadline to each item:

For the final checks before launch, you can also work through the Website Launch Checklist item by item.

Content preparation is the part of a website project the client controls most, and the part that most determines the schedule. If you are about to build a website but aren’t yet sure how to plan the pages or how far to take the content, get in touch with NETVANA. All of our website and software services are quoted after a consultation, and at kickoff we can work with you on the page structure sheet and the content handoff schedule. For what our services cover, see the software services overview.

Further reading: For how to inventory content when redesigning an old site, see the Website Redesign Project Guide. For what to confirm before a site goes live, see the Website Launch Checklist. If you need other language versions, read the Multilingual Website Development Guide. For choosing a tool to update content in the admin side, see How to Choose a CMS. And to keep building content after launch, see the Brand Blog Content and SEO Guide.